The Big Story: Broken record

It seems likely now, as we move into the last few days of the second half of Parliament’s Budget session, that it will be a washout. The only business transacted in either house of Parliament has been the passage of the Budget itself, that too with no discussion and amid the din. Beyond that, Parliament has fallen into a far-too-familiar routine, in which members go through the motions of turning up even though it seems evident to just about everyone involved that no actual work is going to take place. This will by no means be the first session that goes wasted because of disruptions, but there is one particularly unusual and troubling aspect this time around.

The speaker of the Lok Sabha has received notice of a motion of no-confidence. This is an instrument that is meant to test whether the government of the day has the support of the people, through their elected representatives. If Parliament were functioning as it is meant to, the Speaker would need to see at least 50 MPs supporting the no-confidence motion, after which a debate would be had followed by voting. If a government fails to get a majority in such a motion, it has no choice but to step down. In the normal course of events, it would be Parliament’s top priority to take up the motion.

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Yet ever since these motions were moved, Parliament has not functioned. Initially a host of parties were opposed to normal functioning, but now the rucks seems confined to just the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which is demanding the constitution of the Cauvery Management Board. The Speaker has in the past suspended members who have not allowed the house to function, yet in this case has been content to simply adjourn the house after insisting that there is not enough order for those supporting the no-confidence motion to be counted. Last week, members of the Opposition even brought in printed placards to prove to the Speaker that they had the numbers for the motion to go forward, but the house was still adjourned.

The AIADMK may be responsible for the constant disruption, but the government seems happy to let the Tamil party continue. Most administrations would usually not want the cloud of a no-confidence motion hanging over them, and instead ask for it to be resolved right away. In the case of the Bharatiya Janata Party, this is even more the case since the party has sufficient numbers to cross majority by themselves.

Yet, the BJP, though it claims to be prepared for a debate, has shown no inclination in resolving the deadlock and has even been accused by the Congress of “match-fixing” with the AIADMK. The Congress claims this is the first time no senior ruling party leader has approached the Opposition to discuss a way forward. In effect, it seems likely that the BJP would rather not have to face the thorny debates that a no-confidence motion would throw up. The party MPs have claimed they will forego their salaries for the 24 days during which no business was conducted. But they have yet to figure out a solution to the problem.

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Not taking up the no-confidence motion would be a travesty. The AIADMK is to be blamed for constantly holding up Parliament, when in fact, it could easily make the same point by discussing the Cauvery issue. But the BJP, with its clear preference for a washout, is also culpable. The episode would be a troubling precedent if it ends up this way, with a no-confidence motion that just ends up hanging fire. Parliament has a few more days to resolve this, with the Opposition has even said they would consent to an extension of the session to debate this. The ruling party, the Opposition and the Speaker must do what is necessary to ensure that the test of the government’s right to lead India actually goes ahead.

The Big Scroll:

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Punditry

  1. “The inability of Parliament to function and to test the support for the government undermines the very basis of our democratic structure,” writes MR Madhavan in the Hindu. “The Speaker has the responsibility of ensuring that the House functions and taking whatever steps are necessary – including suspension of members, if needed – to ensure order and check whether there is requisite support to admit the debate on the no-confidence motion.”
  2. “Unfortunately, the poison of the Hindu supremacist idea has spread so wide and so deep in our political life that Sonia Gandhi blames the BJP for blackening the face of the Congress as ‘pro-Muslim’. All that Sonia Gandhi needed to say was that the Congress is pro-India, and not just pro-Muslim,” writes Shamsur Rahman Faruqi in the Indian Express.
  3. “Governments and supreme courts all over the world will have to rethink their stand in order to secure citizens’ privacy and control over their data, and the meaning of such words as ‘property’ and ‘consent’ in relation to personal-data sharing. The drive to accumulate data alone cannot dictate the public debate on privacy,” says a leader in Mint.

Don’t miss

Vinita Govindarajan reports on how activists have evidence showing that Vedanta got clearance for Tamil Nadu copper smelter by misrepresenting its location.

“Since February, large-scale protests have been taking place in Tuticorin, the town in southern Tamil Nadu where Sterlite Copper, a unit of Vedanta Limited, runs a copper smelter with the capacity to produce 4,38,000 tonnes of copper anodes per annum, or 1,200 tonnes per day. Vedanta Limited is part of Vedanta Resources, one of the world’s largest mining and metals conglomerates. The smelter has been operational since 1996. The company wants to double the capacity by setting up another unit producing 4,38,000 tonnes per annum.

If the expansion does take place, the project would become the world’s largest smelter located in a densely populated urban area. Tuticorin has a population of 4.11 lakh, according to the 2011 census. Copper smelters are classified as ‘red’ by the environment ministry, indicating that they release the highest level of hazardous industrial waste.

The townspeople are resisting the project. ‘The fumes from the existing copper plant are already ruining our health,’ said Rajkumar, a Tuticorin resident. ‘The expansion of this industry will kill us.’

But it is not just the protests that have cast a shadow over the project. An environmental non-profit, the Chennai Solidarity Group, has released documents that call into question the basis on which the company was granted an environmental clearance for the expansion.”