Veering to conclusion Parliament ‘dysfunctional’; democracy ‘gasping for breath’: Chidambaram

Veering to conclusion Parliament ‘dysfunctional’; democracy ‘gasping for breath’: Chidambaram

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday said he was veering to the conclusion that Parliament has become “dysfunctional” and alleged that democracy is “gasping for breath” in India with almost all institutions tamed, emasculated or captured.
He also said Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu “failed” to protect Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge last week from being summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) when the House was in session.

In an interview with PTI, Chidambaram also dismissed Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks linking the Congress’ demonstration against price rise on Friday to the Ram temple foundation day, saying the anniversary of the ‘Shilanyas’ was “far from our mind” when the date for the protest was fixed.
It was fixed taking into account that all the MPs will be in Delhi on Friday because the voting for the vice presidential poll was on Saturday, he said, adding that one can always twist logic to blame someone.
“Moreover, it was on August 5, 2019 that the illegal dismembering of Jammu and Kashmir took place! Let’s leave these aside when discussing a serious issue,” Chidambaram said.
Shah had linked Congress leaders’ protest in black clothes over the issues of price rise, unemployment and GST hike to what he said was the party’s “appeasement” politics to convey its opposition to the Ram temple foundation stone laying by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 5 in 2020.

Chidambaram also rejected BJP leaders’ charge that the Congress’ protest on August 5 was an attempt to save the party’s top leadership that is facing questioning by the ED in the National Herald case.
“We had announced and made it clear that the protests on August 5 were exclusively on inflation, unemployment and Agnipath. If people pretend to be deaf and blind to the announcement, what can we do?” he said.
The leaders summoned in the National Herald case are strong enough to defend themselves and they also have the full support of the rank and file of the party, Chidambaram asserted.
Asked about Kharge’s summoning by the ED during the working hours of Parliament last Thursday, he said it was a “sad day” for Rajya Sabha when the Chairman “failed to protect” the Leader of the Opposition from being summoned when the House was in session.

“Contrast the support extended by the US government to Ms Nancy Pelosi, Speaker US House of Representatives, on her visit to Taiwan. The Executive branch respected the authority and autonomy of the Legislative branch. The US government sent its aircraft carrier to the seas off Taiwan and also kept air support ready,” he pointed out.
In our country, the Executive branch summoned the Leader of the Opposition when Rajya Sabha was in session and one of the two heads of the Legislative branch “pleaded helplessness”, he said, adding that it was a “sad day”.
On ED probes against several Opposition leaders, Chidambaram refused to comment on any particular case but asserted that it was increasingly and abundantly clear that the powers of investigation and the laws were directed only at members of the Opposition.
“Institutions have been tamed or emasculated or captured. Democracy is gasping for breath. We may have the shell of democracy, but inside, the shell has been hollowed out. This applies to almost all institutions, which is what Shri Rahul Gandhi alluded to in his reply (at the press conference Friday),” he said.

With Parliament unable to transact much business during the Monsoon session due to frequent adjournments amid Opposition protests over a host of issues including price rise, Chidambaram said he is “veering to the painful conclusion that Parliament has become dysfunctional”.
He asserted that the single big reason for this was that the treasury benches had “no interest” in dialogue, discussion and debate.
“Let me ask, what calamity would have befallen if the government had agreed to a debate under Rule 267 on price rise on the first day? The debate would have been concluded in one day. Instead, we wasted two weeks,” he said Chidambaram also hit out at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for her reply to the debate on price rise in Parliament in which she had said that India does not face any risk of either recession or stagflation as its macroeconomic fundamentals are “perfect”.
No one from the Opposition hinted at an impending recession or stagflation and these were set up by the government like “straw men” so that the government can shoot them down, he said.

“Our concerns were rising prices and rampant unemployment. The twin factors have placed an unbearable burden on the poor and the middle class. The finance minister was obliged to spell out the steps that the government intended to take to moderate prices and to create jobs. The FM did not,” he said.
Chidambaram also criticised Sitharaman’s comparisons with other countries, saying they were “odious”.
“The burden of inflation is always relative to income and savings. If a country like the US has high inflation, please remember that Americans also have a high per capita income and high savings. In a country like India with a low per capita income (less than USD 2,000) and low savings, high inflation places an intolerable burden on the people,” he said.
Chidambaram said he was surprised that Sitharaman did not notice the vital difference between a country like the US and India.

“To give a banal example, if an Indian patient has 101 degrees fever, what is the satisfaction in saying that the American patient has 103 degrees fever? Both are very sick,” he said.
Opposition members in Parliament blamed the BJP-led central government’s policies for the price rise and accused it of ignoring the plight of common people.
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Who wants a tough leader?

Who wants a tough leader?

There is an American colloquialism that reads ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’.
I have always wondered what is ‘tough’. The word has different meanings in different contexts. ‘Tough’ can mean determination; ability to endure hardship; difficult (as in a tough game); or obstinate (as in a tough nut). Tough can also mean a bully or a rough and violent person.
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From Liberator to Tough
Usually, a democratically elected leader, loath to step down after long years in power, becomes ‘tough’. Hitler was before I was born. Growing up, I was dismayed to see Jawaharlal Nehru’s close friends turn from liberators into ‘tough’ leaders: Kwame Nkrumah, Josip Broz Tito, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Sukarno. Each one led the liberation struggle in his country, was elected by a popular vote, was admired by the people, but finally became ‘tough’ and buried democracy and his own legacy.
Jawaharlal Nehru was the sole exception among the five signatories of Panchsheel. Every election under his Prime Ministership — 1952, 1957 and 1962 — was a truly democratic election. His election speeches were lessons in democracy. The vast majority of the gathering did not understand English but sensed that he was talking about democracy, secularism, the difficult task of building a nation, eradicating poverty, the role of government and so on. Nehru was a loved leader, he never became ‘tough’.

The present world is full of tough leaders. None of them, if a free and fair election were held today, would be elected. Prominent tough leaders are Mr Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Mr Recep Erdogan of Turkey, Mr Abdul al-Sisi of Egypt, Mr Viktor Orban of Hungary, Mr Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Mr Kim Jong-un of North Korea, and dozens of others who are not known outside their country or their continent.
Mr Vladimir Putin is in a class of his own. So is Mr Xi Jinping. Both are ‘tough’ leaders who plan to rule as long as they live. As I write, the tough Russian leader is raining rockets and bombs on a helpless Ukraine. According to one count, there are 52 countries whose governments can be described as dictatorships.
Mr Modi Prefers ‘Tough’
In the election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, Mr Narendra Modi spoke approvingly of the need to elect ‘tough’ leaders. At a rally in Bahraich, Mr Modi said “when turmoil is prevailing in the world, India needs to be stronger and for difficult times, a tough leader is needed (The Economic Times, February 23, 2022)”. Incidentally, Bahraich is one of three districts in UP where, according to NITI Aayog, the poverty ratio is over 70 per cent.

Mr Modi clearly wanted the BJP’s leader in UP, Mr Adityanath, to be re-elected presumably because
Mr Adityanath is a ‘tough’ leader needed in these ‘difficult’ times. Mr Adityanath believes in enforcing law and order and brooks no opposition. ‘Encounters’ have official sanction. A criminal need not be brought before a court of law and punished, he can be shot down in an ‘encounter’. According to a report in The Indian Express (July 13, 2021), between March 2017 and June 2021, 139 criminals were killed in police encounters and 3,196 injured.
A favourite word of Mr Adityanath is ‘bulldozer’. On February 27, 2022, while addressing a rally at Karka Bazar in Sultanpur district, Mr Adityanath said, “we have developed this machine that builds express highways and also tackles the mafias and criminals. When I was coming here, I saw four bulldozers. I think there are five assemblies, we will send one to each, then everything will be fine” (India Today). In UP, to use bulldozers to raze buildings or vacate occupants (allegedly illegal), no court orders and no legal processes are necessary.
Mr Adityanath is so tough that
Mr Siddique Kappan, a journalist from Kerala covering the Hathras case of rape and murder, has been kept in jail since October 5, 2020. According to The Wire, since Mr Adityanath became chief minister, a total of 12 journalists have been killed, 48 physically assaulted and 66 booked for various charges or arrested. The tough chief minister persuaded his party not to give a ticket to a Muslim in any of the 403 constituencies, although Muslims constitute 20 per cent of the state’s population.
Under the tough leader, UP is poor, the people have become poorer and 40 per cent has been added in five years to the state’s debt, that stands at a humongous sum of Rs 6,62,891 crore.

Gentle and Wise
I think gentle leaders are the best. They are wise, speak softly, listen to the people, respect institutions and the law, celebrate diversity, work for harmony among the people and leave office quietly. They make the people’s lives better. They provide jobs, better education and healthcare. They are against war and address the challenges of climate change. There have been — and are — such leaders in the world. The incomparable Nelson Mandela was one. Other examples are former Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister Jacinda Adern of New Zealand, Prime Minister Mark Rutte of Netherlands and a few others.
I don’t know what kind of leader UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa will elect. If I had a vote in any of those states, I would vote for a gentle and wise leader.

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