Indian parliament breaks up in deadlock
India’s parliament broke up on Friday at the end of a fruitless legislative session that was blocked by protests, leading to concern about the health of the world’s biggest democracy.
India’s parliament broke up on Friday at the end of an almost entirely wasted legislative session that was blocked by protests, leading to concern about the health of the world’s biggest democracy.
Opposition lawmakers from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who are demanding the prime minister resigns over a coal scandal, staged noisy protests for the 16th working day in a row in both houses of parliament.
Faced with lawmakers shouting and waving papers, the parliamentary speakers of both chambers were left with no choice but to halt proceedings shortly after midday on the final day of the current session.
“It is unfortunate that the house was not allowed to function,” a lawmaker from the ruling Congress party, Jagdambika Pal, lamented to reporters outside the heavily guarded building in the centre of the capital.
“The BJP is responsible... they have made a mockery of parliamentary democracy.”
Parliamentarians have deliberated on legislation for just 25 out of a possible 120 hours during the monsoon session which began on August 8, according to PRS Legislative Research, a New Delhi-based independent study group.
Only four bills were cleared by both houses, despite as many as 30 being listed for debate on issues such as pensions, land acquisition, tax reform and corruption.
Three of them were cleared inside 20 minutes on Monday without any discussion, in line with a trend since 2009 according to which one in every five bills is passed after a debate of less than five minutes, PRS says.
The dysfunction of this parliament, which also wasted an entire session in winter 2010 due to protests by the opposition, has fed a sense of legislative deadlock and drift in a country home to 1.2 billion people.
The left-leaning government run by the Congress party has been beset by corruption scandals and is struggling to jumpstart the slowing economy, which expanded by just 5.5 per cent in the April-June quarter.
Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath, who has been in parliament for 32 years, lamented the decline in standards in the assembly, where a fight broke out this week between two regional MPs.
“When I first came into parliament, no matter how contentious it was, there was a serious debate,” he told reporters. “Now the polity is looking at different approaches. It does no good for our democracy.”
The BJP wants Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resign over the findings of an investigation by the national auditor into the gifting away of coal mining rights to private companies since 2004.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) says the government should have auctioned the rights to the highest bidder, instead of allocating them in a process that “lacked transparency and objectivity”.
The BJP has defended its stance, saying the protests were necessary and that obstructing parliament is a legitimate tactic – and one adopted by the ruling Congress party when the BJP was in power.
“The parliament has two functions – to debate and pass legislations and hold government accountable to the public of India. We are holding the government accountable,” said Balbir Punj, a BJP lawmaker from the upper house.
The coal scandal directly implicates the 79-year-old Singh because he served as coal minister as well as prime minister from 2004-2009.
Singh denies any wrongdoing and has refused to quit.