Rajat Sharma, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of India TV.
Parliament Till Wednesday, 143 members have been suspended. Never in the parliamentary history of India have such a large number of MPs been thrown out of the House. Opposition parties called it a proof of the government’s dictatorship, but meanwhile, MPs from Mamata Banerjee’s party. Kalyan Banerjee and Rahul Gandhi did such a feat that they left the issue of suspension behind. On Tuesday, Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee, standing among other suspended MPs in the Parliament complex, mimicked Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar and mocked the Vice President. Opposition MPs laughed at Kalyan Banerjee’s mimicry and standing in front, Rahul Gandhi made a video of it on his phone. This video was uploaded on social media from the Twitter handle of Congress. BJP advised the opposition leaders to respect the dignity of constitutional posts. Jat Association termed the insult of Jagdeep Dhankhar as an insult to the entire Jat community. There was a demand from the government for action against Kalyan Banerjee and Rahul Gandhi. Congress came on defensive. Rahul Gandhi’s foolishness ruined the opposition’s strategy and gave the government a chance to be aggressive. There is no doubt that what Kalyan Banerjee did is not right from any point of view – from the point of view of constitutional decorum, according to the rules of Parliament, from the point of view of the dignity of constitutional posts, and from the point of view of political decorum. Kalyan Banerjee’s actions cannot be justified in any way. Rahul Gandhi considers himself the greatest leader. Does Rahul not know about the dignity of the post of Chairman or Speaker?
Rahul Gandhi should have stopped Kalyan Banerjee from mimicking. But instead of stopping, he made a video. This is proof of Rahul’s ignorance. They do not know what they are doing, and what will be the effect of what they are doing. The opposition suffered the biggest loss due to this action of Kalyan Banerjee and Rahul Gandhi. Opposition parties were making the suspension of a large number of MPs an issue, accusing the government of dictatorship, people’s sympathy was also with the opposition, but now this action has ruined everything. Now the issue of suspension of MPs has been left behind, now BJP leaders are demanding that Kalyan Banerjee and Rahul Gandhi will have to apologize to Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar under any circumstances. At the same time, I feel that suspending 143 MPs from Parliament, suspending such a large number of MPs is unfortunate. But both the government and the opposition are equally responsible for this. Opposition MPs deliberately came to Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha carrying placards and raising slogans so that they could be suspended and they could go out and allege that the government had made the Parliament devoid of opposition, completely silenced the voice of the opposition in the Parliament. New bills have been introduced in the Parliament replacing old laws like IPC, CrPC, Indian Evidence Act, if such bills are passed without the discussion and cooperation of the opposition, then it is not a good sign for democracy. It would have been better if the opposition had shown some restraint, participated in the discussion, and the government had also shown some big heart, if the Home Minister had given a statement about the investigation into the breach in the security of Parliament, whatever he said outside the Parliament, he would have said the same in the House. Maybe a way would have been found. But both sides are adamant and the common people are being harmed due to this. What is happening to the parliamentary system, what is happening to our parliamentary traditions, is not good.
INDIA alliance: search for leader
The major impact of the suspension of MPs was also visible in the meeting of INDIA Alliance of opposition parties. This issue was discussed first. A condemnation motion was passed in the anti-Modi front meeting on the suspension of MPs. It was said in the resolution that we will protest with full force against the government’s attitude against the opposition parties and will raise their voice together. The proposal was passed but no decision was taken on the questions for which the meeting was called to find answers, nor was any resolution passed. Leaders of 28 parties were present in the meeting but the same things which the leaders had said in the first meeting held in Patna, were said after the fourth meeting. Only one incident occurred. Mamata Banerjee made a move that put Congress in tension. Mamta proposed in the meeting that opposition parties should project Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge for the post of Prime Minister against Modi. After listening to Mamata, leaders like Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Nitish Kumar, Lalu Yadav, Sitaram Yechury and Akhilesh Yadav were shocked. Leaders like Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray remained sitting silently. Kharge handled the situation. Kharge said that if there are MPs, then PM will be made, so first gather MPs, after that we will talk about who will be the PM. Kharge said that who will be the leader of the alliance and who will be the Prime Minister will be decided after the election results. When the leaders of the opposition parties came out after the three-hour meeting, most of the leaders refused to speak about what happened inside. Now the question is that the solution to win over MPs will happen only when the seat sharing formula is decided. It has been learned that Mamata spoke openly in this matter also. In the meeting, Mamta clearly said that it is already too late, there should not be any more delay, the decision on seat sharing should be taken by the end of December or the first week of January, because now there is not much time for the elections. Most parties agreed to this. Congress had an idea that this issue would be discussed, so even before the start of the meeting, Congress announced the formation of a coalition coordination committee. There are a total of five people in it including Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel and Mukul Wasnik.
Then it was decided in the meeting that the parties involved in the alliance will form their own committees, the committee leaders will discuss and decide on seat sharing, if there is any problem then the big leaders of the parties will come together and find a way and seat sharing will be done by the end of January. . Neither decision was taken on the PM’s face, nor was there any distribution of seats, nor was any formula arrived at. So what happened in the three-hour meeting? Kharge also answered this. Kharge said that soon all the leaders of the alliance will be seen on one platform, there will be at least eight big joint public meetings in which leaders of all the parties included in the alliance will participate. It is true that Lalu Yadav, Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav were the first to leave the meeting, they did not talk to anyone. From this it was understood that all these leaders were angry with Mamata’s proposal. The original idea of making Mallikarjun Kharge the Prime Ministerial candidate was Kejriwal’s. Kejriwal spoke to Mamata Banerjee and asked her to present this name. Both Kejriwal and Mamata feel that if Rahul Gandhi is projected as the leader of the alliance, it will be a loss and BJP will take advantage of it. But if Kharge is projected, then the face of a Dalit and experienced leader will be in front, which will be difficult for BJP to counter. But Congress buried this idea even before it was born. Locking Rahul’s candidature even before the elections does not suit Congress. Therefore, Congress did not allow any decision on who would be the face for the post of Prime Minister. Lalu’s problem is different. He wants Nitish Kumar to become the leader in the alliance, leave Patna and come to Delhi, so that the post of Chief Minister becomes vacant for Tejashwi. But after four meetings, Lalu could not get anything done. Overall, nothing special happened on Tuesday. Most of the things that happened in the first meeting in Patna were the same. I had said a day earlier that the issue of suspension of MPs would derail the meeting of the anti-Modi front. Most of the discussion in the meeting was about suspension and Modi’s dictatorship. Neither a decision on the leader could be taken, nor any formula for seat sharing could be arrived at. It was just said that we will fight together against Modi, we will campaign together to defeat Modi. But they have no idea in which direction Modi has moved forward. (Rajat Sharma)
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