Do it in-House

The Manmohan Singh government completes two and a half years this week. And in the midst of high diplomacy, with the Indo-US nuclear deal gathering strength and the Chinese president visiting the country, it finds an arena in which to give proof of its stability. Parliament’s winter session begins on Wednesday and, by all accounts, the Congress party’s allies and opponents are preparing to interrogate it on key matters. The pension bill, the Afzal clemency issue and the Sachar Committee’s recommendations are certain to keep proceedings stormy. Each of these issues is politically charged. But the test for the treasury benches will be this: to keep Parliament functioning.

The Left parties appear to be adamant in their opposition to pension reform, a vital item on the UPA government’s agenda. On the Afzal hanging, the Congress has stopped speaking in different voices and there are signals of some coherence between the national and the Jammu and Kashmir units. But the BJP has given every indication of imbuing the issue with high shrillness in Parliament. On the Sachar Committee’s findings pertaining to the status of Muslims, every shade of opinion is bound to reverberate in the House. As too, possibly, on Indo-US nuclear cooperation, and relations with China and Pakistan.

Mid-term demands astringent clarity from governments. It is that time in office when they draw keen attention to any sign of drift or confusion, both of which are inadvertently betrayed through incapacity to avert adjournments. A session of Parliament therefore is an opportunity and a challenge. It is an opportunity for the UPA to clarify its position on a range of issues, and also its resolve to get on with its promised agenda. But the challenge is to do so without bypassing the processes and debates of Parliament. It must keep the dialogue going with its allies and opposition parties on the floor of the House, and not through soundbites at press conferences at party headquarters.