If Parliament stops functioning where the people of the country to turn Democratic India must succeed!
Senior leaders must act with moral commitment. Prime Minister says: “We are living in abnormal times. There is a deadlock in Parliament and even the normal grace period of 100 days of “honeymoon” given for every new government is now given “to Manmohan Singh government. Parliament is not allowed to function by the Opposition party, namely, the BJP which had lost the elections. The budget for the coming year is passed without a single word of debate. This is truly abnormal times and even dangerous times or signs for the shape of India we are all hoping to build.
The PM is already talking about the lost time. “What a pity! The state of affairs in some states is ever worse. In TN for instance, the Opposition had made it impossible for the government to function. The Assembly is not even meeting for minimum number of days, the Opposition leader, the senior most politician who had been four times Chief Minister is not attending the Assembly. This is not a good model conduct. Nor even the reasons are set out in civilised language for the public to know the truth. In Parliament the situation is deteriorating beyond imagination. The PM has said : Never in the history of any government such a situation had arisen. “This is reflecting on the way our political leaders, senior politicians, those who had held high offices, the former Prime Ministers. It is a great pity that leaders like Narasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, or for that matter leaders like Chandrashekar and I.K.Gujral and Deve Gowda and VP singh are not talking about making a democratic India stronger.
Parliament is the critical component of a democracy. The government is being pushed to seek judiciary’s help to solve many of the political decision that can be and should be resolved through Parliamentary debate and by the Government. Fortunately, lately the higher judiciary is responding to many of the challenges posed by a number of complicated and sensitive issues. The Gujarat riots cases are taken up at the behest of the Supreme Court. Normally, this should be done through the investigating agencies and the state governments. But this is not so. Some of big corruption cases against ministers in the Central government are being delayed deliberately and luckily, the highest court is not leaving things in that fashion. One thing seems clear. The corruption and criminal cases against the high and mighty might be delayed or lie low but one day or other the cases would catch up with the times once democratic machinery starts functioning. Democratic machinery would function as long as our constitution is resilient enough. One strong foundation of our democracy is the constitution which had withstood the test of times. In the whole world only the Indian democracy is rooted in a very sound Constitutional basis. Much more than the UK and US governments.
This thought must make every Indian proud, why not the senior politicians guide the others, the political leaders who are much juniors to a Narasimha Rao and a Vajpayee must learn some lessons. For this to be possible, Rao, V.P. Singh, Vajpayee must speak out. The most disappointing performance today seems to be by Vajpayee. A leader who raised the image of the country in the world, a true successor to Nehru when it comes to his contribution to raise the status of India in the world. And Vajpayee must now give up, if any, thought of once again becoming the Prime Minister. He, along with other former Prime Ministers, must now belong to the entire country. These former PMs are now the true friends of the common man, the last man. Unto the Last must be their guiding philosophy of politics. No less is the duty of other seniors, who after enjoying power, who in their late Seventies and early Eighties must retired to a life of dignity, wisdom and utter selflessness.
As the late K.A Abbas used to ask in many of his columns: If India dies who lives? What a prophetic line and a line that now need to be addressed to these senior leaders in whose moral custody the country rests. Is it too much to ask of these states men: Why are you all silent? Are you afraid of anybody? Do you expect any more benefits from the government? Or, why are you all silent when the Parliamentary system is going downhill? You, great men of wisdom and sagacity, we ask of you: You must all stand apart from so-called party leaders, regional chauvinists, and show the true measure of any statesmanship is to speak out your minds. To speak out for the sake of the poor and the illiterate, the helpless and the unemployed, the hungry and the ignorant. The time is historic for the agony the Prime Minister had expressed and it is the duty of every former Prime Minister to stand up and show solidarity with the reigning Prime Minister, a rare good man whose motives none can suspect. There is no room for small minds and small petty thoughts. Jai Hind.