E-Kantipur

I was watching a talk show on an Indian TV network the other night. A panellist used the term “constitutional vandalism” to describe the disruption of parliamentary proceedings by the opposition for the past two weeks. Another participant blamed the opposition for “derailing, disrupting and destroying the Parliament”. The third guest on the show lamented how the political parties regardless of their standing in the House, had rendered Parliament useless through their unparliamentarily activities.

Growing up in Nepal makes you believe that certain things happen only in your country. We have seen Parliament stalled for weeks. Most recently, we saw a minister being attacked by an angry mob of opposition MPs in the House as he walked up to the dais to deliver the budget speech. We also saw earlier this year the largest political party hitting the street, instead of tabling a no-confidence motion, to oust the prime minister who enjoyed majority support in the House. If you don’t see railings on the sides of some streets in Kathmandu, it’s because they have been most probably uprooted by angry protestors in the past decade because their party didn’t feel that disrupting parliamentary proceedings for weeks was enough to pressurise the government. As fate would have it, the very same party now leads the government.

Seriousness is what we have lacked in our parliamentary democracy from the very beginning. It was famously said in the 1990s that Parliament

was “a place where dog meat is sold in the guise of mutton” (khasi ko tauko rakhera kukur ko masu bechne thaun). That showed how much disregard some communist Members of Parliament, of all the people, had for Parliament.

The importance of Parliament has only gone down in the past couple of years, especially after the arrival of the Maoist party in Parliament, first unelected, later as the largest party. Many important decisions are taken inside the closed rooms of leaders’ houses or the city’s hotels before they are brought to Parliament for approval. When it is not the rubber stamp of quarrelling political parties’ last minute rapprochement, Parliament (or the Constituent Assembly) becomes a helpless hostage to political indecision as it is now.

Despite all the problems, as I mentioned in one of my recent pieces, the Indian Parliament hasn’t seen such bad days yet. Despite disrupting its business for two weeks continuously, the political class here is still looking for solutions inside Parliament. (The act of the Indian Maoists is a different story altogether.) Parliament is still taken as a serious entity in New Delhi. The heart of the current stalemate is how Parliament should investigate the largest corruption scandal in India.

The opposition, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, thinks a joint parliamentary committee must be formed to look into the matters related to the controversial allocation of second generation mobile telephone spectrum a couple of years ago. The government, led by the Indian National Congress, firmly believes the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee is powerful enough to examine the alleged corruption. The telecom minister who distributed the spectrum ignoring the prime minister’s suggestion against such action quit his post recently after an audit report alleged that the minister’s decision may have cost the state exchequer as much as US$ 40 billion.

India has powerful and relatively efficient investigating agencies to look into such cases of corruption. But the problem is, India being India, such agencies are often misused by the government to exonerate its leaders and constituents from charges or harass opponents. A large section of the public too seems to be of the opinion that corruption of this magnitude and nature may not be handled efficiently by the existing investigating agencies. The government, on the other hand, is sceptical about the opposition’s intention. It thinks a JPC could be used as an instrument to insult the prime minister or embarrass the government as it can summon the PM to appear before it.

Gay parade

Last week, Delhi saw a gay parade in the very place where demonstrations of all kinds take place. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, their supporters and curious straights enthusiastically participated in the rally that turned into a gathering on Jantar Mantar Road. I was there at the rally with my significant half hoping to see the most famous gay in Nepal: Sunil Pant. We were on the same Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to Delhi a week before that. He was visiting India as part of a delegation of young MPs, Gagan Thapa et al, who had been invited by the Indian government as part of an exchange programme. He had stayed two more days to participate in the rally.

As per my expectation, Sunil, upon being invited by the emcee, went on the stage and told the crowd that in terms of providing rights and recognition to the LGBT community, Nepal was far ahead in the region. He also appreciated the Nepali media for being receptive to the problems and challenges faced by the community. He asked the Indian Supreme Court to uphold a decision by Delhi’s High Court to grant limited rights to the community. He asked the LGBT folks to take part in politics so as to make their voice heard more effectively. The LGBT community should unite and use the strength to elect favourable candidates, he said. He gave his own example of how the Nepali LGBT community succeeded in electing a gay MP in him. “It feels good to tell foreigners that despite all the problems, Nepal too has made significant progress in some areas,” Sunil later told me as some listeners came up to him to commend his speech.

delhi@wagle.com.np

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