Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called the parliament, the new building, the “temple of democracy”.So, will he now, as its self-declared devotee-in-chief, be seen propitiating the democratic deity everyday when the temple doors are open in ardent and humble submission to its constitutional requirements?Doubtful, because, alas, the flourish of faith may still fall short of the ethical rigour of the task.When present, will he answer questions asked of him, rather than mock, deflect, pontificate, as is his wont?Doubtful again, because only lesser people may suffer the ignominy of interrogation; the great ones expect just to be followed without demur.And followed, it may be noted, in all matters, including how an exam of any kind, in any subject may be taken by a New India aspirant.Will the presiding officers of the two Houses of the “temple”, acknowledging the doctrine of the separation of powers, ensure that the legislature is prevented from becoming an adjunct to the executive?Will the presiding officers, remembering Ambedkar’s admonition that parliament belongs to the opposition, ensure that the government elected on a minority of votes polled is deterred from riding roughshod over the constitutional claims of the segregated-minority opposition returned by a majority of the cumulative votes polled?In other words, will some 60% of the electorate now receive the democratic due in a full exercise of expression as they ought to?Will the presiding officers instruct one and all that parliament has two functions, co-equal in democratic-systemic importance, namely, to make laws and to hold the government/executive to account on its claims, its functioning, its record, and its adherence to constitutional norms and best parliamentary practices and traditions?Indeed, will they make it known that the latter of the two functions is in emancipatory political theory and principle, the more indispensable one?To wit, that whereas legislation may be delayed, accountability cannot.Will the presiding officers, therefore, ensure that the opposition’s right to employ any and all parliamentary rules in the shape of motions to elicit the truth of things from the executive is never stifled?That, in so doing, if they ever err, it should be on the side of expression rather than of guillotine?Will the presiding officers make available to the committees of parliament the space, time, and recognition for carrying out their all-important work of scrutinising drafts of legislations, and any other matters that belong to their inscribed parliamentary jurisdiction?Will a day come in the new temple building when the clout and credibility of these all-party committees are made available to the polity through electronic transmission, as in the case of the proceedings of the committees of the US Houses of Congress?Will any and all members be held to strict account for playing ducks and drakes with data, and any other claims sought to be made in support of their contentions?Will the presiding officers take due care always to ensure that members of the smaller parties and from outlier states and constituencies, or minority populations are never made to feel like proforma components of the parliamentary system, and spared the humiliation of having often to beg for that additional minute to say what they have been elected to say?Will the presiding officers, recognising the democratic significance of parliamentary privilege, think umpteen minutes before ordering that statements made be expunged from the record, especially when such remarks express criticism of the chief devotee on valid grounds without resorting to calumny?Will the presiding officers, in deference to the “basic structure “doctrine as set down by an eleven-judge constitutional bench (no less) of the Supreme Court in 1973, come down heavily on all such polemics that may be deleterious to social and communal harmony in the republic, or that may seek to, or have the effect of, denigrating the prerogatives of any of the federated units of the Union of States?Will authorised media persons be allowed into parliament for interactions with legislators for ensuring the authenticity of reportage, for library-research purposes without fear or favour?Will the new temple building also exude a new awareness that democracy is not just a formal means of acquiring state power, but a philosophical vision of what it means to be human and a citizen, freed from the irrational, mythical, and crushing dominance of hierarchies rooted merely in the power to inflict cruelties on the underlings of history?Will the new temple building that looks much like a guitar casing yield new egalitarian music as a symphonic emblem of godly practices therein?Doubtful, and yet again doubtful because democracy and cultism are antipodal quantities. And, because cultism now reigns over the republic.Badri Raina taught at Delhi University.
