On the occasion of the golden jubilee of the Punjab Assembly, we must pay our tribute to the founding fathers of the Constitution of India. Many amendments have been made in it, and more may be necessary, but the basic features must be preserved and all attempts to subvert them must be defeated.

We, in Punjab, can be proud of the role the Punjab Assembly has played in relation to the progress the state and the country have made. A special mention needs to be made of the role played by the Assembly for giving Punjabi, our mother tongue, its rightful place in administration and in education, and also for more powers for states, though much remains to be done. Special mention also needs to be made of the role of the Punjab Assembly in its fight against terrorism and for adequate relief to victims.

Former Deputy Speaker Jagjit Singh Chauhan, former MLA and the oldest member Ranbir Singh and former Chief Minister HS Brar

However, what is most necessary at the time of the golden jubilee is to note the great deterioration in the functioning of our system. The two key tasks of the Assembly are: one, to pass the Annual Budget; and two, to make new laws amend existing ones when needed and repeal laws that have become obsolete.

There was a time when the visitors’ lobbies would be packed by intellectuals, representatives of different sectors of people, including students, for listening to the debates which would last many days. Media coverage would be very extensive. But gone are those days. Bills are now not prepared properly. Generally, all the Bills are listed for the last day and are passed within one or two hours. Unscrupulous governments get even Constitutional bills passed post haste. The latest example is the law under which the Social Security Fund was created which was not subject to audit by CGA. Later, the High Court declared it to be unconstitutional. Governments have, in fact, been grossly violating the spirit of the Constitution by legislating through ordinances and depriving legislators their right to discuss them thoroughly in the Assembly, improve them and even enact them. Getting ordinances approved in the Assemblies later, more often than not, has become a ritual.

The position with regard to the passing of the Budget is not very different. The members don’t even read the most essential documents. The first round of discussion is more political than financial / economic. During discussions regarding budgetary demands for some departments, grievances of the public are highlighted and some economic and financial issues are discussed. However, even the time for these is being curtailed.

The Question Hour, once upon a time, used to be the most interesting. Through starred and unstarred questions, legislators would get full information on vital matters and the media would make it available to the people. Through starred questions and supplementaries allowed by the Speakers information on many scandals would get unearthed and grievances, including ones relating to development, would come under discussion. With the passage of time, the significance of the Question Hour has been diluted.

The Speaker occupies the most pivotal position in the functioning of any Assembly. Gone are the days when, on being elected, the Speaker would resign from his party and would function absolutely impartially. If sometime some indulgence was shown it was for the opposition MLAs who would make really good contribution to the debate.

Now, more often than, not Speakers function as partymen and are partial towards their own party. There was a time when even the most inconvenient question would be admitted. Members asking these would be helped to remove any weaknesses of drafting etc. to make them admissible. The position now seems to be that such question are first cleared by the government and if the oral advice is against them, they are rejected. I know of a question that was rejected twice. For the third draft the concerned MLA asked the secretary of the Vidhan Sabha to draft it. The secretary generally advises the Speaker on the admissibility of questions. The Speaker rejected even this draft too because if admitted it would have exposed the link of some ruling politicians with terrorists. Another question, drafted correctly, had asked for an inquiry report which had exposed a Rs 23- crore scandal in the social security department. The question was amended without the knowledge and consent of the concerned MLA to ensure that it did not require placing the report on the table of the House and that it remained a secret document.

During the last Vidhan Sabha, an effort was made by the government through the Speaker to abolish the Zero Hour. In the Punjab Assembly, the Zero Hour has been a very well-established old convention though it is not provided for in the rules. The Lok Sabha rules have a provision for it.

It is admitted by all that the general level of discussions has gone down. Even then, there are very effective parliamentarians who could have made useful contributions. Unfortunately, the Assembly sittings are now too few.

The Constitution requires that no more than six months should pas between two sessions. But for this, there would be only the Governor’s Address and the Budget Session, reduced as much as possible.

Here it is necessary to examine the reasons for uproars in the Assembly. The growing consumerism and the desire to make money anyhow (and in tons) has led to tremendous increase in corruption in society. A large number of politicians are interested in becoming MLAs, MPs, ministers, etc so that they can make money through fair and foul means. This has resulted in the formation of governments that are mortally afraid of Assembly sessions and hence the reduction in the sittings of the House. It is time to think of some constitutional amendments to prevent ruling by ordinances and to ensure a fairly good number of sittings every year.

The tendency to prevent the Assembly from functioning has been growing and if not checked may become alarming. Rules alone cannot check them. A will is required on the part of all. As it is, those who denounce this when in power indulge in it when in the opposition. The reasons are two: one, the tendency on the part of the opposition to get cheap publicity somehow. This must go. Two, the desire of the government to prevent discussions as much as possible and disallowing the opposition demands for discussion when they are most reasonable. This is what was behind the Lok Sabha being able to function for a week only recently over the Gujarat riots. The tendency on the part of the opposition to oppose for the sake of opposition must also go. It must oppose and support on merit.

On the occasion of our Assembly’s golden jubilee, we must admit that the representation of women in it has been very inadequate. This major shortcoming will not get remedied unless one-third of the seats are reserved for women.The sooner it is done, the better it would be. Their contributions on the whole have not been less than that of male legislators.

Last, but not the least, I would like to recall the great role played by three late Chief Ministers of Punjab in various fields such as development, better policies, fighting terrorism and strengthening anti-terrorist struggle of our people leading to peace. They are S. Partap Singh Kairon, Justice Gurnam Singh and S. Beant Singh. We must recall with respect all those legislators, including ex-legislators and ex-ministers. We must also remember those activists and common people who were martyred by terrorists.

The proper functioning of the Assembly depends also on the working and efficiency of the secretary and staff of the Vidhan Sabha. I have no doubt that generally secretaries and staff have been functioning quite well and even better than government departments. Possibly some deterioration has begun. If so, it must be checked immediately. All appointments by the Speaker/ government must be made strictly on merit.

Let us all pledge to work for removing all those weaknesses which have crept in our system and to strengthen our parliamentary democracy.