BOTH these events have their own importance in understanding the overall conduct of the Opposition parties in Parliament. The two events highlight how the persons in the Chair in both Houses have often felt harassed by the irresponsible conduct of the Opposition members of Parliament causing indignity to the presiding officer. If Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Mr. Jagdeep Dhankhar felt compelled to lambast Opposition leaders in the House for making uncalled for statements involving him and Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, then Lok Sabha Speaker Mr. Om Birla felt compelled to withdraw from chairing responsibility until MPs promised good conduct by them. Both the events, thus, indicate the low levels to which the Opposition behaviour has sunk over the past some years. In fact, ever since Mr. Narendra Modi assumed office as Prime Minister nine-plus years ago, the Opposition has been behaving in such an uncouth manner -- unmindful of the seriousness of the business at hand in the two Houses of Parliament. Parliament has witnessed scenes of the presiding officers even shedding tears of grief over the misconduct of the Opposition MPs.

 

The situation appears to have sunk so low that Speaker Mr. Om Birla felt pushed to the wall and chose to stay away from the proceedings until the Opposition members promised good conduct. Mr Birla has proved to be a truly good presiding officer. He has shown courage of conviction and act in total freedom from any pressure from the Government. He has also been seen as even castigating the members from the Treasury Benches. His non-partisan stance has earned Mr. Om Birla fans all over the world. Similar is the case of Vice President Mr. Jagdeep Dhankhar who is also the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. He has earned a reputation of a firm presiding officer who refuses to budge in front of the battery of Opposition MPs. He has not hesitated in suspending membership of unruly members for whatever length of time (which had happened recently). Both these men -- Mr. Om Birla and Mr. Jagdeep Dhankhar have proved time and again that they have sound knowledge of law, rules and procedures and deep understanding of the politics of the day. Even though they admit to the merit of both the presiding officers, the Opposition members have not stopped misbehaving when the session is going on. The Opposition, however, does not care. But then a time does come when even the coolest presiding officer gets bogged down by continuing misconduct of the Opposition members in the House.

 

That has happened on several occasions in the past nine years, and their intensity and frequency have increased in the second tenure of Mr Narendra Modi as Prime Minister. This is the actual difficulty -- which reflected itself in the two events mentioned earlier. Time again, it has been proved that India’s Opposition parties do not have a genuine interest in sorting out Parliamentary log-jams. Much to the contrary, their interest is in actually creating log-jams so that the parliamentary Houses are not able to conduct business. This has happened in almost every issue -- such as the farmer’s agitation or the anti-Citizenship Amendment Bill or now the Manipur chaos. The Opposition does not seem to behave in a serious non-partisan dialogue on issues of importance. Instead, the Opposition appears hell bent upon avoiding the dialogue. Therefore the presiding officer gets upset. Therefore he either blasts the Opposition members, like Mr. Jagdeep Dhankhar did, or threatens to withdraw from the House pending an assurance of good behaviour, like Mr Om Birla did a couple of days ago. This does not go well with the nature and form and content of democracy. If a bi-partisan dialogue is an anathema to the Opposition parties, then they are only withdrawing from the democratic arrangement. Eventually, they will suffer at the hustings all right, which they have often done. But if they start conducting themselves with responsibility and dignity, they will held the democratic process more fully.