BJP willing to sacrifice Parliament for Gujarat polls betrays Modi's misplaced priorities
Though murmurs of the Modi government possibly postponing, or even perhaps cancelling, the winter session of Parliament on account of high-voltage, high-stakes Gujarat election campaign were heard as early as last week, more and more reports from leading dailies are now pointing towards what's obvious as daylight to many. Campaigning and winning elections are more important to the NDA government led by Narendra Modi and his ruling party, the BJP, than conducting Parliament, the highest legislative body in the country.
Govt many shorten or scrap Parliament’s Winter Session due to Gujarat campaign, sources tell my colleague Sunil Prabhu. Breaking now
— Nidhi Razdan (@Nidhi) November 2, 2017
On November 2, NDTV reported that the "government was keen on very short - or no - winter session of Parliament", saying that sources told the channel that the BJP leaders were wary about facing Opposition in Parliament and most of the ministers in the cabinet, as well as many important MPs from both the ruling BJP and Opposition parties, such as Congress' Rahul Gandhi, were busy campaigning in state for the do-or-die Gujarat Assembly polls. Though Himachal Pradesh was mentioned in passing, it seemed Gujarat was the ultimate barometer of success for the government, and therefore postponing or cancelling the winter session of Parliament, which ideally starts from mid-November and lasts till mid-to-late December, seemed like a way out.
From rumours to reality
The NDTV report quoted TMC MP and Rajya Sabha member Derek O'Brien as saying: "I don't know why the government is so cagey about dates. It may be a good idea to make a Parliament calendar at the start of the year, so the dates become sacrosanct."
Similarly, The Indian Express report published yesterday, November 9, quoted a top source in the government, saying: "There will be a substantial delay in the winter session of Parliament. It does not seem like the session will start this month. There are indications that the session may actually start after the last day of campaigning in Gujarat, which is on December 12."
It will be a sad day for Indian democracy if the winter session of Parliament is postponed on account of Gujarat elections.
— Yashwant Sinha (@YashwantSinha) November 3, 2017
Parliament session put off till after Guj campaign ends? Elections above institutions? A dysfunctional parliament works even less! Crazy!????
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) November 9, 2017
Reports say winter session of Parliament delayed till Guj poll campaign ends 12 Dec. Is govt scared of facing parliament in Nov, as always?
— M K Venu (@mkvenu1) November 9, 2017
A report in Mint, also published yesterday, quoted a senior minister in the Union cabinet, saying: "A large section of parliamentarians, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ministers in the union government and many senior Congress leaders, would be busy in the election campaign in Gujarat which could adversely impact the winter session. Most of the 37 members of Parliament (MPs), 26 from Lok Sabha and 11 of Rajya Sabha, would also be involved in campaigning, so there is a view that should the government delay of postpone the winter session."
Breaking parliamentary tradition
While the logic offered by the government sources seems to be one of pragmatics, it flies in the face of protocol and established tradition, that Parliament must meet every six months, and that India has conducted three Parliament sessions - budget, monsoon and winter - to allow central debates and bipartisan, regional issues, grievances to be aired and discussed on an annual basis. That the highest legislative body must keep on working irrespective of state Assembly polls is a cornerstone of cooperative federalism.
While the monsoon session of Parliament ended on August 11 this year, the dates for the winter session remain unannounced, even though a two-week notice must be served to all the MPs to give them enough time to travel from their respective constituencies and arrive in Delhi to attend it. Since the government hasn't announced the dates for the session as yet, it's likely that there would be none until the fag end (at the earliest) of November, or early December, which would curtail the session, if it is held at all, to a shorter span of hurried debates.
Unless the session is cancelled altogether, the most likely scenario would be a mini winter session after the Gujarat elections held in two phases on December 9 and 14, making December 12 the last day of campaigning in the state. While the BJP leaders and the ministers are of the opinion that even the Congress leaders would prefer to spend the days campaigning instead of attending Parliament, given the importance and prestige of this tough-as-nail battle in Gujarat, the Opposition, justifiably, would take the Centre to the cleaners on this issue.
Flouting every rule for high-stake Gujarat
Even though India Today Axis-My India opinion poll said BJP has a clear edge in Gujarat, it also warned that Congress wouldn't go down easy, despite lagging behind vote-share. The home turf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah is now the biggest site of conflict as a galvanised Congress, under a spunkier and caustic Rahul Gandhi has managed to channelise the anger over demonetisation and GST, the two key central moves that crippled the textile industry in Surat, and caused havoc in the informal sector not just in the state but all across the country.
In addition, caste agitations led by Patidar leader Hardik Patel, Dalit mascot Jignesh Mevani and OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, have, like tributaries, joined hands with the Congress, and are either supporting Gandhi from outside, or within. While the saffron party's popularity is at an all-time low, it still has a massive hold on organisational structures and last-mile-booth connectivity, a testament to Amit Shah's decades of ground work in the state.
न खाऊंगा, न खाने दूंगा की कहानीशाह-जादा, शौर्य और अब विजय रूपाणी https://t.co/OGHtSurQ5K
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) November 9, 2017
Even the strategic lowering of GST rates of edibles such as khakra, namkeens and other items symbolic of Gujarat hasn't eased the anger against the Centre. Add to that the latest scandal involving chief minister Vijay Rupani, with SEBI penalising Rupani's HUF (Hindu Undivided Family) for manipulative trading, along with 21 others, though the Securities Appellate Tribunal has now set aside the order and marking SEBI to issue fresh ones.
मौसम का हाल: चुनाव से पहले गुजरात में आज होगी जुमलों की बारिशhttps://t.co/Fwj9UBf1cZ
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) October 16, 2017
In addition, sops worth Rs 11,000 crores were showered on Gujarat as the Election Commission delayed announcing the dates for the polls, on account of long-finished "flood relief" work, allowing the BJP in the Centre and the state to make fresh pitches for development.
Modi's condescension towards Parliament
That the BJP is flustered about Gujarat and would like to win it at any cost is only a superficial assessment of the situation in which postponing a session of Parliament, the highest legislative body of the country, is deemed okay in order to win an Assembly poll. This writer has, again and again, directed the readers' attention to the Modi-Shah duopoly's "electoral Darwinism".
Electoral Darwinism is a phenomenon, perfected by the ruling BJP, in which a permanent state of electioneering and brouhaha around consolidating power electorally through any means necessary - whether it's violence and polarisation, communal engineering and stealing of livelihoods from minority communities, bringing about economic diktats that fetch brilliant political dividends in the short-term at enormous economic and socio-political costs, shifting of goalposts and spending tax-payers' money to control the narrative and the image - trumps legislative and governance goals. In fact, governance is conflated with successful electioneering, even if governance itself is abysmal, as is painfully evident in the case of UP CM Yogi Adityanath.
In the last winter session, which started on November 16, 2016, eyebrows were raised initially when PM Modi failed to attend Parliament for six days, we wondered if Parliament were an app, would he attend it. This writer had then asserted that PM Modi displayed a strong condescension towards the collective decision-making process, Parliament, the Constitution, and indeed the entire legislative process, not just because he often failed to respect it by being an integral part of it, even when he did attend, he preferred to act as a showman and cast jibes, such as the raincoat jibe at former PM Manmohan Singh, or sermonise with little attention to the actual grievances of the ordinary Indian.
Instead of deliberating on the issues within Parliament, or holding consultative meetings in a transparent and democratic manner, PM Modi has a penchant for top-secret, off-limits methods of making decisions, as evidenced in the demonetisation diktat. He's used to issuing decrees, which confirm his position as the tallest leader of the land, and not as the first among equals, as the prime minister of a democratic republic happens to be constitutionally.
Moreover, Modi's "democracy by other means", his reliance on apps named after him and his "relentless march to his version of digital utopia, in which the non-smartphone user and the fundamental temple of democracy as our founding fathers envisioned it - Parliament, get the same treatment" - are as much to blame for this blasé take on the highest legislative body in the country. Parliament is simply dispensable in PM Modi's scheme of things, even though he is its most decorated member.