BJP’s lapses leave key Bills in limbo

By any standards, the performance of the ruling party in Parliament has failed to impress, and this is down to rank political mismanagement by the ruling establishment. In the Monsoon Session, the newly elected Narendra Modi government had to quickly pass the Budget. This was accomplished without fuss as the incoming government used the data — and the assumptions — furnished by its predecessor. It  did not exercise the option of indicating the charting of a new path. The expectation was that in the Winter Session it would take steps that would inaugurate a new chapter.

This assumption has been belied, thanks to the surround sound emanating from BJP and Hindutva figures which has raised political temperatures outside Parliament. All manner of vile things have been said that hurt the psyche of the people even if these gave the Hindutva brigades a new-found sense of empowerment under the Modi dispensation.

This was done with impunity, and mocked the idea of “good governance” that the Prime Minister and his cohorts lecture us about day in and day out. If the minorities were publicly taunted and insulted by being called “illegitimate children” one day, Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, Nathuram Godse, was lionised as “a true nationalist” on another.

This raised temperatures in both Houses of Parliament. The Opposition demanded that Mr Modi himself come forward to make amends. The BJP responded with hubris. It chose to lose sight of the fact that Parliament was not just a forum to enact legislation but was in fact the country’s highest platform for discussion.
For this lapse, the government is paying with lost legislative time. The principal Bills it sought to pass to take forward the agenda of encouraging market-oriented reforms, thus, lie consigned to the corner. To compound matters, the BJP and assorted Hindu Right outfits have taken up with gusto the issue of “re-converting” Muslims and Christians to Hinduism. The idea is of course preposterous, for Hinduism does not admit conversions. But the ruling party and its associates are not concerned about religion. Their preoccupation is with politics.

The raising of slogans that polarise religious communities will, they hope, help them get votes in the UP state elections two years down the line, for which they have apparently begun preparing in right earnest. The pity is that the PM, by remaining mute on an issue that is agitating the country and is putting the religious minorities in fright, appears to go along with the view that he need not calm fears, and will not heed the Opposition and make his government’s stand clear in Parliament. Pending key legislation, such as the one on insurance, thus lie in limbo.