The Hindu Business Line : 14th Lok Sabha: Mix of youth and experience

AFTER the spell of politics and polemics, post Verdict 2004, issues of governance should be coming back in focus with the President scheduled to address the joint session of Parliament today (Monday, June 7).

The nation has a government in place, but one headed by a party that has never shared power before. In fact, the Congress, which had asserted its intention to strive for power on its own, made a dramatic change in its attitude just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and struck pay-dirt with the alliances it sewed up. Perhaps, the age of coalition governance is here to stay.

The composition of the14th Lok Sabha clearly reflects the compulsions of coalition governance against threatening instability and prospects of long spells of non-governance in the face of successive fractured verdicts throwing up hung Lok Sabha.

The Lok Sabha came alive last Wednesday when the newly-constituted House met in the high-domed green-carpeted chamber on June 2, exactly 115 days after the previous Lok Sabha was dissolved, on February 6. In a splendid display of democracy at work, members of yesterday's government took the Opposition benches and the previous Opposition proudly occupied the Treasury Benches. Attired in the traditional finery, the newly-elected members took oath of affirmation in their mother-tongue.

On the first three days of the session, the atmosphere was of a college campus starting a new academic session. There were more than a hundred first-timers. Many of them were clearly overwhelmed by the occasion.

There was no dearth of glamour, celluloid and political. Govinda, Dharmendra, Jayaprada all hogged the limelight wherever they were. The political glamour came from `'the princes" of Indian politics — Mr Rahul Gandhi, Mr Sachin Pilot, son of the late Rajesh Pilot, and Mr Milind Deora, son of veteran Congressman and Rajya Sabha member Mr Murli Deora. Sachin came attired in typical Rajasthani style complete with the colourful headgear just as his father used to do on solemn occasions. The other scions, though not new-comers, were Mr Aditya Scindia, Mr Omar Abdullah and Ms Mehbooba Mufti,.

The House will miss some young stalwarts who were in the 13th Lok Sabha. Madhav Rao Scindia, Rajesh Pilot, Murasoli Maran and Rangarajan Kumaramangalam all died during the tenure of the previous Lok Sabha. In the death of Scindia and Pilot, the Congress lost frontline leaders who were thought to be Prime Minister material. Rangarajan Kumaramangalam was a rare cosompolitian among Tamil MPs and was at ease with English, Hindi and Tamil.Maran's is a great loss to the DMK, in particular, and Tamil Nadu, in general.

Mr Dayanidhi Maran, one hopes, will do his illustrious father proud. He has already made the right noises as a sober, competent Cabinet hand. He will have plenty of opportunities to show his calibre in the high-profile Information Technology ministry that was handled by the suave Arun Shourie in the previous government.

On the gain side, the House will have in its midst some old war horses of Parliament. Mr Pranab Mukherjee, the Defence Minister, has done long spells in the Rajya Sabha. So also Mr Gurudas Das Gupta of the Communist Party of India. Most of the 543 elected members had taken their oath or affirmation during the three-day sitting of the first week.

Two more members will be nominated by the President from among the Anglo-Indian Community in due course to take the total strength of the Lok Sabha to 545.

Of course, the high spot of the week's session was the unanimous election of veteran Parliamentarian Somnath Chatterjee as the Speaker of the 14th Lok Sabha. His name was proposed and seconded for the post by members belonging to almost every party, clearly showing the vast popularity the veteran Marxist enjoys right across the political spectrum.

Addressing the Chair, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh said: "Mr. Speaker Sir, some 50 years ago when I graduated from college, your illustrious father presided over the Convocation where I got the degree and today, Sir, when I am going to assume a new office, you are in this illustrious Chair as our guide, friend and philosopher... "

Replying to the felicitations, the new Speaker asked the members to shed the confrontationist image and maintain decorum and dignity and work to resolve the various socio-political and economic problems facing the country. "The conduct and behaviour of some of the legislators have become a subject of justified criticism and in some cases even of ridicule. An attitude of confrontation rather than cooperation that is found more and more in political life."

Ironically, not long after he made these remarks, the House was thrown into a turmoil over the Leader of the Opposition, Mr L. K. Advani's remarks about the presence of "tainted" ministers in the government.

It was not the best of beginnings for the New House. A sorely disappointed Speaker later spoke his mind in a TV interview. He has proposed a meeting of leaders of all parties to discuss and devise ways and means for the smooth conduct of the House in the coming days.

A stern disciplinarian and stickler for Rules and Procedure, Somnath Chatterjee can be expected to put matters right when the House meets again after the joint sitting of Parliament to be addressed by the President, Mr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

(The author, a former Deputy Editor with PTI, is a New Delhi-based freelance writer.)