All Parliament’s A Stage | Power Play by Anand Mishra

Published : Dec 13, 2024 18:39 IST - 5 MINS READ Dear readers, When MPs of the indigenous Māori group staged a ceremonial Haka dance in New Zealand’s Parliament to protest the contentious Treaty Principles Bill in November this year, little did they know it would become an internet sensation. Inside Parliament, the nature of protests has seen many variants—be it Rahul Gandhi tearing up a controversial ordinance to protect convicted lawmakers or when marshals had to be called in to evict MPs protesting the Women’s Reservation Bill during Manmohan Singh’s government in 2010, or the entire winter session of 2010 being washed out when the BJP made the setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee a precondition for allowing Parliament to function. The classic case, of course, was the serial suspension of more than 140 Opposition MPs from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha after their protests over Parliament’s security breach when a smoke canister was lobbed into the well of the Lok Sabha by two visitors on December 13, 2023. Even as the ruling party and laptop media lament the disruption of Parliament today, one recalls what the then Leader of the Opposition and senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said in September 2012: “Not allowing Parliament to function is also a form of democracy.” Arun Jaitley, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha during the UPA-II term, said that there are occasions when obstruction in Parliament brings greater benefits to the country.