Chaos in Parliament a sign of India’s strong democracy

News: There is an increase in the cases of disruptions in the house.

About disruptions in Parliament 

Disruptions usually occurred when the opposition is against a government policy or a national issue. The amount of time lost due to disruptions in Parliament had steadily risen from 5% of working time in the truncated 11th Lok Sabha (1996-97) to 39% in the 15th LS (2009-14).

In 2010, the entire winter session was lost due to the uproar over the 2G scam. In 2011, 30% of the time was lost due to disruptions. 2016 was the least productive of the 16th Lok Sabha, when the opposition united against the government’s decision of demonetization. 73% of the time was lost during that period.

Previous cases of disruptions in the past

Disruptions have a long history in the Indian Parliament. Soon after the first Lok Sabha convened in 1952, an amendment to the contentious Preventive Detention Bill was brought about, which led to chaos in the house. In the words of veteran journalist BG Verghese, it was an incident of “an unprecedented hullabaloo.”

Another incident of disruption is from 3rd Lok Sabha in 1963 when Official Languages Bill was introduced, there were strong protests by some Opposition members, which this newspaper described as the first time that such “disorderly scenes” were witnessed in the house.

Many instances of disruptions have occurred after that and a similar trend follows to today date.

How has the trend changed over the years?

From the fourth Lok Sabha, the culture of parliamentary politics changed, and it was politics with the “masks and gloves off”.

The floor of the Lok Sabha was not the only site of protests. Members wanted permission to hold protests and even hunger strikes in the premises of parliament. For eg, The Communist MP AK Gopalan in 1964 held a one-day hunger strike in the lobby of Parliament to protest food shortage in his home state of Kerala. In 1966, Rameshwaranand led a mob protesting cow slaughter towards Parliament in an attempt to storm the complex.

What are the reasons behind the increase of disruption in the Parliament?

What should be the way forward?

Frequent disruptions reflect the nature of Indian democracy as being dysfunctional. Thus, there is a need to strengthen the working of the Indian parliament.

Source: This post is based on the article “Chaos in Parliament a sign of India’s strong democracy” published in Times of India on 26th November 2021.