Every monsoon, Mumbai
(or for that matter, any other big city of India) gets washed away with first
major
Just yesterday, a
parliamentary delegation from Bhutan was in India to witness the workings of
Indian parliamentary democracy firsthand. Well, if ‘Disruption and Opposition
of the Incumbent Government’ was the chapter that they were here to learn, then
I am sure they’ll all go back as highly enlightened souls. True, parliament is
the prescribed venue for dissent, but here is my principal discomfort with the
way congress is going about it.
1) It doesn’t have the mandate.
No, not the mandate to govern,
that they obviously don’t have, but the mandate to oppose. They returned with historically
low seats in the last Lok Sabha elections, and officially they do not have the
numbers to be named as the opposition party in the house. So it should stop
giving itself that privilege. Yes, I called it right. It is indeed a privilege
given by the voters of the country to sit in the opposition and be a bulwark
against the ruling government’s excesses and misdemeanours. So forget ethical
or not, to that extent, what the congress is doing is downright illegitimate.
2) India doesn’t care
about Lalit Modi
Seriously, we don’t
care how he got his travel documents. Or who helped him. Whether it was on
human grounds or whether any rules were subverted in doing so. And how grave
were those rules. The only instance I would ever be tempted to give Lalit Modi a
serious thought would be when someone asks me who is a bigger national liability,
him or Rahul Gandhi? That would be the only instance I would bother to think
about him. What bothers me, and the nation, is economy. What bothers this nation is infrastructure,
potholes, railway safety, flood relief, power supply, basic medical facilities,
literacy, poverty, and many such issues which I don’t believe that Congress as
a party would be unaware of. That’s because, most of these issues are indeed its
own legacy. A legacy of its misgovernance.
Because if it really
mattered, the nation would take to the streets. Like it did during the congress’s
misrule and unprecedented corruption and rallied behind Anna Hazare. Or like it
did during the unfortunate Nirbhaya episode. Trust this nation to give you a
hint when we really feel for some issue. It will tell you when it wants you to
stall the parliament and bring the government to its knees.
3) The country is
suffering
Because of this absolutely
unwarranted disruption of parliament, a lot of important bills are left pending.
The GST bill for instance. I am no expert in economics, but a whole section of
economists and industrialists know the importance of this bill. On the issue of
the pending GST bill, and how the passing of which is in the interest of the
nation, this is what Adi Godrej had to say: “We hope that the GST will come in
by April 1, 2016. India can have five years of double digit growth if the GST is
introduced”. (Read the article ‘India
Inc. signs petition urging congress leaders to let parliament function’ for
more details: