In common parlance the Rajya sabha is referred to as 'house of elders' too and hence the common man expects the maturity of 'elders' to be shown by its members in general and by the presiding officer in particular . It is very unfortunate that both have failed him recently as witnessed in the house during the discussion on the so called 'agricultural bills'. While I do not want to go to the contents of the bills and it's merits and de merits i strongly believe it's deputy chairman should have been more accommodative in concluding the discussion of the bill and should have shown more parliamentary diplomacy by deferring the passing of the bill to the next day as the scheduled time of the house was over and extension of time needed the concurrence of all parties as per rule book. Instead of doing this he chose to unilaterally decide on passing of bills with voice vote without permitting the division demanded by opposition. I wonder whether the was afraid the bill might not have been passed if put to vote given the party position in the house!.
On the part of the members, they also should have exhibited more maturity and should not have indulged in tearing the bill , throwing the rule book to the presiding officer, destroying the mike etc. There are other ways to show their objection including a walk out or boycott of the proceedings which would have definitely earned them better goodwill in the minds of the common man.
Now since the unfortunate things have already happened, the vice president who is the chairman of the house should take a practical and impartial view of the entire thing and ensure an amicable solution to the present deadlock as the opposition has declared a boycott of the remaining days of the session . Hope better sense will prevail on everybody to uphold the prestige of the house.
No comments:
Post a Comment