Dull debates point to legislative decline

It pains to see how the standards in legislatures, whether it beParliamentor state Assemblies, are taking a nose dive. They are turning more into a platform for targeting one another and making all kind of accusations rather than discuss issues on the basis of facts and figures. The strategies to counter the other side are getting too personal. What one seems to require is lung power, armed with data dug out by research wings of respective political parties and script writers, with a view to kicking dirt upon the rival members. This is not uncommon in legislatures, but in berating their rivals, lawmakers should not hit below the belt.

Never in the past were the debates so dull and dry. The discussions on Union Budget proposals for 2024-25 were not focused. They were politically motivated speeches. One wonders if anyone knows what the budget means at least for their constituency. In the process, even Mahabharata and Ramayana are being dragged into these discussions and the lawmakers are patting their back, thinking they had made great speeches. No one seems to introspect whether they make any sense to the man on the street or how it contributes to improve the life of the common man. ‘Kursi kaise milegi, Kab milegi aab ya 2029?’ This is the main concern for both the opposition INDIA bloc and ‘Kursi kaise bachegi in 2029?’ for the BJP-led NDA alliance.

Rahul Gandhi’s speech, one felt, was more focused on forcing caste census. He spoke of Chakravyuh, Kaurav, Dusashan, Karna, Duryodhan and Dritharashtra. It appeared as if he was identifying himself as Abhimanyu, who is trapped in the metaphor from Mahabharata called Chakravyuh.

When Parliament discusses Budget, one expects members to come well-prepared with figures and facts, analysis of allocations during past budgets, how much money was spent in the past, what was the performance of the government in each sector, and hold the mirror to the rulers about their performance, and give suggestions on what needs to be done. But, unfortunately, the speeches so far centre around political monopolies, business monopoly, who will come to power in 2029, appeasing cronies and casual remarks like cut paste budget.

This clearly indicates that none had studied the Budget books that are given to the members. It would be better if government stops printing them and gives only online links to the members. This would at least save some hard-earned money of the tax payer. Leaders depend more on the notes provided to them by their respective political parties, which are politically motivated and aimed at playing to the gallery. We had seen stalwarts like Indrajit Gupta, Somnath Chatterjee, Pranab Mukherjee, Jaipal Reddy, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Indira Gandhi and rustic leaders like Chowdary Charan Singh, who used to bring out the flaws and good points of the Budget and used to suggest solutions.

It was shocking to hear the LoP Rahul Gandhi saying that the Budget did not mention names of all states. Is it ignorance or trivialising the budget? He apparently depended on some immature feed from the party wings. The LoP is supposed to be shadow PM. He should be giving chance to others to speak and intervene when it is must and tear into the government intelligently, not try to dominate the discussions which does not enthuse anyone. The Union Finance Minister demolished LoP’s argument on non-inclusion of names of all states when she gave year-wise figures of how many states were mentioned in each budget speech during the last three decades, and that they were not deprived of ‘Halwa.’

Rahul’s comment on ‘Halwa’ also makes one laugh. The practice of preparing it before the Budget has been a practice for over seven decades. If the ‘Halwa’ was properly distributed all these years by successive governments, there would not have been poverty or the caste politics. Hope he remembers that for most part of 75 years it was Congress which was in power.