Holding the house to ransom!

If we need some more evidence of the opposition actually helping the government and rendering the Parliament ineffective is the call by leader of the opposition, Sushma Swaraj, who has the gumption to warn that they will decide, on a daily basis, whether the house should function on that day or not. This is so sickening that one wonders whether there is any way that we can hold these public officials, as the over reliance on the judiciary, which is already swamped with providing oversight over several cases, from issues related to violence in Gujarat to oversight of cases of corruption in the Union government.

Corruption Scandals and Lack of Accountability

India has been a witness to umpteen corruption scandals and 'resignation' of elected officials, and sometimes even the dissolution of the houses and conducting fresh elections. But one wonders whether this is real accountability, as the latest farce unfolds in Karnataka, wherein the Chief Minister was forced to resign upon the recommendations of the Lokayukta (ombudsman), but managed to have his chamcha (lackey) elected as the new chief minister. This might be a little better than what Laloo Prasad Yadav managed to do in Bihar, by anointing his wife as the new CM.

The real issue at heart is once the elected official resigns, what happens to the alleged perpetrator? This is an issue that needs to be addressed directly and immediately, as we see that the recent resignation of the CM of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan, has not been brought to its proper conclusion - establishing guilt and punishing the guilt. This brings us to focus on the current call for the adoption of the Lok Pal Bill, which once again seems to have grandiose aims, but lacks any teeth. This addition of a legislative framework will not see a change, unless the existing rules are enforced in a free and fair manner. While my rant, might sounds like a broken record, it is high time that we stop clamoring for new laws and bodies, but rather focus on how we can enhance the abilities of existing bodies of investigation and prosecution.

Parliament Session and Consideration of Bills

The business of the Parliament of India in each session is quite demanding, but the approach of the members of the house is quite lacking. Considering that the 2011 Monsoon Session of the Parliament is supposed to consider 35 pending bills, introduce 32 new bills and replace 2 ordinances with 2 new bills, i.e. a total of 69 bills, in 26 sittings, it is shameful that the new session started off with an adjournment and saw an uproar in the Rajya Sabha. This lackadaisical approach to parliamentary business is quite sickening.
One point that stood out during my perusal of the newspaper archives of the period between 1996 and 2005, while conducting research into the coverage of the freedom of information campaign in India, is the consensus among the major national parties - the Bharatiya Janata Party and its National Democratic Alliance coalition, and the Congress Party and its United Progressive Alliance coalition; in not conducting the business of the parliament. The two coalitions have made a mockery of the proceedings of the house and have stalled the business of the house, thereby rendering the purpose of the parliament - to examine, scrutinize and decide on issues of national interest; to be ineffective.