After the recent parliamentary election in India,  Narendra Modi was elected as the Prime Minister for the third time with a reduced majority of his coalition government and with more members in the opposition parties than in the previous parliament.   Then it was thought that there would be balanced and healthy discussions and debates and divergent views would be heard from members in parliament. Many observers thought that the government not having an overwhelming majority could be a healthy sign in a democratic setup. However, the recent proceedings in the parliament have belied all such expectations.

In the first session of the parliament when the President of India delivered her address, the discussions that followed were marked by insulting and derogatory remarks by the opposition parties against Prime Minister Modi.  Ruling party members, particularly Modi, listened to the vituperative comments with near patience. However, when Modi started his reply, almost all the opposition party members started shouting at the top of their voice with high decibels, so that Modi’s talk would not be heard clearly. Despite this,  Modi spoke for more than two hours, raising his voice to the best of his ability, as the shouting continued throughout his talk. The PM's speech was telecast all over India by most TV channels and it was a disgusting sight for the viewers.

While this was the scenario in the Lok Sabha, the opposition members repeated their behavior in the Rajya Sabha also when Modi spoke. However, in the Rajya Sabha, they shouted for some time and then walked out,  giving some relief to the viewers of the television channels.

Fall in parliamentary standards

In the ongoing budget session, the budget was presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman which was applauded by some sections and criticized by some other sections.  After the completion of the budget presentation, the opposition members raised several objections and queries, which is their right and privilege.  However, when the finance minister started clarifying the government’s standpoint by point and refuted some of the allegations, the opposition members started shouting at the top of their voice in unison, to prevent Sitharaman from being heard.

She had to raise her voice and it was a tortuous exercise for her to outbeat the shouting of the opposition members, who were more than one hundred in number at that time and all of them were shouting together. When people started looking at the behavior of the members of the parliament, many of them started wondering whether these members were the representative gathering of the people of India.

India boasts of a great civilization and cultural and social standards, where mutual respect and healthy discussions have been the parliamentary norm.  In the earlier years after India’s independence, there were many members of parliament like Jawaharlal Nehru, H.V. Kamath, Nath Pai, Indrajit Gupta, Piloo Mody and others who exhibited very high standards in parliamentary debates.  Now, the conditions seem to have changed.

In any country, there would be some people who exhibit civilized behaviour and some people who do not. However, when the elected members of parliament exhibit such behaviour, people would wonder what is in store for the country with such members of parliament, who sometimes behave more like quarreling street urchins.

Shouting brigade a disgrace

While India has been achieving impressive economic and industrial growth and healthy change in social life in the last several years, India has still a long way to go to claim to be an egalitarian society. The pre-condition to march towards such a state is that the politicians, particularly members of parliament,  should set standards for healthy conduct and principled approach in matters governing the country.

The proceedings of the recent parliamentary session create doubts as to whether our MPs are capable of setting up such standards. By their behavior as seen currently, they are setting up a very bad example for the younger generation and are doing great harm to the fiber and fabric of a resurgent India.

Seeing the present turmoil in the parliament with more shoutings and abuses than scholarly discussions and debates, a mood of despondency seems to be developing in the country about the future of parliamentary democracy. There are millions of people in India who are working hard in their pursuits and contributing to national growth. They fear that all their positive contributions and good image that the country could get would be nullified by the unruly shouting brigade in parliament.

There is a widespread feeling amongst the countrymen, including those living in other parts of the world, that India deserves better and confess that they are embarrassed by the MPs' parliamentary behaviour. 

(The author is a commentator on current affairs and a Trustee, at NGO Nandini Voice for the Deprived, Chennai. Views are personal. He can be contacted at nsvenkatchennai@gmail.com)