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Elusive order

Days after he reported 32 MPS, bulk of them from the Bharatiya Janata Party, to the privileges committee for misbehaviour, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has withdrawn the reference, bringing the curtain down on yet another edition of the by-now tiresome Parliamentary routine of disorder followed by reconciliation. It is evident enough that Mr. Chatterjee was under pressure, with most political parties choosing to view the punishment as excessive and against the spir it of democracy and free speech. The irony of invoking democracy to stall an institution that symbolises democracy was apparently lost on those protesting the Speaker’s decision. Members of the BJP, usually the noisiest as well as the most disruptive — 22 BJP MPs were hauled up in the latest case — sat with their fingers on their lips in a signal of defiance against a presiding officer who had dared to discipline them. It was against this untenable background that Speaker Chatterjee called a meeting of opposition leaders where presumably a compromise of sorts was reached: the Speaker would agree to drop the privilege proceedings and, for its part, the opposition would maintain greater decorum in the house, besides desisting from showing disrespect to the chair. The truce raises some uneasy questions. How long will it be before the MPs return to their favourite pastime? What is the value of a promise made to a presiding officer whom the BJP MPs have disobeyed and insulted in the past, never missing a chance to accuse him of bias and on occasion even calling him a dictator?

Recent parliamentary history is proof, if any were needed, that promises are made only to be broken. In the three-and-a-half years between June 2004 and December 2007, the lower house lost an incredible 370 hours to disruptions and adjournment. This despite solemn pledges made at countless redressal conferences. As early as in 1992, an all-India conference of Presiding Officers resolved to “evolve and observe” a code of conduct for legislators. A decade later, in 2001, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was still reiterating the need for a code, which, he said, “must be adhered to.” The elusive code came up again in 2004 at a meeting of parliamentary party leaders. Has Parliament become irredeemable? In February this year, Vice-President Hamid Ansari suggested increasing the number of house sittings and working after hours to compensate for the time lost to disruptions. Earlier, Mr. Chatterjee proposed an eminently enforceable “no work, no pay” principle as a disincentive against disruption. All to no avail as is evident from the now dropped privilege move against 32 MPs.

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