75th Independence Day
‘Tryst with destiny’: A
vision trampled!
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was a true democrat by instinct. He led the nation in its most difficult formative
period. He was the prime force and pioneer who laid the solid foundation for
Parliamentary democracy. Those were the golden days of Indian Parliament. His
firm commitment to democracy saved India from disintegrating.
He hailed
the dawn of India’s independence as “a tryst with destiny”, perhaps no man
could take office as prime minister, for the first time in his life, under less
propitious circumstances. A divided India, economically disabled by a long and
exhausting war torn by acute communal conflict, came into his charge;
nevertheless, for 18 years-1946-64- he strived incessantly for realising his
dream of India.
On August
14, 1947, Pandit Nehru made a stirring speech ‘Tryst with destiny’ in the Constituent
Assembly, also served as the Parliament, that laid the vision of free India: “Long
years ago, we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall
redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the
world sleeps India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes
but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age
ends and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is
fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service...to the still larger cause of humanity…We have to
build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell.”
In a
message to the Press, he said “The appointed day has come-the day appointed
by destiny- and India stands forth again, after long slumber and struggle,
awake, vital, free and independent…a new hope comes into being, a vision long
cherished materializes.” And in his broadcast to the nation August 15, he
addressed the people: “Fellow countrymen, it has been my privilege to serve
India and the cause of India’s freedom for many years. Today I address you for
the first time, officially as the First Servant of the Indian people, pledged
to their service and their betterment...The old
distinction and differences are gone and today we are all free sons and
daughters of India…”
Atal Bihari
Vajpayee had a unique distinction of being a member of Parliament for 12
terms. During the 2nd Lok Sabha, he emerged
as an effective opposition leader in otherwise the Congress dominated house, with
Jan Sangh having just five members as against 403 of the Congress (out of
507). Nehru encouraged him to question
the conduct of his government. And when Vajpayee became the Prime Minister,
though had strong foundation in the RSS-Jan Sangh ideology, conducted the
parliament proceedings, as a democrat, following the footsteps of Nehru, admiring
the latter’s immeasurable contribution to the nation building and to the success
of Parliamentary democracy.
Today Nehru’s vision that stood the test of time
and acclaimed the world over, is trampled. What we see is the Parliament- the temple of
democracy- melting down. These are some reasons for the meltdown:
First, Narendra Modi ever since he became the Prime
Minister in 2014 has not addressed a single Press conference, giving the
impression that he is uncomfort in facing the media. This is unacceptable particularly
when India is the largest democracy, with a massive population of about 1.4 billion, where the people would like to know his views on issues affecting the
nation. It shows the contempt for Free Press which is the fourth pillar of
democracy.
Second, Modi’s reluctance to attend parliament and
face questions amounts to disrespecting the Parliament. His refusal to come to
Parliament and answer questions of the opposition regarding Pegasus snooping led
to the disruption and uproar in the monsoon session 2021. Neither Narendra Modi
nor Amit Shah considered it necessary to intervene and resolve the deadlock
that resulted in washing out the entire session. They have been avoiding the
Parliament. The UPA II in the face of unproved
allegations of corruption in 2G spectrum, Manmohan Singh answered in Parliament
in unequivocal terms that neither his family nor himself had derived any monetary
benefit and that not auctioning the spectrum was his government policy to
expand the mobile network nation-wide and make the mobile service accessible and
affordable to common people. And yet the
leaders of opposition in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj
respectively continued to disrupt the proceedings and paralyze the Parliament,
maintaining disrupting the proceedings was the fundamental right of the
opposition and that, in fact, was a healthy sign of strengthening the
parliamentary democracy.
And that the disruption by the opposition is not acceptable
today and considered ‘insult to parliament’ by the ruling party (the then
opposition) is a different story of double speak. The so-called Anti-Corruption Movement and
the relentless agitation during the UPA II regime, launched by Anna Hazare,
Arvind Kejriwal and Swami Ramdev, supported by thousands of BJP-RSS workers, had
rattled the Manmohan Singh government, forcing A. Raja, IT Minister, to resign and
his going to jail. The CAG Vinod Rai’s leaked
report alleging ‘presumptive loss’ of Rs.1.76 lakh came handy for the agitators. A. Raja was acquitted of
all charges of corruption by the trial court.
Third, the unruly behavior of opposition members in
Parliament is not acceptable. Nevertheless, when the opposition leaders are not
allowed to speak by switching off microphones; their repeated adjournment
motions to discuss the important national issues - the Pegasus snooping that
threatens national security; the unprecedented steep spike in petrol and diesel
prices; the nine- months long agitation by farmers protesting against the farm
laws; and the Covind-19 mismanagement- are rejected, what option do they have?
The opposition-the bed-rock of parliamentary democracy- is rendered redundant.
And all the parliamentary rules and procedures and conventions are thrown to
the wind.
The Parliament has passed in the din in this monsoon session some 20 Bills, without any discussion and debate and participation by the opposition, even breaking the well-established practice of sending the Bills to Parliamentary Standing Committees for scrutiny. In the current 17th Lok Sabha, only 11 per cent Bills are referred to the Standing Committees, compared to more than 70 percent Bills referred to the Standing committees during 15th Lok Sabha under UPA. The Parliament is reduced to a rubber stamp and lost its relevance.
What is the purpose of passing legislations in haste? Addressing the 75th Independence Day function at the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of India N.V.Ramana made a scathing remark about the manner in which the Parliament conducted the legislative business in just concluded monsoon session: "It is a sorry state of affairs", as enacting of laws without debate leaves ambiguity in legislations, "creating a lot of litigation, inconvenience to the public and government and loss to the government."
Last, but not the least, the Chairman of Rajya Sabha
Venkaiah Naidu and the Speaker of Lok Sabha Om Birla have conducted the
proceedings in partisan manner, rather than as neutral umpires and the
custodians of Parliament. They could have worked out a meeting ground between
the ruling party and the opposition, instead of toeing the line of the ruling
party. The Presiding Officers of
Parliament do not represent any political party in discharging their duties and
functions, as they do not owe allegiance to any pollical party.
They should have displayed the statesmanship of
Somnath Chatterjee- the Speaker of 14th Lok Sabha. When the Manmohan Singh government was facing
the no-confidence motion in July 2008 on the Nuclear Deal with the US,
following the withdrawal of support by the Left parties, the Speaker was asked
to resign by the CPM and vote against the government. He refused to resign
maintaining that the Speaker was above the party politics. The Manmohan Singh
government survived the motion. Somnath Chatterjee was summarily expelled from
the primary memberships of the CPM which he served for more than four decades. In
his autobiography ‘Keeping the Faith: Memoirs of a Parliamentarian’, he
discloses how Prakash Karat, General Secretary of CPM taking a volte-face, engineered
his expulsion.
Incidentally, there is a striking similarity between Atal
Bihar Vajpayee and Somnath Chatterjee, though they subscribed to two extreme
political ideologies of the right and the left. They had grace, dignity and sagacity
of being neutral and absolutely impartial in conducting their public life,
never allowed their political ideologies to color their judgments. They upheld
the high standards of parliamentary democracy that Pandit Nehru had set before
the Parliamentarians. No wonder, both of them were the recipients of the Outstanding
Parliamentarian Award.
Reacting to his expulsion, Somnath Chatterjee in a
statement 1 August 2008, said: “23 July 2008 has been one of the saddest
days of my life, when I was informed through the media of my summary expulsion
from membership of the CPI(M)…During my nearly four decades in Parliament, I
have tried my best to discharge my functions true to our parliamentary
traditions…I could not and cannot in my conscience accept a position which
would totally compromise the sanctity of the most important legislative office
in the country... I have consciously taken the principled decision to uphold
the Constitution of India.”
If only Naidu and Birla had acted independently and impartially, listening to their conscience, we wouldn’t have found our Parliamentary democracy at crossroads when the country is celebrating the 75th Independence Day.
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