Sir the House would recall that when I introduced the Constitution 64th Amendment Bill I had said that Government intended to bring forward in the Monsoon Session major legislation relating to the urban local bodies. We are now fulfilling that commitment. Already in common parlance the Bill I introduced in the last Session is called the Panchayati Raj Bill and this the Nagarpalika Bill. Allow me Sir to use these familiar names rather than the somewhat difficult official titles. The Nagarpalika Bill supplements the Pachayati Raj Bill. The theme of this Bill is the same as that of the other constitutional sanction for maximum democracy and maximum devolution. Even as we see the strengthening of the Panchayati Raj system as the key to eliminating the power brokers from the life of rural India so do we see this Bill as the key instrument for reducing and eventually eliminating the role of the power brokers in urban India. We seek through these Bills vest power in the only place where power rightfully belongs in a democracy in the hands of the people. In the past few days we have been sad witness to the gravest assault on democracy since the founding of our Republic the abandonment of the Lok Sabha by a section of the elected representatives of the people. In the last general elections the people gave the Congress an overwhelming mandate to govern the country for the five years. In the same elections they returned a few Opposition Members to occupy the Opposition Benches for the same five years. The Members of the Opposition were elected to fulfil the vital democratic function of contesting the Government and its policies right here on the floor of this House not in the streets or in the columns of newspapers. We respect those democratic and independent minded Members of the Opposition who are here with us today to democratically debate the issues of fundamental national importance which I shall be raising. By the same token we must deplore the behavior of those other Members of the Opposition who have simply run away from this highest forum. They have abused this noble institution. They have violated their mandate. They have betrayed their constituents. They have eroded democracy itself. Why have they tried to destroy democracy in Parliament? I have no doubt that it is primarily because they could not bear to see democracy prosper here.
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