Tavleen Singh writes: Shame on both of you

It made me sad to see that in this winter session of Parliament it was not just the BJP that sullied the dignity of the Lok Sabha. Congress MPs, led by the Leader of the Opposition and his sister, did their bit. Congress MPs strutted about outside Parliament with placards, jackets and bags that said ‘Modi, Adani Bhai, Bhai’ and as I watched I felt like I was watching a bad school play. What puzzled me most was why Rahul Gandhi, who after ten years of trying, has finally won Congress enough seats to become Leader of the Opposition is spending more time outside the Lok Sabha than inside. What is the point?

There is no question that the charges made by an American court against India’s richest man should be discussed in the Lok Sabha. No question that the Modi government owes us some answers since this man has been given nearly all of India’s ports and airports to run and a lot else besides. But would it not be better to say this repeatedly inside the Lok Sabha instead of prancing about looking like aging, crazed schoolchildren in the gardens of Parliament House?

It is very dispiriting to see every session of Parliament wasted when there are so many issues of importance that need to be discussed. Here is my short list. Why is the Indian economy slowing down suddenly instead of being the fastest growing large economy in the world? Why are 11.30 crore accounts inactive of a total of 54.03 crore opened under the vaunted Jan Dhan scheme? Why are 47% of the 9.7 lakh houses built under the Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana empty in urban areas despite a grim shortage of affordable housing? These are schemes considered great achievements of the Modi government. So, debates are valid and urgent. But how when every session of Parliament ends up wasted because of walkouts, shouting matches and protests?

It is not even as if we have elected people incapable of serious debate and real discourse. The debate on the Constitution that began as I was writing this piece was a clear indication that debates can still be held, and discourse is possible. One reason why this happens only rarely these days is because the opposition blames the government for disruptions and the spokespersons of the treasury benches blame the opposition. Surely even this can be debated inside the house.

Shame on both sides for bringing things to such a sorry pass. But if first prize was to be given for the stupidest issue to be brought up, it would go to the BJP for talking about Soros as if he was a major world leader. It brought back very bad memories for me of those days when Indira Gandhi was so obsessed with the ‘foreign hand’ that anyone seen to be saying good things about the United States ended up being labelled a CIA agent. It turned out twenty years later, when KGB spymasters started writing books, that if there was a foreign hand meddling in Indian politics, it belonged to the late, unlamented Soviet Union.

At least then in those Cold War times, it was the two most powerful countries in the world who were being charged with interfering in Indian domestic politics. Now we seem to have become such an insecure country that some of our political leaders seriously believe that a foreign businessman, in his nineties, is so powerful that he can bring down the Modi government. In a country in which most people are illiterate in the ways of democracy these are dangerous ideas to propound because they can end up being believed when their place is really in the garbage bin. So here is a personal request from me to our Members of Parliament: grow up please. Enough.