Dear Sonia Gandhi, getting suspended from Lok Sabha is not 'murder of democracy'

“Loktantra ki hatya (murder of democracy),” Sonia Gandhi thundered, describing Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s decision to suspend 25 Congress MPs. She is not the first political leader to have made such a hyperbolic claim in India. Going by the frequency of the allegation, one would imagine India was not a democracy but under autocratic rule for years now.

The irony of Gandhi’s statement is, she made it immediately after she held a demonstration inside the parliament, against the present government. She was accompanied by Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and several other Congress leaders. The Congress leaders were suspended later for disrupting the Parliament’s business, not protesting against the government. Had democracy been ‘murdered’ like she said, the protests would not have been possible in the first place.

The suspended Congress will be back in the House next week, or even earlier depending on how the party negotiates with the Speaker. They will still be paid their salaries and other allowances, which includes payment for the days they will remain suspended. This is a privilege that is not available for people in most other professions. In Parliament, you get paid a lot irrespective of your conduct inside the House. SP MP Naresh Aggarwal underlined the irony when he said, “No work no pay ka sawal kahan se khada hua, hum koi karamchari nahi ki no work no pay ki baat aaye (Where does the question of no work-no pay arise from? Are we salaried employees that such things will be applied to us)?”

The arrogance of our MPs shouldn’t be dismissed in a hurry. Elections are held in the state and the centre with the tax payer’s hard earned money. The salaries of the MPs too are paid from our hard earned money, where as, we don’t even enjoy half the perks our politicians do. Should be then not outrage over the disruption of the Parliament, because it seems like a characteristic of our Parliament?

Addressing the valedictory session of the platinum jubilee celebrations of the West Bengal Assembly in December 2013, President Pranab Mukherjee said, “Democracy comprises three D’s — debate, dissension and decision — but we have brought in a fourth ‘D’ — disruption for which there is no scope in the system.”

Mukherjee had spoken about the same in detail earlier on too, during an event at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. “We were told by our teacher of political science that three Ds are essentials for democracy, that is, debate and discussion, dissension, and finally decision. And when I retired from Parliament, on the day of my election as President, to this office, I found that another D which has injected in between, that is, disruption. And disruption of proceedings of the House. On the other hand, simply we cannot brush aside that it is irrelevant, that it is not necessary, because persons who are doing it, they are equally Members of the Parliament, they are equally responsible political personalities. Therefore, is it not time for us to find out how we can address the issue in its proper perspectives? Sometimes it may happen to compel the recalcitrant administration or government of the day to agree to some discussions or debate through a particular rule and it leads ultimately to disruption.

“But the end result of the disruption is, to my mind – and as I said I spent some time in Parliament; when I entered in the late 60’s and when I retired, incidentally it happened in the month of July; July ‘69 to July 2012, when my membership of Lok Sabha came to an end on the date of my election as a President. The present disruption puts serious pressure on the government, or it simply denies the right of individual members to express his views at the highest national decision making body. Whether sometimes it provides advantage to the government? because questions hour is the first victim, and questions hour is being used by the Members of Parliament, particularly the private members more than often to put searching questions to the Ministers, not only to get information, but also to sometimes find out contradictions in the policies of the government. Similarly, we talk of electoral reforms; we talk of how the institution should be strengthened. After all any democratic system survives, becomes effective, on the strength of its institutions.”

Back then, the BJP was protesting in the Parliament over 2G, Coalgate and other such issues. As a Finance Minister for the UPA, Pranab Mukherjee had played crucial roles in negotiations with the Opposition leaders.

Now the Congress is protesting against the BJP government, demanding the resignation of three top BJP leaders - Sushma Swaraj, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raje. Sources told that Mukherjee, however, has not changed his position on what he thinks about disruptions and protests inside the Parliament. However, we are not sure if he has conveyed the same to Sonia Gandhi. We are very sure that Gandhi doesn’t share his opinion.

The BJP, Congress and other parties would do better service to our parliamentary democracy by listening to his advice.

This monsoon session, which has been labelled a ‘wash-out’ by many, witnessed a battle of political cunning between the BJP, Congress and the Lok Sabha speaker. In fact, sources in the Congress told us that the party is even miffed at their ‘innovative’ methods of protests not getting enough eye balls on national television.

It is being said that they are even for more disappointed that the protests, reportedly choreographed by Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, have not been talked about. After all, from wearing black armbands and flaunting placards, to shouting slogans and storming the well, they have exhausted every trick in the protest book of Indian politicians.

Sonia Gandhi criticised the government and the Lok Sabha TV for not giving them enough screen glory. However, she seems to have forgotten that the broadcast rules the TV channel is following had been laid down in the UPA II regime under the supervision of Meira Kumar.

However, all is not lost for the Congress. They have managed to draw blood as they hoped, by getting their MPs suspended. Now they can complain that the Speaker and the government are autocratic and democracy has been murdered. In fact, Sumitra Mahajan followed the tradition Somnath Chatterjee did. She tried to continue with the proceedings of the Parliament, despite the din.

She followed procedure and suspended the MPs. It was a legitimate move with many precedents. However, in the current scheme of things, the Opposition saw it as a great opportunity to complain against the government’s tyranny. The Congress is playing victim to the hilt, telling the world how many other parties have empathised with them and have showed their support against the government’s autocratic ways.

It is not the first time that some members of the Parliament have been suspended. In 1989, under Rajiv Gandhi enjoyed complete majority in the Parliament. Congress had 400 MPs of the total number of lawmakers. Sixty three opposition MPs were suspended after they demanded that the Thakkar Commission report on Indira Gandhi’s assassination be tabled in the Parliament.

During UPA II, 18 MPs from Telangana region from various parties were suspended. Seven MPs of SP, JD(U), RJD and LJP were suspended from Rajya Sabha and physically thrown out of the House to facilitate the passing of Sonia Gandhi’s pet Women’s Reservation Bill. In 2005, 11 MPs (mostly from BJP) were expelled from Lok Sabha on cash for query charges.

Not letting the Parliament function is also a way to impair democracy. Maybe Sonia Gandhi and our politicians need to be reminded that.