The Vice President of India, Venkaiah Naidu, called for a people’s movement to influence the conduct of around 5,000 MPs, MLAs and MLCs who are working as legislators across the nation while delivering a memorial lecture in memory of late president Pranab Mukherjee on his first death anniversary.
While paying rich tributes to the Bharat Ratna Mukherjee the Vice President said that he was a life worth emulating for a politician whose career spanned over five decades holding various positions in the office as a Union Minister to the President of India.
The memorial lecture on the theme ‘Constitutionalism; Guarantor of Democracy and Inclusive Growth’ was organised by the ‘Pranab Mukherjee Legacy Foundation’ through video conferencing.
On the occasion, the Vice President, who is also the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, expressed his deep concern over the rising number of disruptions in Parliament and the dipping quality of the parliamentary democracy.
The Vice President called for a people’s movement to influence the conduct of around 5,000 legislators across the nation. He said that such a movement should be called “Mission 5000” as a public campaign to save the parliamentary democracy.
Under this mission, the public would be encouraged to identify their representatives who constantly disturb the process of legislation and to hold them accountable because eventually their salaries are being paid by the public through taxes.
This movement should be well advertised on social media and other such platforms so that the general public be aware of who is working in their interest and who is not.
Violent scenes were witnessed in the Upper House of Parliament especially in the last two days before the monsoon session was adjourned with the pending enquiry against close to 17 members of Parliament.
While speaking on the protests by various legislators on the floor of the House, the Vice President observed that it was fine to protest as part of the democracy but it was really important not to breach the dignity and decorum of the House.
He said, “Protesting against the omissions and commissions of the governments on the floor of the legislatures is the right of the legislators. But the emotional underpinnings of such protests should not cross the limits of decency and decorum that should mark parliamentary democracy. To ensure this, I have been advocating that ‘Let the government propose, the Opposition oppose and the House dispose”.
Stating that Constitutionalism checks the arbitrariness of the governments by ensuring wider stakeholder consultations, Naidu further observed, “Dysfunctional legislatures prevent the much-desired wider consultations before making of laws and framing of policies. Such disruptions negate the principle of accountability of the executive to the legislatures, thereby promoting the tendency of arbitrariness, which Constitutionalism seeks to checkmate”.
Not just in the recently concluded monsoon session but also during the monsoon session of Parliament in 2020, ugly scenes were witnessed in the Upper House thereby resulting in the suspension of nine MPs for the remaining part of the session for trying to intimidate the chair and snatch papers from his hand.
Even then Naidu had expressed his reservations about such behaviour. Even in the recently concluded monsoon session also, Naidu did not come to the House on the final day which is a practice for the Chair to be present due to the behaviour of the MPs.
The Rajya Sabha Chairman broke down while addressing due to the disruptions and behaviour of the members in the House such as sloganeering and show of placards.
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