FACE OF INDIAN PARLIAMENT.

BY K P PASWAN.

Parliament in any democratic country plays an important role in shaping the laws, which are beneficial to majority of people. In a free democracy every citizen, irrespective of caste,  creed and religion  enjoy universal voting rights, and member of parliament are elected by common people, accountable to common people. Parliament has its origin in Britain, from which it spreader to other parts of the world. When President James Monroe of America defined Democracy, as by the people, for the people and of the people, he had in his mind the British system of parliamentary democracy. At that time parliament in Great Britain was in different form, but the members had greater say in running the administration. Perhaps it was United States of America, which introduced an effective system of electing representatives to the Congress. American constitution is not a lengthy book. Constitution is enshrined in a few pages. United Kingdom does not have a written constitution and British parliament follows rules and regulations as per certain conventions.

 India was a colony of Britain for a long time. Before the entry of East India Company, India was divided into thousand of small principalities, having their own rules and laws which were to be followed by common people, there were certain big royal states like Mughal, Nizam, Marathas, Sikhs etc, but there was not a united India. Rulers of these small states were lazy louts, living in luxury in a fast lane and thrived on war with neighboring states. For a while, the Mughal had in their possession large swath of the land, but the Mughal empire was in constant turmoil owing to palace intrigues and sectarian conflicts.

East India Co, brought and introduced in India, certain democratic principles which ultimately resulted in common laws, enforceable and executed by traders. When East India company started conquering weak principalities, these laws were further modified to include laws relating to criminal offenses. When entire India fell in the hands of Britain, then United India also emerged and certain common laws were introduced throughout the country,

Not going into details of historical facts, we must acknowledge that Independent India Act of 1935 is the central point of our parliamentary democracy. There are demands by certain section of educated but misguided people, that rules made during the colonial era must be repealed, but they desist themselves from suggesting alternatives. Under Sedition Laws Mahatma Gandhi was arrested ,but after departure of the British, retention of these laws is needed, until new laws are introduced, based upon changed conditions. This is not going to an easy task as the conditions of Sedition still loom large.

 Indian parliament consists of two houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Members of Lok Sabha are directly elected by people for five years or when Lok Sabha is dissolved, if no political party forms the government on its own or with support from other parties (Coalition Govt), while members of Rajya Sabha are elected not directly but by some other methods in which horse trading is an important method to woo the members of opposition group.

It was 26^th Jan1950 that India as a republic came into existence. Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, the first PM of independent India was a towering personality of his age, and one of the most influential leaders in the world. Functions of two houses of parliaments were never questioned and some of the serious debates were seen in the lower house with dignity and decorum. There is no record of shouting and counter shouting and adjourning or stalling the house on flimsy ground. There is no record to say that the PM was not allowed to speak by the opposition. Situation began to deteriorate after 1967, when the ruling Congress Party began to loss popularity, Election of member to the lower house is not based on merit and honest image of a politician who aspires to contest the election. He may not survive a person who is also contesting, glorifying his caste and creed. As per reports prepared by Election Commission, every political party is sending politicians of criminal background to parliament, and serious discussion in parliament is rarely seen. Even some of highly qualified members of parliaments with impressive degree from foreign universities are seen making noises on less serious matter.

CHARACTER ASSASSINATION. With tragic assassination of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, there is no charismatic leaders to make lasting impression, perhaps most of members of parliament are swayed by caste considerations and with a little help from criminals, they are in a position to tarnish the image of parliament. It appears that the opposition or the ruling party have developed, the strange habit of indulging in character assassination of each other. Bo fores and Raffle defense deals are glaring example. Rajiv Gandhi was really a Mr Clean, but the opposition, falsely accused him of accepting kickbacks even after knowing that Bofors gun was the most effective weapons against the enemies and no kickbacks were involved. Commissions, without which no international trade is possible were paid and such payment  cannot be called  kickbacks and bribes.

 Bofors deal is still being debated by the opponents to malign the late Rajiv Gandhi. It is most pertinent to note that modern system of international trade allows commissions or discounts, without which trading activities cannot be carried away, now pendulum has swung into opposition direction. Raffle Fighters aircraft manufactured in France is regarded far better war aircraft than Mirage and even Russian Migs. Paying commissions is legally allowed, but here the opponents of prime minister is accusing him of adopting corrupt practices. Ruling party at the centre is notorious for anti-Dalit stand, but the main opposition is also encouraging communal ism and caste ism. Narendra Modi may not be an excellent PM, but he is one of the most admired and honest PM in the world. He is conducting administration in a rational manner. So, the main opposition party is making the same mistake which was, once made by the opponents of Rajiv Gandhi, who was ruined by his coterie of corrupt friends otherwise, integrity and honesty Rajiv Gandhi cannot be questioned on flimsy ground.

PEGASUS. During the Munich Olympic, the German Intelligence exposed its incompetence  and allowed the Jewish sportsmen to be slaughtered in a most horrendous killing. But German counterpart MOSSAD in Israel, the spy network of a tiny Jewish state, virtually surprised the world when Golda Mair the PM of Israel with the help of her spy network, killed every terrorist, involved in Munich killing of Jewish sports persons. Now with advancement of IT technology, there is mushroom growth of spy networks, but they have not done anything like the incidents,which happened during Munich Olympic. Every advanced country is involved in Cyber-crime which was discussed in detail during G 7 gathering in Britain. Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin dwelt upon the security issues being targeted by the hackers, China has emerged as a leading nation involved in all types of cyber crimes. Satyanarayana Nadella, the Chairman of Microsoft accused China of hacking MS technology including Window11 and China denied the allegations, but the fact of the matter is that Window11 is available in China, even before officially introduced in open market’.

 Phone tapping is not a new thing in India, but phone tapping has never led to scandal like Watergate in India. PEGASUS, a spy network of obscure origin ( probably Israel based) tapped the phones of a few ordinary journalists and politicians of no importance. Their names have been published with such zeal as if they are new angels, who will save India from pandemic and usher in a new era of economic prosperity. But the fact of the matter is that these conclusions are figment of imagination and an excuse to create ruckus in parliament over trivial matters. Here it will not be out of context to mention that Watergate type of scandal is happening in India regularly and no politician has met the fate of Richard Nixon.

FEKU AND PAPPU. Who is FEKU and who is PAPPU, does it matter?  But real fact is that both are ordinary mortals. In a parliamentary system, Pappu may replace Feku and vice versa but the country cannot be ruined by Pappu and Feku. In the name of personal liberty. those who use these derogatory words should be forced to stand before a court of law to explain the meaning of these two words.  Unfortunately, there is an overactive judiciary to defend certain groups of people in the name of protecting fundamental rights. Inventors of these two words are either schizophrenic or neurotic who cannot sleep as democratic character of India will not allow them to sleep. It is also seen that a particular Chief Minister, who is in the habit of abusing the PM, has only one political agenda at hand and that is free electricity up to 200 unit, provided if consumers vote for his party. Another young political leader, much liked by certain section of politicians is an inventor of lies. Even the Apex court has warned this politician for spreading and manufacturing lies and this politician is aspiring to become the next PM of India.

STRANGE WORLD OF CYBER SPYING. CEO of Facebook, Twitter and Google have faced the searching questions by the Senators and Congressmen in US, but the shouting Brigade as seen in Indian parliament exceeded and crossed the boundary of decency when they openly washed dirty linen of each other in public. Instead of asking the reasons for inclusion of impressive number of SC MPs as ministers by the current PM, they wanted to discuss, the issues relating to farmers as it is known that Indian Farmers attracted the attention of Mia Khalifa who is a notorious strip teaser and Greta Thunberg, whose wealthy parents are bent upon creating grounds for a Nobel prize for the teenager. Nobody on this planet except Mia Khalifa and Justin Trudeau, the macabre PM of Canada, support the demands of Indian farmers. The oppositions are supporting the farmers as this is a novel way to oppose the present PM. Greta Thunberg has dissociated herself from farmers, when she realized that her purpose will not be served. The general election is not very far away. Modi’s popularity and the Farmer’s genuine problems shall be tested in UP assembly election. The present body of farmers are mostly from Punjab and UP, farmers of other parts of the country give damn importance to these farmers, who have become super spreader of lethal virus.

 Credit goes to BJP for engineering the Shouting Brigade in parliament, when this party was in opposition. Non-BJP politicians are simply following the same principles, but there is a difference, BJP used to shout at the entire government, but the opposition is shouting, targeting a single person named Narendra Modi.

SECULARISM is the one word liked by all but practiced by none including the leftists. In West Bengal, at the time of Assembly Election, there was large number of defectors, who defected from the so-called anti-Hindu party in power to pro Hindu political party in opposition. After election pro Hindu political party made impressive gain in the assembly, but a few of defectors, originally faithful workers of anti-Hindu political party left the pro Hindu party and returned to anti-Hindu political party. Such type of defections is taking place all over India. There is no real meaning of secularism, when caste predominate political ideology and try to deprive the Dalits of their rights given by the founding fathers of constitution. This is the real face of secularism in India. A highly qualified woman member of Lower House from West Bengal hit the truth by telling” You are Hindus because Muslims are here, if they go, than India will become a land of Brahmins Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras, Dalits.

LIMITS OF PARLIAMENT DEMOCRACY.

The Apex Court in the famous Goloknath and above all in the case of Keshwanand Bharti, ruled that parliament cannot change basic character of constitution, but the highest court of the country did not elaborate the concept of basic characters. However, by close examination of some of the demands raised by elected members belonging to opposition, whether they are anti-Hindus anti-Dalits or pro Hindus, openly assault basic character of the constitution. There is only one binding force among them and that is anti-Dalits.

FINAL THOUGHT. Parliamentary form of government is the most sacred and pious democratic institution bestowed upon us by great founding fathers of the constitution. For thousand of years India by different names, in different times suffered from foreign invasion. These were the darkest period as there was no democratic freedom and running of administration depended upon the whims of the corrupt rulers. The British united India and for the first time and everybody enjoys universal franchise, unheard in majority of the sovereign nations of the world. Sanctity of parliament must be preserved at all cost and the shouting brigade, irrespective of political affiliations must be discouraged from disrupting and stalling the proceeding in parliament

AND FINAL WORDS.

Once this blogger was in most glamorous service with no power. Left the service due to tragedy.  During pandemic, thee was a lively debate in Texas (US). I was also there. They were debating over CAA. As per general opinion, CAA was beneficial in certain parts of India, but in other parts, its implementation needed further clarifications. There was unanimous opinion, that in absence of CAA, type of laws, India was going to become another EU (European Community) within 50 years