Parliament suffering from credibility crisis, says Somnath

Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said here on Monday that Parliament and the State Assemblies, central to the nation’s polity and both symbols of national unity, are facing “severe crisis of credibility and confidence”.

“After more than six decades of our Independence, we have come to a stage now when questions are being asked about the workability of our democratic set up based on the Parliamentary system and about the utility and relevance of our vital democratic institutions,” Mr Chatterjee said, while addressing a seminar on Strengthening Parliamentary Democracy in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly to mark the platinum jubilee celebrations of the House.

He said that politics in the country carries with it an “image of intrigue, hatred, venality, disorder and anarchy, strongly detested by our people.”

Referring to an urgent need to take the “initiative to restore democracy and winning back confidence of the people” Mr Chatterjee emphasised on political reforms and that people must have a right to recall their representatives.

“To my mind, to begin with, the people must have the power to recall their elected representatives in the event that the latter are not acting in tune with their interest. This will send a message to political parties and their politicians who do not follow the norms of democracy in the electoral arena,” he said.

However, Mr Chatterjee ruled out extraparliamentary methods for enactment of law in the country.

Referring to the long deliberations of the constituent assembly and the wisdom of the founding fathers of our Constitution, he said, “Under the Constitution, our laws have to be made in a manner well-defined and prescribed. Our Constitution does not provide for any extraparliamentary methods to force the enactment of any law".

Mr Chatterjee said that there our public life must be cleansed of the cancer of corruption. “The issue of probity in pubic life has assumed an added significance in our political system and what has brought the issue to the centre stage is the influence of money and muscle power in our electoral process and the resultant aberrations of politics,” he said.

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