Confrontation is the new norm of the political game. And, as recent events would confirm, the BJP/NDA plays it with cynical relish ~ despite the shouting of  sabka saath sabka vikas from every available platform. The summary use of the numbers in the treasury benches in the Lok Sabha to reject the amendments to the Finance Bill that had been voted by the Rajya Sabha articulates the cementing of the stand-off between the two Houses of Parliament.

Since the numbers crunch differently in each House, the potential for further confrontation is “live”, and with government expected to secure a majority in the Elders only rather close to the end of its Lok Sabha mandate there will be some tense times ahead ~ with the Leaders of both Houses, and the ministers for parliamentary affairs indicating that they would deem it a loss of prestige if they were to make the mini-compromises needed to secure cooperation or consensus across the aisle.

It would be over-simplistic to argue that the squabble over the Finance Bill started when the majority-Opposition in the Rajya Sabha pressed amendments to a “money bill” that it was not empowered to reject. The trouble actually began when the Finance Bill made sweeping changes in other enactments, thereby bypassing the Elders. The questionable misuse of the money bill route to provide an umbrella for authoritarian legislation has aroused the ire of the Elders earlier too: some of its Opposition members wonder if the “Upper House” or “second chamber” is being stripped of its relevance.

The matter has been raised in the apex court, a number of leading intellectuals have recently expressed their apprehensions in a letter to the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha/Vice-President of India. That high dignitary has not spoken out on the issue, maybe he will as his tenure nears its conclusion a few months hence ~ though he has not minced his words when flaying the prevailing climate of “intolerance” that is as “suffocating” as the smog-poisoned air in the Capital during winter. A climate, which as some provisions in the Finance Bill suggest, enhances the powers of the income-tax officials ~ the government’s new-found storm-troopers after demonetisation.

It is  ironic that the finance minister should spearhead the assault on the rights of the Elders: he is a member of the Rajya Sabha having bitten the Amritsar dust when he attempted to secure a spot in the Lok Sabha.

Like so many other senior members of the BJP, Mr Arun Jaitley consistently points out how the common folk were deprived of their rights during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency. The increasing  reality is that Modi sarkar favours a similar brand of high-handedness  ~ without even the formal proclamation of 1975.