MOST DESPICABLE

 

THE ugly incident of scuffle between Ruling Party Members of Parliament (MPs) and those of the Opposition -- mostly Congress -- in Lok Sabha will prove to be a black spot on the persona of the country’s highest democratic institution. The fact that two Bharatiya Janata Party MPs were seriously injured in the scuffle in which even the Leader of Opposition (LoP) Mr. Rahul Gandhi was involved physically and personally, is something that should make the nation take a serious notice of the low levels of conduct of the Opposition members. And worse is the fact that the combined Opposition has been trying to accuse the Government falsely of maligning (the late) Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar.

 

Such a situation certainly needs a tougher and different handling -- so that the Opposition stops indulging in uncouth conduct on the floor of the House and even stop indulging in spreading falsehood (that does not serve any political purpose except spreading an anarchist sentiment to some extent). The situation got worse yesterday when the Opposition isolated a 12-second clip from the speech of Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah on how the Congress party was continuously insulting Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar in different ways. When Mr. Shah made the actual speech, the Opposition members did not rise in protest at all, but rose later to isolate a 12-second clip to distort what the Home Minister actually said.

 

The Ruling Party members, too, hit back and tore through stance the Opposition took and put forward a range of lifelong insults that were heaped on Dr. Ambedkar by the Congress party. And then came the ugly scuffle when the Congress members wanted to push through the same door where the BJP MPs had come together to make their point known. Two BJP MPs got injured (one of them after Mr. Rahul Gandhi indulged in physical pushing) and a woman MP complained that the Congress leader stood very uncomfortably close to her. The BJP members sought to file a First Information Report (FIR) against Mr. Rahul Gandhi and about the scuffle. The entire incident is a blot on the institution of Parliament, making it necessary for the nation to put a stop to all the nonsense. It is time the Opposition learned how to conduct itself in the Parliament and help the Government run the Houses with dignity -- instead of insisting that it is the duty of the Government to make the House conduct its business properly. For, in a democratic set up, it is never a one-sided affair when the Opposition blocks the business and accuses the Government of having failed to discharge its duty well. Such a cantankerousness must be stopped immediately. By now -- that is in the past ten years -- the nation has realised how non-cooperative the Opposition has been and how its has stalled the proceedings of the Parliament needlessly and senselessly.

 

The nation was shocked when two presiding officers -- of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha -- came to tears as they addressed the media expressing their helplessness about the obstinate stance of the Opposition. Having seen all this, the nation has by now concluded that the Opposition is least interested in keeping up the dignity of Parliament and carrying forward the tradition of healthy debate. The nation has known by now that even as the Opposition stalls the proceedings, it accuses the Modi Government of not allowing a debate -- which is an utter falsehood that even street urchins now realise. The scuffle shows how ugly things are getting -- and how the Opposition is hell bent upon creating an anarchic feeling in the country at any cost. This situation cannot be allowed to continue and a proper solution will have to be found out. Meanwhile, a strict action is called for against LoP Mr. Rahul Gandhi for his personal behaviour during the scuffle.