One More Betrayal Of People

The monsoon session of the Parliament concluded on August 11.Thesession was no different from the previous sessions in as much as the quality turnout is concerned. Unfortunately, our ‘Hon’ble’ representatives called the members of the august Houses known as Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have not yet learnt any good lessons from the past.

Like previous sessions of the parliament, the just concluded monsoon session too, witnessed shouting, abusing, insulting and at times even threatening gestures by some of the MPs! For such a tragic and deplorable situation almost all parties are responsible.

The rules of conduct of business, provide in detail the manner in which a particular situation will be tackled by the Speaker/Chairman. However, the unruly members never bothered to maintain the decorum and respect to the Chair as is expected in a democracy.

The unbridled horses went amok surpassing their own past records of unruly and indecent behaviour, which 140 million people watched helplessly on their television sets. In the melee, the most important burning issues like violence in Manipur and Nuh were sidetracked.

The growing communal frenzy throughout the country which ought to have been addressed by both the treasury as well as opposition benches also did not get due attention.

These matters concern the life and property of the people, hence they ought to have been given top priority.Merely passing of the buck on each other, as to who was responsible for the sorry state of lawlessness in parliament, will not absolve the concerned MPs or satisfy the voters.

It is trite that the unruly members instead of correcting their behaviour, often blame the Speaker/Chairman for not maintaining order and conducting the business of the House. In fact, considering the helplessness of the speaker/chairman of a House in bringing order in the House, the only person to be pitied seems to be the Speaker/Chairman. It also cannot be said that it is the responsibility of the ruling party to ensure orderly conduct of the House, because one cannot clap with just one hand.

True, some bills were hurriedly introduced/passed. But, even in this case, either most of the opposition staged a walkout, remained absent or deliberately did not participate in a fruitful manner. In other words, the parliament considered to be the temple of democracy has lost its majesty not because of attacks by external forces but by our own elected representatives.

Our largest democracy in the world cannot be allowed to be belittled by whatever forces. The hard-earned money of the people is lavishly spent on the elected representatives. In turn, the people have a right to demand from their MPs a minimum courtesy of allowing the parliament to run smoothly. We cannot afford to allow the hard-earned money of the people go in drain.

In short, it is high time to seriously ponder over the issue of smooth conduct of parliamentary business. The Rules do empower the Speaker/Chairman to regulate the proceedings of the House and even to punish the erring MPs.

In past, attempts to run the parliament are done in every session, but have yielded no positive reasons.

Therefore, to make the Speaker/Chairman more powerful, it is necessary to empower him to impose stricter punishment like stripping such members of their membership, disqualifying them to contest election at least for next 5 years, ordering imprisonment for a term ranging from 1 year to 5 years depending on the number of times such members have misbehaved or interrupted the smooth running of the parliament. In the extreme, de-recognising a party lock, stock and barrel if the unruly behaviour of such a party with 25% or more of its members found disturbing the smooth functioning of the parliament.

If for any reason, overt or covert, the parties are not inclined to discipline themselves, they would be doing a great favour to the people atleast by discontinuing the live telecast of session.

‘HISTORIC’ OVERHAUL OF CRIMINAL LAW

On August 11, the Home Minister of India introduced in the Lok Sabha, three Bills proposing sweeping changes (as many as 313) to the archaic criminal laws, viz. Indian Penal Code, Code Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act. Later, the Bills were referred to the Standing Committee of the Home Ministry.

Moving the Bills, the Home Minister Amit Shah dealt with the loopholes in the present criminal laws, such asinordinate delay in registration of FIR and filing of chargesheet, long-drawn trial and low rate of conviction. He told the House that with the changing times, use of modern technology has become imperative.

The most contentious provision on sedition is intended to be repealed, he added. He also said that more transparency in the matters of arrest, investigation, remission and granting permission to prosecute public servants has been provided in the new Bills.

The proposed Acts have been re-named as, the BharatiyaNyaySanhita, 2023, the BharatiyaNagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 and the BharatiyaSakshya Bill, 2023 for the Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act respectively.

SC’S CONCERN OVER HATE SPEECH

On August 11, a division bench of the apex court comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice SVN Bhatti expressed its concern over the hate speech and mob violence and advised the State to devise some mechanism to deal with the problem.

The court hearing a petition in Shaheen Abdullah Vs. Union of India and Others where the petitioner sought the relief from the court against proposed march by the Viswa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal following violence in Nuh, Haryana and alleged call to boycott Muslims shops, asked police to ensure that no untoward incident takes place during the march.

5 MEN HANGED FOR GANG RAPE IN IRAN

The Islamic Republic of Iran is once again in news. According to its judiciary, five men who were convicted for the offences of kidnapping and rape in the city of Marand in May, 2022 were executed on August 9. The accused persons were also implicated in other crimes.

BODY SHAME BY SPOUSE IS CRUELTY

In a recent judgment, the Karnataka High Court granted divorce to a 44-year-old man from his 41 year wife on the ground of insulting him for being dark-skinned by his wife.

Allowing the man’s appeal and granting him divorce, the court observed that the evidence on record, from close scrutiny leads to the conclusion that the wife used to insult the husband saying that ‘he is dark’ and for the same reason she moved away from the company of the husband. The court further observed that to cover up this aspect, wife also levelled false allegations of illicit relationships against the husband. These allegations also constitute cruelty.

The appeal was decided in favour of the husband by a Division bench of Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anant Ramanath Hegde.