Frequent disruption of the business of Parliament is giving India a bad image abroad and perhaps worse, domestically. For instance at the time of writing this editorial, in the Budget session of Parliament during which the Union Budget 2023-24 was presented the expenditure priorities of the Rs.45 lakh crore budget of the Central government in the forthcoming fiscal year have not been discussed and debated. For several years this publication has questioned as to why the Centre’s allocation for public education as a percentage of GDP has continuously declined. This issue should be debated in Parliament and the government is obliged to justify its expenditure priorities.

Instead, Lok Sabha proceedings have come to a standstill because the treasury benches want Rahul Gandhi (since a disqualified former MP) to apologise for opining on “foreign soil”, that Indian democracy is being steadily eroded by acts of omission and commission of the ruling BJP. On the other hand, Congress members are also guilty of the impasse in Parliament by demanding a JPC (joint parliamentary commission) enquiry into the alleged “closeness” of business tycoon Gautam Adani, accused of influencing government policy, stock price manipulation and fraud by Hindenburg Research, a self-confessed US-based short-seller firm which has benefited mightily by driving down the market prices of several Adani Group companies.

Not to mince words, the contentions of both parties verge on the ridiculous. In this new age of the internet and real-time global communications, whether an individual makes a statement on foreign or domestic soil has become irrelevant. Likewise the Congress party’s insistence on a parliamentary JPC to investigate the charges made by Hindenburg against Adani have been rendered redundant, because on March 2 the Supreme Court appointed an expert six-member committee chaired by a retired apex court judge to investigate the charges made against Adani, a probe the latter has welcomed.

In the circumstances, the conduct of the BJP and Congress members to repeatedly stall parliamentary business and raise ruckus in both houses by storming the well of the house is highly reprehensible and condemnable. It sends out a “broken windows” message through society. First researched and developed by American academics James Q. Wilson and George Kelling in 1982, and highlighted by best-selling writer Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can make a Big Difference (2002), Broken Windows theory posits that visible manifestations of crime, anti-social behaviour and civil disorder at the top create an environment that encourages widespread anti-social behaviour because it sends out a message that nobody’s in charge. A constantly unruly Parliament sends out this anarchic message countrywide.