The commencement of the functioning of Parliament of India on 13th May 1952 was not only historic but also an unprecedented event in history. Never ever any country as vast and diverse as India and with widespread illiteracy and mass poverty attempted to introduce democracy. The fact that Indians consciously did so proved the point that we always were in favour of shaping our destiny by employing democratic means. In fact one of the demands put forth by our leadership before British authorities during freedom struggle was introduction of more representative institutions. Even a scholar saint like Swami Vivekananda in one of his speeches in 1898, compiled in the famous book Lectures from Colombo to Almora, referred to the need for more legislative institutions for India to change its society. The distinguished leaders from all fields were unanimous in their opinion that India could be governed, and more importantly, its society could be changed along progressive lines, only by making use of democratic methods.
If today we are proud of the fact that we have survived as a parliamentary democracy without sacrificing the rights and liberties of our people, it is due to our struggle to set up parliamentary institutions which date back to 19th century. And finally we have marched ahead as a democracy primarily because of the strength and support of ordinary people of this great country.
By embracing parliamentary democracy we have avoided violent methods for social change. The then Chairman of Rajya Sabha Shri K.R.Narayanan described Parliament “As a mighty substitute for a bloody and violent revolution”. Truly an extraordinary statement to explain the deep significance of Parliament for our society and body polity! Take away Parliament and we have a bloody and violent society. So by preserving parliamentary democracy we preserve the peaceful methods of social change.
In fact the Parliament of our country evolved through our freedom struggle. If we look at the origin of Parliament in Britain we come to know that it was created to give approval to the military expenditure of the King of that time. This means that the British Parliament had an unenviable history of sanctioning the war expenses of the British monarch. Slowly it emerged to become the true representative of people. While reaching the present stature it committed many errors. In fact blunders were committed by it. It was Mahatma Gandhi who while speaking in a meeting in Gujrat in 1917 said that the “History of Commons is a history of blunders”.
But look at the history of our Parliament. It embodied the vision of our leadership to peacefully transform our country which was plundered by colonial rule and which suffered irreparably due to what Dr. B.R.Ambedkar called “the graded social inequality”. It is a by-product of the vision of our leaders who sacrificed for our freedom and who are continuing their struggle for social equality. It combines the vision of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr. B.R.Ambedkar. In fact it was Mr. K.R.Narayanan as the President of India who brilliantly combined the vision of these great personalities of modern India and explained the meaning and significance of our freedom struggle. He said that if Mahatma Gandhi gave our freedom movement a moral and mass dimension, Jawaharlal Nehru gave it a economic and socialist dimension and Dr. B.R.Ambedkar gave it a challenging social and democratic vision.
On the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of our Parliament let us ask ourselves whether the challenging social and democratic vision which Baba Saheb Ambedkar gave to freedom struggle has been fulfilled or not. The mass and moral dimension given by Mahatma Gandhi brought the ordinary citizens particularly women to the fold of freedom movement. The economic and socialist dimension of Nehru modernised India. But what about the social democracy which Ambedkar talked about? Even the moral dimension of Gandhi has been tarnished by decline of values and mounting scandals and corruption cases. When we adopted our Constitution Ambedkar had stated that India with its new Constitution recognised one man one vote. But putting the larger question, he added that we have to realise that there is one man and one value. Sadly in spite of law and Constitution and even after sixty years of Parliament we have not come to a stage when one value is there for each human being.
That is why there is a need to follow Ambedkar who had prescribed the methods of education, agitation and organisation. In fact what he prescribed was the constitutional and Parliamentary method. On the sixtieth anniversary of our Parliament it is important to uphold parliamentary and constitutional method.
13th May 1952 our Parliament started functioning. During sixty years of its work we have deepened the roots of democracy. There is another 13th day of December 1946 which is extremely significant for our Parliament. While celebrating sixtieth anniversary of our Parliament on 13th May we need to be mindful of the 13th December. On 13th December 2001 the Parliament was attacked by terrorists. The attack began on the Rajya Sabha side. It is important to know the significance of 13th December. It was on 13th December 1946 that the real work of the Constituent Assembly began when the Objectives Resolution was introduced to set the objectives for the Assembly. It was on the anniversary of the introduction of Objectives Resolution that we became the victims of the terrorist attack. The nation was educated about the significance of 13th December for our Constitution and Parliament by late President of India Shri K.R.Narayanan when he addressed the nation on the eve of the Republic Day on 25th January 2002.
One of the major factors behind the resounding success of parliamentary democracy in India is consolidation of left and democratic forces. These forces have always stressed on certain ideology based on common humanity cutting across faiths, castes and regions of our country. It was through the left parties that India got the vital lessons of managing a coalition politics and Government. Today when India has decisively entered the era of coalition politics and Government we need to recall that culture which was shaped and enriched by left parties.
Yet again I refer to President K.R.Narayanan who had uncanny understanding of the Indian political situation. He while addressing the Kerala Assembly outlined the role played by Shri Achutya Menon of Communist Party of India and who headed the coalition Government. He quoted Mr. Menon who expounded the reasons behind the success of the coalition Government. According to Mr. Menon a coalition Government could be successful if there was a Common Programme before the Government, a Code of Conduct for the Ministers of the Government and above all the allocation of the portfolios for the Ministers to be done by the Chief Minister in consultation with the leaders of the coalition Government. How true and valid are his articulations for the twenty first century India which is passing through the coalition era!
It is the legacy of the left and democratic forces which need to be strengthened for making democracy more meaningful for the lives of our people. It is necessary for the defence of secularism, economic upliftment of ordinary citizens and above all for deepening parliamentary democracy. Some years back when a leader from Pakistan visited India he was interviewed by some of our correspondents. They asked him a question to ascertain if repeated military intervention in public life of Pakistan could be due to absence of left parties in that country. The concerned leader said in so many words that absence of left parties in Pakistan weakened democracy in that country. So in our neighbourhood people are acknowledging that deficit of left politics is one of the reasons behind the repeated failure of democracy in those countries. It is in this context that we must realise the value and significance of left and democratic culture in this country. The existence of left parties are woven around certain basic values and ideologies which are much more important than offices and positions in the Government set up. If these values and ideologies would decline then the edifice of parliamentary democracy would collapse.
In fact the moral dimension which Mahatma Gandhi gave to our freedom struggle has considerably weakened. This spells danger to our system. In the absence of these values we are certain to face a bleak future. People are restless. They are yearning for high standards and conduct from leaders of parliamentary democracy. We have to set the standards before people. The phenomenon of naxal violence is a by product of decline of values and crisis in standard of behaviour. Long years back, I think in 1970, Mr. N.C.Chatterjee while speaking in the other House and giving an explanation about the reasons behind naxal violence had stated that widespread practice of untouchability triggered naxal violence.
The social evil of untouchability has been compounded by gathering crisis of economic deprivation and exclusion. The exploitation of people and the violent appropriation of the resources of tribals have alienated them and forced them to choose the path of violence. It is a huge challenge before parliamentary democracy to win them and generate a sensation among them that they are the equal participants in the architecture of parliamentary democracy. If we cannot do this then the words of Dr.Ambedkar that parliamentary democracy without social and economic democracy is like a palace built on the foundation of cow dung. Cow dung might be sacred for some. But it cannot provide firm foundation to the edifice of democracy if we lose sight of social and economic rights of people.
If we examine the contents of the speeches delivered in the first sitting of Rajya Sabha in 1952 we realise that the issues raised by the Members of this House sixty years back are being debated now across the world. Can any body imagine that a Member of the Rajya Sabha Mr. Krishnamoorthy Rao raised the issue of environmental degradation, change of course of rivers, deforestation, loss of top soil of earth and above all harmful consequences of excessive industrialisation on nature? Can any body imagine that another Member of the House raised the issue of climate change which he said occurred in the Southern India and it was so permanent in nature that he wanted Planning Commission to take measures to remedy the situation. The issue of water scarcity was raised by yet another Member.
All those issues which were raised in 1952 have become global issues. This is where we realise the significance of Rajya Sabha as a deliberative Chamber of Indian Parliament. It is unfortunate that the House is not meeting for enough number of days. It is unfortunate that so many sittings are being lost due to disorder and pandemonium. We need to reflect on this. Let us resolve to make Parliamentary democracy more sound and vibrant.
One of the methods to make parliamentary democracy more strong and vibrant is to ensure greater representation of women in politics and public life. When Dr. Ambedkar drafted the Hindu Code Bill he wanted to empower women. That Bill could not be enacted due to resistance from rightist forces of the time. Nehru had written in so many words that even though majority of the parliamentarians wanted to pass it, they were helpless before a small number of MPs who opposed it. Eventually the Hindu Code Bill was broken into small pieces of legislation and most of those broken pieces were first introduced in the Rajya Sabha. It was done so due to the permanent nature of the House. Again in 2010 the Constitution (One hundredth eighth amendment) Bill for political empowerment was introduced in the Rajya sabha and passed by the House. On the sixtieth anniversary of the Parliament let us take forward the cause of democracy by ensuring gender equality. It is hoped that the new bench marks would be created to show the excellence of parliamentary democracy for our country and people.
# The author was OSD and Press Secretary to the late President of India Shri K.R.Narayanan and served as Director in the Prime Minister's Office. He is currently Joint Secretary in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat. The views expressed by the author are his personal views.
