Second semester students of Bachelors of Arts in Journalism and Communication (BAJC) conducted a mock parliament as part of an assignment for their Constitution of India and Media Laws and Ethics class at the School of Communication (SOC) here recently.
A release by the SOC here recently said that the agenda for the first day at the mock parliament was the discussion on whether Article 370 should remain temporary or become permanent in the Indian Constitution. A customised Land Acquisition Bill was debated on the second day. Before the mock parliament even took place, the students had to form parties, elect their Prime Minister (Medha Jha), Vice-President (Budh Adithya Mukhuty), and Speaker (D.R. Subhash).
You would imagine that a student run parliament would be simple and straight forward, but it turned out to be more complex than that. Rigorous lobbying was used to strengthen parties and perhaps to weaken the opposing ones.
After the inauguration of the mock parliament by Prakash Kanive, Principal of Vaikunta Baliga College of Law, the Lok Sabha session began. And the Rajya Sabha session began the same evening. There were heated arguments in both houses regarding the stance on the ruling party and the opposition about Article 370.
The adjournment motion and the censure motion were both rejected with a majority vote. The students did not handle the mock parliament as mere assignment, but took it more seriously. The arguments and statements made by the students simulated true sentiments of politicians.
Contradicting the national trend, the Youth Parliament came out with a creative and model bill empowering tribal community making them partners in the process of development.
Despite it being an assignment, the students learnt a valuable lesson on how the parliament works. The mock parliament was guided by SoC Director Nanadini Lakshmikanth, Head of the Department for Media Studies Shubha and Faculty in-charge Shreeraj Gudi.
Discussion was on whether Article 370 should be temporary or permanent
