President Pranab Mukherjee hit the nail on the head when he said, people send their representatives to the House to speak, not sit in dharna, for which the streets were still available. The President was referring to disruption of Parliament proceedings by the opposition over demonetization. What was left unsaid though, is that the tactic of disruption of entire sessions of Parliament was invented by the NDA, which used it to literally silence the UPA government. The opposition is only returning the favour. While we do admit that Parliament ought to be used for debate on issues, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi refuses to make a statement in the House on the issue then the implicit message to the people is that the government does not take Parliament seriously. The duty of maintaining decorum and ensuring that debate continues within the rules lies on the Speaker and Parliamentary Affairs Minister. But they cannot work miracles if the government is reluctant to give in to a demand for the leader of the House to make a statement. In the process Parliament has descended into chaos and it is the government that must shoulder a larger part of the blame. In this respect the ruling party cannot claim the high moral ground because, when in the opposition, it created the template for disruption of Parliament.
