On the completion of the 14th Lok Sabha DR. S. AUSAF SAIED VASFI examines its contributions as well as its failures and looks at the complexion of the mandate for the next Lok Sabha.
Before dealing with serious and significant questions like what will be the texture and complexion of the mandate for the 15th Lok Sabha or who will be the next occupant of the prime ministerial chair, let us have a look at some serious questions that sternly stare at us at the end of the 14th Lok Sabha.
The outgoing Upper House saw 262 bills passed. But 28 per cent of them were passed in less than 30 minutes, another 14 per cent in 30 minutes, while merely 15 per cent of the bills saw parliament deliberating them for over three hours.
The record of attendance of our parliamentarians was rather dismal during the 11th and 12th sessions of the Lok Sabha. The dismality comes under sharper focus when the plural nation notes that it spends Rs. 26,000 a minute on running its parliament. The bouts of avoidable interruptions and pandemonium created by the “people’s representatives” saw 22 per cent of parliament’s time lost.
REDUCED SITTINGS AND TIME
This fact affected the main function of parliament, deliberation and legislation, which, in simple language, means reduced number of sittings and insufficient apportionment of time for parliamentary business. In a report titled “Citizens’ Report on Governance and Development 2008-09” the National Social Watch Coalition has said: “What is striking, however, is that the deterioration has intensified in areas where it had set in earlier and in the process the erosion has moved into hitherto uncharted territories. Slogan-shouting, walkouts and boycotts have resulted in a colossal waste of time and public money.”
The report painfully points out: “The unseemly behaviour of people’s representatives in the ‘august houses’ and their unethical misdemeanour as exemplified by the cash-for-question and cash-for-vote scams are common knowledge. With the politics of power-hungry politicians and self-styled ‘Prime Ministers’ and the sight of unprincipled bedfellows in its most brazen display in the election melee, the only apt question now is – how shameful will 15th Lok Sabha be?”
PERTINENT QUESTIONS
Has any political party attached any amount of importance to our parliamentarians’ unseemly behaviour, their unethical misdemeanour as exemplified by the cash-for-question and cash-for-vote scams? Has any manifesto promised to erase off, or at least discourage, the entry of criminals into the national political system? Has any organisation focused on the need to instil basic moral values into the social economic system, so that the likes of scams like that of Satyam or the scamsters like the Harshad Mehtas or Abdul Rehman Telgis are no more born in the country ?
That the 15th Lok Sabha would also have a fair number of persons having criminal past is not beyond the pale of possibility. The entry of Mr. Varun Gandhi into politics may stretch the ranks of the Praveen Togadias, the Sadhvi Rithambharas. The latest is Mr. Ashok Sahu from Orissa. That this trend would push plural India towards abyss is definite. And beyond any shred of doubt, Bharat would have those whose hands are directly or indirectly drenched in the blood of minorities and innocents. This class is quite respectable today and is found to be a few pegs above the history-sheeters.
SAFFRON IN THE DOCK
But it is equally true that as the nation enters into the franchise mode, the Congress has put the saffron in the dock. By withdrawing Jaghish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, who were perceived to be involved in the selective killing of the Sikhs during 1984 riots, the Congress has unwittingly but rightly underlined the question mark on the names of those who have allegedly been involved in the massacre of Muslims in the post-Babri Masjid demolition riots and the Gujarat carnage. The balloon of Mr. L.K. Advani’s prime ministership was effectively punctured when Dr. Manmohan Singh publicly counted the mishaps during Mr. Advani’s Home stewardship. To quote a national newspaper reportage: For a person who did nothing about Babri Masjid (demolition), Advani’s record is not good. He added, “As home minister he had promised a white paper on ISI, he forgot that. In his record as home minister, there was the hijack when he sent the foreign minister along with three dreaded terrorists, one of whom set up the Jaish-e-Mohammed. The carnage in Gujarat took place yet inside parliament and outside he says Modi is the best CM.” Singh reeled off the attacks on parliament, Chattisinghpora and the Red Fort and said that this should be compared to 26/11. “The way our government acted, we sent trained commandos who not only took charge they also caught one of the terrorists. Judge us by our record.”
EMBARRASSING QUESTION ABOUT MUSLIMS
So far so good. But has the Congress succeeded in restoring what the principal minority of plural Bharat has lost in instalments during the last 60 years? The first casualty was Muslims’ dignity, self-respect, self-esteem and self-assurance, personified in their peculiar identity.
The problem is the Muslim grievances have never, or rarely, been dealt with on the basis of merit. The powers-that-be have developed a disquieting tendency to look into Muslim issues in the light of prospective reaction of the majority community. This bad habit has yet to loosen its vice-like grip on the psyche of the powers-that-be.
The manner in which punitive action against the derelict or the erring or the co-conspirators has, over the years, been postponed is a case in point. The Justice Srikrishna Commission Report was, for similar reasons, not fully implemented.
This erodes Muslims’ confidence not only in the administration and the system but also in the fence-sitters of the majority.
CONGRESS COMPLICITY
For similar, dubious reasons, the far-reaching recommendations of Justice Sachar Committee were not implemented. At this point Dr. Manmohan Singh and his secular allies proved a morally-coward lot. They failed to shut up the reactionary forces and assert their authority to right the wrongs. They created despondency among the Muslims.
But what has kept the Indian Muslims unhinged is the mystifying silence of Ms Sonia Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh on Mr. Narendra Modi’s palpable genocidal crimes. Even for record’s sake, they never spoke about it, while they could have just dismissed the Nero to face justice.
Add to it the alleged Congress complicity in the unjustified liquidation of educated innocent Muslim youth in several inexplicable encounters in various parts of the country. If in the ongoing elections the aggrieved punish the insensate you should not be surprised.