HOUSE LEADERS NEED TO RISE ABOVE POLITICS

The Lok Sabha speaker and Rajya Sabha chairman need to conduct proceedings in a non-partisan way. This isn't the parliamentary democracy our forefathers dreamed of

- KAPIL SIBAL

ON May 19, 2014, Narendra Modi bent his forehead while kneeling at the steps of the old parliament building before entering the Central Hall.

It was here where Jawaharlal Nehru made his famous address on the eve of independence, ushering the dawn of democracy in India. That symbolic gesture was never meant to be an act of faith. Instead of democracy being nurtured in the haloed chambers of parliament, it was diminished and smothered. Under Modi, it is gasping for breath.

In June 2016, at a 'parivartan' rally in Allahabad, Modi laid down seven mantras for party workers: sevabhaav (service), santulan (balance), sanyam (restraint), samanwaya (cooperation), sakaratmak (positivity), sadbhavna (empathy) and samvad (dialogue). These mantras were stated to be breached in the governance of India.

All this was not meant to be. The government, the BJP and their affiliates command cooperation and seek obedience in both their parliamentary and public discourse without a sense of balance or restraint. Empathy and dialogue are enemy territory. That India has been transformed after 2014 and that the history of the era prior to Modi is a saga of failures of Congress rule is the extent of negativity and venom that this administration harbours.