ETHICS AND DISCIPLINE IN PARLIAMENTS: A VIEW FROM BIHAR
ETHICS AND DISCIPLINE IN PARLIAMENTS: A VIEW FROM BIHAR
Hon. Shyam Rajak, MLA is a Member of
the Bihar Legislative Assembly in India. He is the State Minister for Food and Consumer Protection in the Government of Bihar and a former State Minister for Energy. He holds a number of positions in leading organisations in the state and he is the Chairman of the Bihar Sports Council for the Deaf.
Ethics, transparency and accountability are the three basic attributes of public life. Elected representatives of people are expected to adhere to highest standards of ethical and moral values in the discharge of their public duties. However, a general deficit in peoples’ faith in the hallowed institution of Parliament is being seen across the world. People vest power and privileges in Parliamentarians to ensure the quality of debates in the house because the complexity of administration and legislation may only be preceded by adequate discussion. Without maintaining the ethics and discipline, the quality of debates cannot be possible in the Parliament and it will be a place of hooliganism only, and Parliamentarians will waste their time without doing their duty to the people. There may be many ways for ensuring probity in public life, but a self-discipline mechanism appears to be the best in an institution like Parliament. Being effected by wrong emotion is a tool that can cause destruction. The intellect is governed by the intuitive emotion. When the human heart loses its sensitivity, whatever we encounter as well as the way we govern our actions will become bleached of all sensitivity and tenderness. It is important to keep positive thought in their mind. It is also important to focus on their failures as it will help them to not repeat it. MPs should have patience if they are not being
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allowed by the Chair to have their opinion or say in the House. They must wait for their time; it may be next session or even the next election. They should have patience and mobilize the people against the government’s attitude. If the views matter, it is lastly the people’s court to decide, not the Parliament. Patience teaches us how to wait eagerly with hope and joy. In India and in Indian politics, Chanakya is always quoted. Every Indian knows the story that when Chanakya was not permitted in the court of King Mahapadam Nand, he opened his hair lock and vowed that until and unless he dethrones the Nand dynasty, he will not bind his hair lock. When Chanakya established Chandragupta as a King, he rebinds his hair lock. A Parliamentarian also needs such type of patience. As it’s been best said in the words of Leo Tolstoy ‘Patience is the most powerful warrior’. With some twists in George Bernard Shaw’s version, it can be said that two things define your patience - when you have nothing (when you are not elected as the people’s representative) and your attitude when you have something (when you are elected as the people’s representative). These attributes in any human being play a key role in leading to success or failure. The behavior of MPs is hampering the priceless time of Parliament and wasting public money all over world. A case study of the Indian Parliament shows that 19.58% of the total time
was lost due to interruption and adjournments in 14th Lok Sabha; 41.6% in the 15th Lok Sabha; and about 16% in the 16th Lok Sabha (up to the tenth session). This is an alarming situation. This also shows that Parliamentarians do not act according to the expectations of the people. It is a sense of entitlement that makes some of our leaders behave in a regrettable manner. They feel they can get away with it. This must stop. Nobody will dispute the idea that political parties should breed productive Parliamentarians. The question is: how best do you do it? Certainly the political parties should regulate the conduct of their members. The parameters for the selection of candidates for election by the political parties should be proven standards in public life. They should train their workers and leaders through mock- Parliaments so that their leaders could learn right from the beginning how the people’s highest institutions can run smoothly. The fact that there has been a general erosion of moral values in all walks of life cannot be denied, but MPs should present themselves as role models to the people, because in the end, it affects the whole democratic system. Citizens who are vested in their country’s future and want to preserve their country’s identity have the right to have a good MP as their representative. For this they should be given the option to choose a role model as a candidate in an election from every political party. Unless political parties engage