Worst performing Parliament? You haven’t seen what’s next

It was the worst performing Parliament. It passed only 165 bills. The average for where the Lok Sabha has completed its five-year tenure is 317. It failed to clear as many as 126 bills. As many as 20 bills were passed after only five minutes of discussion or less. There were a lot of disruptions. Parliamentarians did not exactly cover themselves in glory using pepper spray and breaking mikes. Political shenanigans and subterfuges were in open display, and the television covered it all. Alright. But does it tell the full story? No. The criticism of the performance of Parliament ignores the stark reality of Indian politics. It has becomes intensely competitive. There are too many players jostling for attention, not in the negative way though. The old order is being challenged and a new order is taking shape. You cannot blame Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal for what he did. He was only expressing his frustration in the best way he could. We have reached a stage where we need a tamasha to make a point. Nothing else works. [caption id=“attachment_1403089” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Parliament of India. Reuters[/caption] Parties disrupted the proceedings to score a political point. This has been criticised enough. But what else are political parties supposed to do? They have to cater to their constituencies and if live coverage on television makes it easy to reach out to them, why bother about the manner it is done? It might hurt the sensibilities of some, but do they really matter? No. The political class realises that. Television channels going hammer and tongs against them do not really impact the people they represent. Things are changing. If this Lok Sabha was bad the next one could be even worse. What the critics fail to realise that political players other than the Congress and the BJP have started asserting themselves unlike anytime before. The UPA government could unroll its reformist agenda only after the Trinamool Congress was out of the coalition. The next government, if it takes the support of Mamata Banerjee, has to prepare for the challenge. It’s no more about the Congress and the BJP. They account for less than half the vote share in the country and they don’t matter in half of the country’s geography. The country has to accept that there are other powerful players in the picture and they have their own political-electoral compulsions to manage. And yes, they don’t have to be submissive to the big two on policy matters. We have come to a point when these two have to get together to fight off the others. This Lok Sabha was noisy. It was a result of too many voices speaking at the same time. Let’s face it. Things are changing. The Congress and the BJP are not the only voice of wisdom in the country. There will be noise when other try to put their point of view through. It is a good sign for the democracy. Of course, violent actions like the pepper spray one could have been avoided. The Telangana Bill was passed, as were the Food Security and the Lokpal Bills earlier during this Parliament. This shows our leaders are still capable of taking collective decisions. But yes, there should be more scope for dialogue and conversation on issues. The parliamentarians, despite the criticism they face, have not thought of a way to go about conflict resolution. This would be the big challenge for the institution of Parliament in the near future. Maybe a strong pre-legislative consultation process would help make things better. The standing committees are doing a stellar job away from public attention, but it would be better if such a process is put in place.