Don't disrupt parliament, says Mehta

Disruption of parliament is a safeguard against dictatorship but it is being used indiscriminately, political thinker Bhanu Pratap Mehta said Wednesday.

"Disruption of parliament is a safeguard against dictatorship but it is being used indiscriminately," said Mehta of the Centre for Policy Research.

"But it must be debated what issues should be used to allow parties to disrupt house," he said.

Mehta was speaking at a lecture organised by PRS Legislative Research on the functioning of parliament.

Citing the example of the previous monsoon session, in which many legislations were passed, Mehta said it happened after both the Congress and the BJP realized that continued disruptions could dent their image in public eye.

Jay Panda, Lok Sabha member from the Biju Janata Dal, pointed out that many a times the ruling party was behind disruptions.

"Around two thirds of time the government is behind disruptions. They decide if an issue will be debated or not and whether it will be put to vote or not," he said.

He said this happens as there were 40 parties in parliament, and building consensus among them on an issue was always difficult.

"Since each party has a veto on what issues could be discussed in the house, consensus is difficult to arrive at."

Noting that "India is a functioning anarchy", JD-U member in the Rajya Sabha N.K. Singh said: "Lot of what happens in parliament is the result of cold calculus of numbers.

"We have to see whether such disruptions become regular and what is the way to find consensus on issues," said Singh.