JOIN USPolitics has sunk to a new low with opposition MLAs of the Bihar Assembly overturning tables and chairs in the House, hurling footwear at the Speaker and flower pots at the Assembly’s watch-and-ward staff. Apparently, the opposition wanted the government to debate a Patna high court order asking for a CBI inquiry into the alleged bungling of funds to the tune of Rs 11,000 crore by the government. The government refused to discuss the issue, which set off the MLAs’ ire. Their annoyance is understandable; their rowdy behaviour to express it is not. Surely, these MLAs could have found a more civilised way of getting the government to concede their demand. Have they forgotten that the Assembly is a forum for healthy intellectual debate and not a wrestling ring to test muscle power? There was a time when state assemblies and parliament witnessed stimulating and passionate discussions on issues that affected the people. It is not just the precipitously declining quality of speeches in recent years that is worrying. Worse, as the Bihar MLAs and others before them have demonstrated, elected representatives are acting like street rowdies in the House. Only last week, opposition MLAs in the Karnataka Assembly lowered the dignity of the Legislative Assembly — even as they reduced themselves to a spectacle — when they ate, made merry and slept overnight in the well of the House, all in the name of protesting corruption in high places.
Have these ‘anti-corruption crusaders’ considered civil methods to fight corruption or to put the government under pressure? Or are they incapable of thinking of constructive means to tackle the serious issues that confront this country today? With Assembly elections around the corner, the Bihar MLAs were keen to get themselves on prime time television. Not having done anything to address socio-economic issues troubling their electorate, they resorted to rowdyism to capture their voters’ attention.
Elected persons from across the political spectrum are engaging in unparliamentary behaviour that is undermining our democracy. Beyond suspension, little has been done so far to rein them in. The Congress, which usually likes to take the moral high ground, has been silent on the shoddy conduct of its MLAs in Karnataka and Bihar. It can redeem itself by denying tickets to contest to MLAs who misbehaved in the Bihar Assembly. That would send out a powerful message to the voters as well as its MLAs and MPs across the country.