A Parliament floor test would serve democracy

livemint.com:

India’s presidential-style politics in a parliamentary system, as the scenario has been since the ascent of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister, can present piquant situations. The odds of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government being ousted from power by a no-confidence vote in the Lok Sabha are negligible, given that BJP members make up more than half the House—the safety mark—and can also count on allies to crush such a motion by a ratio of over 2:1. Yet, on Wednesday the Indian National Congress sought a floor test, citing violence in Manipur among other issues, and got the backing of parties that recently joined hands with it to form a front called the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) for general elections next year.

A date will soon be fixed for a division of votes whose basic outcome holds no suspense. What may seem like a waste of legislative time in the face of so many long-pending bills, though, deserves a closer look in the broader context of our democracy. We have had full-majority BJP rule for nearly a decade; i.e., with no ally-placed restraints on its ideological agenda.

Now as polls draw closer, clarity over who stands on which side of the aisle in Parliament would offer the electorate a political update that rhetoric-as-usual cannot match. That making the Modi administration defend itself in the House might draw the Prime Minister out on the matter of Manipur is not devoid of merit as an opposition ploy. The state suffered an evident breakdown of law-and-order, and fixing such a failure of governance does call for national resolve.

But the way various parties vote will be under watch. It will draw the battle-lines for 2024, when the rest of us will get our ballot say. The