Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday exhorted voters to discipline the 5,000 elected representatives in Parliament, Legislative Assemblies and Legislative Councils by naming and shaming “disruptors”.
Disrupted and dysfunctional legislatures can disrupt the lives of the people and the dreams of the nation, Mr. Naidu said while delivering the first Pranab Mukherjee Memorial Lecture, organised by the Pranab Mukherjee Legacy Foundation on the occasion of the first death anniversary of the former President.
Calling the campaign ‘Mission 5000’, Mr. Naidu also prescribed the possible action that the public can take.
“Various elements of this campaign could be to identify the disruptors and raise the same when such lawmakers visit respective constituencies and areas; to launch Mission 5000 social media handles constituency or State-wise and post the names of disruptors with comments,” he said in his lecture delivered online.
The Vice-President’s speech has to be seen in context of the recent monsoon session which was washed out because of impasse between the government and the Opposition on holding a debate on Pegasus cyberattack. On the last two days of the session, Opposition protests turned violent in Rajya Sabha as contentious bills like the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill were passed ignoring demands for scrutiny by a Parliamentary Committee. Mr. Naidu is considering taking serious disciplinary action against many opposition members.
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The “common Indian”, Mr. Naidu said, has been the hero of India’s successful democratic project, who sometimes even forgoes daily wages to vote.
“While the legislatures are meant for deliberation on issues of wider public concern and making effective laws for the benefit of the people and the nation, ‘disruption’ has emerged as the chief instrument of parliamentary conduct and functioning,” he said. Such disruptions, Mr. Naidu said, negate the principle of accountability of the executive to the legislatures.
Describing Pranab Mukerjee’s journey from being a Upper Division Clerk (UDC) in the Posts and Telegraph Office, to the President of India, Mr Naidu said that he has always been the “path finder” in difficult situations.
“As an immaculate observer of complex situations, Pranab-da proved himself as a consensus builder and played a key role in tiding over several such situations. This was borne out by the fact that he chaired as many as 95 Groups of Ministers (GoM) during his long stint in public life,” Mr Naidu said.
