Wise suspensions

Speaker's decision a first step to ending disruption

The decision by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Sumitra Mahajan, to suspend several Congress Party members of the House for consistent disruption of proceedings - including through the carrying of placards - should be welcomed. Ms Mahajan's decision followed several reminders from the chair to the offending members that their behaviour was unparliamentary. As a consequence, 25 MPs have been suspended from participation in the House's activities for five days. Congress President Sonia Gandhi called it a "black day for India's democracy"; but that is an avoidance of responsibility. The truth is that the party has only itself to blame for staking out maximalist positions, refusing to allow debate, and laying itself open to this just and reasonable measure.

As this newspaper has previously argued, democracy requires deliberation, and the Opposition cannot with impunity shut down Parliament, denying Indians the right to see their concerns being aired in the country's foremost body for discussing legislation and issues of governance and national importance. By insisting that senior members of the ruling party who are accused of corruption resign before allowing the House to function, the Congress has shown contempt for natural justice - which suggests that those accused be given a hearing - as well as for the urgent business of repairing India's economy, which requires the legislative backlog to be cleared. It is true, but no excuse, that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), when in Opposition, was as bad. The Congress has only itself to blame that it did not choose to impose the rules of discipline and decorum at that time. A few timely suspensions, such as Ms Mahajan has just carried out, would have prevented Parliament's slide into chaos in the years leading up to the general election of 2014. The cost to the exchequer from a washed-out session would be dwarfed by the cost to the economy if the need for framing and passing important laws were ignored. The Congress must take this reproof by the Speaker in good part, and recognise that it cannot block a democratic mandate through disruption - but it can change laws through debate. It is the latter that is the democratic way; the former is mere anarchy.

The government, too, must be cautious. It has been given an opportunity by Ms Mahajan to resolve the deadlock that has caused its recent paralysis. It must seize the moment, and attempt to come to some agreement with the Congress and other Opposition parties over pending legislation. It must not see suspension as a convenient means to the end of passing its preferred drafts of legislation unhindered. That would be as dangerous for democracy as disruption of Parliament. The government, instead of taking short-term political advantage of this situation by passing controversial Bills, should instead reach out to a hopefully chastened Opposition and find a long-term solution to the problem of disruption. In any case, it does not have the requisite majority in the Rajya Sabha to get its Bills passed without taking the Opposition on board. While suspension of a few members of the Lok Sabha is the first step, the next move should be to hold consultations with the Opposition to facilitate law-making in Parliament.