Ansari’s scholarly phrase is misunderstood

Rajya Sabha Chairman Mohammad Hamid Ansari’s choice of phrase, Federation of Anarchists, sparked uproar in the Opposition benches. Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley expressed displeasure over Ansari's remark and demanded that the Chair withdraw it. “Please reconsider it,” Jaitley said, objecting to the use of the word anarchists to describe the entire House and demanded its withdrawal.

Perhaps it was understood to mean disorder, conflict or chaos. Hamid Ansari is a former Indian Foreign Service officer and a former diplomat and his use of the word led the MPs to protest, considering it as an unparliamentary expression. The Rajya Sabha Chairman used the expression as it is understood in political science. But it had no takers among the Elders, who saw in it something unparliamentary and therefore had to be withdrawn.

A senior Congress leader explained that anarchy in international relations is leaderless, or without universal sovereign or worldwide government. In political science, it is a philosophical concept where an individual is a law unto himself, without a superior or hierarchically higher authority. Absence of a higher authority than states in the international system means that states can only rely on themselves for their own survival, requiring paranoid vigilance and constant preparation for conflict.