Parliament needs ‘red lines’

The Lok Sabha actually ran on Wednesday, with the government agreeing to an adjournment motion debate on “Lalitgate”, which had been demanded by the Congress. If the government had given in earlier, the acrimony seen during the Monsoon Session may have been avoided, yielding place to useful legislative work, as clearing the GST, which no party seriously opposes. Alas, the session ends today, and the enabling political environment came late in the day.

The bitterness on display showed how low the conduct of MPs can get when they go on a calculated course of disruptions which the present finance minister, Arun Jaitley, once famously called a legitimate political tool of the Opposition. This time around it was the Congress. In the UPA-2 years, it used to be the BJP-led Opposition. Time may have come to draw a firm red line — that any MP getting into the Well of the House would automatically stand suspended for the day.

On Tuesday, flummoxed by the goings-on, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan seemed to slip into purple prose and party political language by referring to the “murder of democracy” by the protesting Congress benches. Restraint coupled with firmness elicits more respect.

Some leading industrialists initiated an online petition to urge MPs to show the sagacity to let the legislative business proceed even as they do politics. They are citizens and can freely speak their minds. It is no secret organised industry was keen for a reform measure such as the GST.