Parliament turns 60, but is it mature enough?

 The age of 60 is considered quite a ripe age. Indian Parliament too turned 60 recently. But I wonder whether it has gained the necessary maturity. Off course we can take credit that our Parliamentary democracy has survived for 60 years, while our neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal have faced military coups. The credit also goes to our armed forces for maintaining law and order and protecting India’s border from external aggressors.  But the million dollar question is whether parliamentary democracy in India has matured enough?

We have seen occasions when some of the important bills have got stagnated due to pressure from the regional and smaller parties. Women’s reservation bill and Jan Lokpal bill are some of the examples. Parliament has also witnessed some of the important finance bills related to Foreign Direct Investment being stalked. And there are regional parties like Telangana Rajya Samiti (TRS) and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) creating ruckus in the Parliament demanding a separate state. These parties don’t have any development plans worked out, but they do know how to gain political mileage by stalling parliamentary proceedings. They don’t understand that by creating ruckus in the Parliament and not bringing any constructive suggestions they are wasting crores of public money. Does this behaviour from the Parliamentarians reflect any maturity?

Indian Parliamentary system also doesn’t have any law which bares people with a criminal background from contesting the elections. Some of the Indian politicians are illiterate as well. And there is no age bar for the politicians. We have some parliamentarians who are above 80 years of age and who are aloof from the present realities. We have an age cap and a specific retirement age in both public and private sector. But I wonder why we don’t have a retirement age defined for our Parliamentarians.

The present UPA government has been inept in fighting with corruption that has plagued and crippled the bureaucracy of this country. There have been numerous scams like 2G scam, CWG scam, Adarsh scam, etc in which people from the ruling parties have been involved. There have also been scams in opposition ruled states like Karnataka where politicians have become puppets in the hands of mining mafia. These politicians have been afraid of bringing strict anti-corruption laws.

There are numerous cases of financial mismanagement on the part of government.  There have been numerous cases of farmers committing suicide in the states of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Common man is facing hardships due to increasing inflation and rising prices. This shows the inability of the Parliamentarians to frame proper financial policies.

The present scenario of Parliamentary democracy demands an immediate overhaul of the entire system. I am not sure how long will it take for the Parliamentary democracy to mature enough. But I can certainly say that it has not matured enough and still a lot of work needs to be done.