The recently concluded Parliament session has confirmed yet again that urgent action is needed to restore the “temple of our democracy” to something better than utter dysfunctionality. Our collective failure to strike a balance between partisan politics and mature statesmanship remains the most glaring weakness of our parliamentary democracy. The Opposition remains adamant that certain issues must be discussed, but faces a government that considers compromise a sign of weakness. The Opposition persistently chooses disruption if it won’t be heard; the government refuses to reach out and accommodate even some of its demands. Time, taxpayers’ money and meaningful debate are all lost. So also are opportunities for MPs to question ministers, to raise constituency issues in Zero Hour or issues of national importance under Rule 377, and to place on record their views on the bills that the government cheerfully passes amid the din.

The relationship between the government and the Opposition has devolved into an unprecedented bitterness. It was not always so. A foundational civility once governed our public life: Atal Bihari Vajpayee took delight in recounting how Jawaharlal Nehru treated him with immense courtesy as a young Opposition backbencher, how Rajiv Gandhi ensured he received medical care in the US, and how Narasimha Rao dispatched him to Geneva to represent India at a critical UN summit on Kashmir. Such bipartisan grace is today unimaginable.

Instead, Indian politics has descended into a crusade of mutual demonisation. Each side claims the mantle of absolute virtue while writing off the other as irredeemable. To the ruling party, dissent is branded as “anti-national”; the Opposition, in turn, casts itself as an outnumbered........

© Indian Express