A lift-off or just sonic boom?
Parliament, it appears, has taken off with a sonic boom. The black-money furore portends a blank session. Reform bills have long suffered in this nation, not for want of economic prudence but lack of political maturity. The proposals on GST or FDI in insurance were first mooted by the NDA only to hibernate under the UPA-1. Saner thoughts then saw them being revived under the UPA-2, now to be subverted by the very same BJP in sheer pusillanimity. Strange that the Right wing behaves so inexplicably. The Republicans in the US Congress are doing much the same with bills brought up by their President. To that extent, we can claim august company! True political bipartisanship ebbed away after the Nehruvian era. The BJP, which gets a single-party majority only to cringe from having a leader of opposition, expects others to rise beyond political interests and get progressive legislations passed. Much as they took an adamant stance while in opposition, that it was the onus of the ruling dispensation to get bills through, the BJP now must seek a rapport with the Opposition and get the job done. Parties once inside Parliament owe no allegiance other than to fulfilling the duties for which they have been elected.
R Narayanan, Ghaziabad
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