VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA
Assembly and Parliament sessions
are gradually becoming a battleground for scoring brownie political points.
Rather than debating burning issues and making laws on the floor of the House,
the Opposition and the ruling parties have been trying to score points over
each other by shouting at those opposed to them in the TV studios.
Monsoon sessions of Parliament
and the Haryana Assembly are a case in point. While the Congress led ruling UPA
does not want to climb down from its stated position on the so called Coalgate,
the BJP led NDA too does not want to listen to what its opponents are saying.
The result is logjam and Parliament has not seen any business.
No one knows what is the truth
behind the Coalgate - Whether the opposition is right or the ruling party. No
one knows whether the CAG has arrived at the correct figures on the scam as BJP
insists or whether additional zeroes have been added to the scam figures and
the loss is notional as Congress would like us to believe.
Television studios have become
the new debating clubs where the politicians come and engage in a verbal duel –
similar to the physical duel which Olympics Silver medal winner Sushil Kumar
would do with his opponents on a wrestling mat. The viewers are left gasping
for breath and do not know who is speaking the truth. They still cannot take an
informed view either way unless they are aligned with one party or the other
and have one ideology or the other. None of the viewers, I presume, have become
richer with the debates in TV studios as truth is somewhere in between the
assertions of the ruling party and those of the opposition. While one side is
calling the glass “half full”, the other side is saying that the glass is “half
empty”.
What is the way out? Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh is not going to resign as the opposition wants.
Similarly, the opposition is not going to attend the Parliament session like
obedient school students as the ruling coalition wants. I fail to understand,
why can’t there be some meeting point where both the groups agree and end the
logjam? Will Parliament pass bills with a voice vote without any debate or will
the session end sine die without any business? People of the country obviously
want answers which are not forthcoming.
The opening day of the Monsoon
session of Haryana Assembly was no different from what is happening in both the
Houses of Parliament. It had to be adjourned three times in a day without much
business. The only time, there was unanimity amongst the opposition and the
ruling benches was when obituary references were made. Members from both the
Opposition INLD and the ruling Congress jumped into the Well of the House at
the slightest pretext to shout at each other and make noise. Both the leader of
the House and the Leader of the Opposition had to make their statements outside
the House rather than on the Floor. Again, important Bills would have to be
passed by a voice vote rather than through a debate.
Haryana is face to face with a
shortage of rainfall and the possibility of farmer distress. Then there are
issues like farmers’ opposition to land acquisition, pros and cons of
setting-up of nuclear power plant, violence in the Maruti plant at Manesar,
uncertainty in the industries, farmers protest and violence at Rewari and of
course the arrest of former minister Gopal Kanda in the Geetika Sharma suicide
case. A minister in the Bhupinder Singh Hooda Cabinet, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav
has alleged that there is discrimination against southern Haryana. The
Opposition can corner the government on this. But is it bothered? All these
issues and more await discussion so that the people of the state have an
informed opinion on the issues. Ironically, with both the opposition and the
ruling party engaged in a slanging match, the real issues take the backseat
even as the frivolous ones dominate.
The Monsoon sessions of Punjab
assembly along with that of Himachal Pradesh is also slated to begin this week.
In Punjab , we hope there is meaningful debate in the
session and a consensus reached to find a solution to the ongoing drought in
the state. Then, the problem of empty coffers stares the state like never
before. Instead of a blame game, people of the state would expect that both the
ruling and the opposition parties add meaning to the debate and offer solutions
for the cash strapped state. At one point, Punjab was
the sporting Capital of the country. Now, sporting talent has simply deserted
the state as the youth is in the grip of drug abuse and easy money. Both the
ruling SAD-BJP and Congress should ponder over the issue to bring back the
sporting glory and end the menace of drugs. Problems in persisting with the
paddy-wheat cycle, diversification of agriculture, attracting industries to Punjab ,
increasing cancer cases and groundwater pollution are the other burning issues
which need to be debated and deliberated on. You simply cannot afford to blame
each other for the mess in which the state finds itself.
In poll bound Himachal Pradesh,
the Monsoon session should not be the one in which both the opposition and the
ruling party flex their muscles ahead of the polls and engage merely in verbal
battle. Both the parties should use the opportunity to explain to the people
what they did in the last five years and what they intend to do if voted to
power. The Congress should ideally corner the ruling BJP for its acts of
omission and commission and the BJP on the other hand should target the
Congress for its numerous failures both at the Centre and in the state. Being
the last session of the current House, larger issues may not be debated but
both the ruling and the opposition has one last chance to explain to the people
why they are better to rule the state. That is how the people of the hill state
would have an informed opinion about their parties and their leaders ahead of
the polls.
People know the difference
between wheat and chaff and it is here that the political parties would have to
act responsibly and differently. Congress has to watch out for overconfidence
and ridiculing the obvious. BJP would have to watch for repetition of the same
political strategy again and again. The year 2014 and the month May is not too
far away. (August 27, 2012)
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