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Better go to Olympics rather than debate in Parliament

Kashmir Times. Dated: 9/10/2012 12:38:18 AM

Dear Editor,
It refers to a scuffle reported during the Rajya Sabha proceedings on fifth May 2012 between the members Naresh Agrawal (SP) and Avtar Singh Karimpuri (BSP), mutely witnessed by the Chair without taking any action against the erring Parliamentarians. Despite rules being there to act against such unruly behaviour of the Parliamentarians, Chairpersons usually avoid acting against such members which also happened earlier when no action was taken against Rajniti Prasad for tearing a copy of Lokpal Bill during the Rajya Sabha proceedings.
Time has come for the rules to be re-written apart from their being stringent enough to automatically cancel the membership of the legislators for such unruly behaviour, without requiring any role of the Chairpersons/ Parliamentary committees and/or Legislative Assembly/Council etc, which usually overlook such kind of behaviour. Rather, the Parliamentary privilege should be abolished by making proceedings of the House accountable to normal law of the land.
It becomes even more necessary when documents relating to scams like 2-G otherwise accessible under RTI Act, are denied under Parliamentary privilege only because the matter goes before the Parliamentary committees. Is it not an indirect strategy to check further revealing on scams by setting Parliamentary committees on corrupt deeds? It is to be remembered that Supreme Court acquitted Parliamentarians involved in infamous JMM bribery case only because their act of voting by being bribed was considered immunized under the Parliamentary privilege.
—Subash Chandra Agrawal,
Chandni Chowk, Delhi