NEW DELHI: In probably a first-of-its-kind initiative, over 15,000 people, including the country’s top industrialists have launched a signature campaign, urging lawmakers to allow Parliament to function, debate and legislate .

Since its launch on Saturday, the petition on change.org has been signed by leading industry captains such as Rahul Bajaj, Infosys founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, Pawan Munjal of Hero MotoCorp, Adi Godrej, Kiran Majumdar-Shaw, GVK’s GV Sanjaya Reddy, GE India head Banmali Agrawala, and “14,000 more”.

Those such as Anu Aga of Thermax, a lawmaker herself and a known critic of Narendra Modi in the post-2002 riots, have also come on the platform urging Parliament to end the logjam. The list also includes several prominent citizens such as doctors (Naresh Trehan and Ashok Seth), academicians (IIT Madras’ Ashok Jhunjhunwala and IIM Ahmedabad’s Piyush Kumar Sinha) and diplomats.

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“Parliamentary protest are not unknown. Parliamentary stalemates can never be permanent. Parliamentary paralysis can lead to weakening of India’s democracy. There is a spread of political power between the opposition and the government in Indian Parliament. Both have an important role to play. Both have responsibility to discuss and resolve political issues. Political consensus represents the best practice in Indian democracy,” said the petition.

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India Inc has been restless for the past few years and was hoping that the election of the Modi government would help revive the faltering economy. But the series of disruptions since last year, and the latest stalemate in Parliament prompted the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to launch the campaign. “Industry feels that you must let Parliament do its business because the impact goes beyond business and affects the people,” said CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee.

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The lockdown of Parliament led by the Congress party has already raised doubts over the passage of the crucial Bill to amend the Constitution and enable the Centre and the states to roll out goods and services tax from April. The implementation has been in the pipeline for nearly a decade but political wrangling has prevented the unveiling of the most ambitious tax reform since independence. There are only two days to go for the three-week monsoon session to end and Parliament stares at the prospect of wasting crores of taxpayer money without transacting any business, other than clearing additional government spending.

“Recent events have been disheartening. They have the potential of eroding popular faith in Parliament. Perpetual disruption can never be the rule. Street demonstrations against the Chair of the Lower House are of unprecedented scale. The Lower house is without some opposition members. The upper house is perpetually adjourned. The importance of uninterrupted legislative function of the Parliament can hardly be over emphasized,” the petition said.

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It then went on to underline the importance of GST and its link to the country’s growth. “GST has taken a long time in coming and has taken years of consensus building, and CII has time and again reiterated that this could significantly contribute to India’s and States’ growth. India has to grow in order to alleviate poverty and create jobs. Parliament did not get an opportunity to discuss important issues, like floods, security issues, other economic priorities, etc. It is only a debate which brings out the facts to enable people to form a fair and objective opinion on important matters.”

