Are they parliamentarians, or do they just play ones on TV? After
pushing through proposals on foreign investment in the retail and the
aviation sector late last year, India's elected representatives
apparently have decided to get as little done as possible during the
current session.
On television, it's another matter. Newsroom studios appear to be the
preferred forum for debating problems and legislation that normally
would be the province of parliament. Those include recent demands by
the coalition government's prime opponent, the Bharatiya Janata Party,
for the resignations of the prime minister, law minister and the
railway minister over accusations that the government interfered with
an investigation of improper allocation of coal mine licenses and
certain other bribery allegations.
The Lok Sabha, or "people's house," has repeatedly adjourned in recent
days, likely making it one of the least productive in its history.
That's bad if you want to pass bills, but it does help clear
politicians' schedules for the nightly news discussion programs. And
that is not a bad thing, depending on whom you ask.
"The effort is to inform the public," said BJP spokeswoman Nirmala
Sitharaman. "We don't think even for a minute we'll accept this charge
that we are disrupting parliament … This government wants to have a
debating club run without any accountability".
Here's a sample of what substitutes exist for debate in the Lok Sabha
(May 6, prime time shows):
Times Now
Show Header - Food Bill vs Railgate, Populism vs Controversy? Speaker
of the House (i.e. the anchor) - Arnab Goswami; Participants –
Bhalchandra Mungekar, Congress MP; Piyush Goyal, BJP MP; Subramanian
Swamy, Janata Party Chief
Headlines Today
Show Header – Dr. Dolittle Should Go? Speaker of the House – Rahul
Kanwal; Participants – Meenakshi Lekhi, national spokeswoman, BJP;
Mani Shankar Iyer, Congress MP; Subramanian Swamy
CNN-IBN
Show Header - Ministers embarrass government; Speaker of the house –
Rajdeep Sardesai; Participants – Satyavrat Chaturvedi, Congress MP;
Nirmala Sitharaman, national spokeswoman, BJP
This kind of ersatz public debate taking place on the airwaves is not
funny, but "tragic," said political analyst Amulya Ganguli. "This is
part of the cynical attitude which marks Indian politicians of all
parties."
Rajdeep Sardesai, anchor and editor of CNN-IBN's prime-time show,
disagreed, as you might expect. "I think a prime time news show is
different from parliament … a prime time news show gives the MPs a
platform to represent their viewpoint in a manner that parliament
sadly no longer allows them."
There are various reasons that the BJP or other opposition parties
might have to disrupt parliament. Experts say that they lack the
numbers to defeat the Congress party-led ruling coalition by sheer
votes, leaving them to resort to technical tactics – or general chaos.
That in theory allows for back-room negotiations that could produce
more orderly votes that go in the direction that some parties want.
The current budget session of parliament ends on May 10.
The trouble? It endangers the passage of bills that are important for
the economy at a time when a high current account deficit, inflation
fears and a poor debt ratings outlook threaten the country. Various
bills such as the land acquisition bill, food security bill and the
ones which propose to increase foreign investment in pension and
insurance sectors are stuck in parliament.
In the end, TV debates amount to publicity stunts, said D H Pai
Panandiker, head of the RPG Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank.
"Things are going to go on like this … I am not expecting much to come
out even of the monsoon session."
reuters
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