Members in Parliament or Assembly must shun vindictive attitude

It is nice to see more than a third of the benches in the Lok Sabha full with opposition. For India to be a healthy democracy, it is always advantageous if the Parliament or Assembly has a strong opposition provided they behave like equal partners in development of the country or state not at political rivals who are hell bent on pulling down the government of the day.

But of late we are seeing that the behavior of the opposition whether they have done extremely well or where they got decimated, there is no change in their attitude. They enter the Parliament of Assembly with the feeling that the party that is in power is useless and will collapse. Whether it is any organisation or the legislature, anyone who enters the temple of democracy should not have negative thoughts but unfortunately that is not the situation.

They enter with nothing except negative thoughts cursing the ruling party and alleging that the government was treating them like enemies. No one seems to be bothered about their responsibility which is to stand by the common man and take up people’s issues in Parliament and Legislatures and ensure the quality of life of the people improves.

The way the INDIA bloc led by Rahul Gandhi behaved inside the Parliament during the first two days of the 18th Lok Sabha was disappointing. All hopes of having a proactive and responsible opposition this time got demolished.

Opposition should have reserved its over enthusiasm in Lok Sabha till the budget session began. It is unbecoming of Rahul Gandhi and members of bloc INDIA to wave copies of Constitution when PM was taking oath. The way they were shouting and behaving it appeared more like a childish act.

Let us take the case of Andhra Pradesh. The YSRCP won only 11 Assembly seats. They too did not have the decency to be present in the house on the day MLAs were taking oath. They forget that based on simple request, the new government permitted the vehicle of Jagan to come up to the entrance gate of the main Assembly though he does not have the status of opposition leader.

Jagan shied away from being present in the house when the Assmebly met. He entered the house as his name was being announced and left immediately after taking oath. This amounts to more of an insult to the people who voted for him and his party more than the insult to the Assembly. When Speaker was elected on day two, neither Jagan nor anyone from his party were present. They are accusing Speaker of being anti Jagan but wants him to give him the status of leader of opposition

“Maan na maan Mi Tera Mehaman,” seems to be the attitude. He wants Speaker to recognise him as leader of opposition using his discretionary powers. But he says he has no faith in the Speaker.

The previous Speaker was a bitter rival of the TDP, when he was elected, still TDP deputy floor leader escorted him to his chair along with CM but he did not even show the courtesy of shaking hands with TDP member. As Speaker never addressed opposition MLAs or even the leader of opposition with the respect a member deserves. He used to address them in singular tense and was seen shouting at them many times.

Jagan himself used to address everyone in singular tense make demeaning comments on the size of the member and shout at the leader of the then opposition. They did not remember any rules, statutory provisions or precedents then.

It is not a sign of healthy democracy. Opposition should play the role of a watchdog, fight with government on policies, give alternate solutions not display vindictive attitude whether in power or in opposition. Only then one can say “Ache Din” have arrived.