The contrast couldn’t be starker. A magnificent new Parliament edifice that houses a diminished legislature where petty triumphalism of the treasury benches is matched only by the strategic incoherence of the Opposition. New depths have been plumbed in the precincts since last week when intruders burst smoke bombs inside the halls. As opposed to any substantive debate on the security breach, unprecedented scenes of disruption and en masse expulsion of Opposition MPs have unfolded. Till the last count on Tuesday, presiding officers had suspended as many as 141 Opposition MPs from both the Houses.

The government seems to have adopted a take-no-prisoners strategy that entails suspending all protesting MPs and refusing to reach out to the Opposition parties to negotiate a settlement that facilitates peaceful functioning of the two Houses. The Opposition, on its part, has decided to match this hard-line strategy with the shrillness of their protest and insist that Parliament will not function till either Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Home Minister Amit Shah give a statement on last week’s security breach. In mockery of the proceedings inside the Houses that were again adjourned on Tuesday after 49 more MPs including the veteran Farooq Abdullah, Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari et al were suspended, Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee took to mimicking Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar. Reprehensibly, Rahul Gandhi was seen recording a video of this ignoble performance on his cellphone.

Parliamentary discourse has been reduced to a crass pantomime. The Opposition is unmindful of the fact that it perhaps suits a government with brute majority to push legislation tailored to its own interests without much debate, and is playing into the latter’s hands. The government has enough strength to push all manner of legislation in the din and seems quite comfortable with the idea of having empty benches for Opposition. Three new Bills that impact the entire criminal justice system in the country are pending passage in the Lok Sabha. These Bills emphasise harsher sentences and expanded police powers and raise serious questions on civil liberties and fundamental freedoms. It is a reform that begs for collective parliamentary wisdom. Similarly, the Telecommunications Bill, that makes significant changes in the allocation of spectrum and gives untrammelled powers to the government, is pending passage.

If this trend continues, it is hardly likely that any substantive discussion will take place in the few remaining days of this session and the truncated next session for the vote-on-account. In the absence of real statesmanship from either side, it looks like the 17th Lok Sabha will have an ignominious end.