The parliament is said to be the epic center of any form of democracy, wherein the interests of the greatest possible number of citizens should be represented. They all can vote for individuals who represent them in Parliament. The important tasks which are performed by any Parliament are:

Law-Making

Parliament passes the laws that govern the state/country. Once enacted, the government, the public authorities and the courts have to obey these laws in the same way as all citizens do.

Controlling the Government

Parliament is supposed to watch closely what the government does: the Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers and Secretaries of State, etc have to justify themselves for what they – and the authorities under them – do. The idea is not only that Parliament exercises control over them – discussing the matters in question may also give rise to improvements and reforms.

Representation & Debate

The fundamental meaning of Parliament is essentially "to speak". Public debate, exchanging arguments, and even political disputes are the core business of any parliament. However, these should be governed by the rules of parliament or constitution itself. Each public debate, arguments, cross-exchange of opinions, point of views are ways of demonstrating to the larger public what parliamentarians stand for.

Observing distinct ideologies, they add hues to collective decision-making which find its best notion when the matters or acts or bills are deliberated upon in various parliamentary committees in order to arrive at consensus.

Dance of Demon-cracy

What we witnessed in just concluded Monsoon Session of Parliament in India?

Did we see the deliberation upon law-making?

Did we see them discussing the matters in the form of 'legitimate questions' which might have given rise to improvements and reforms to Government's socio-economic initiatives/efforts?

Did they debate for people? or Did they represent the people of country they were supposed to represent?

Instead, we saw 44+ parliamentarians sabotaging the aspirations of a billion-people. We saw them curtailing the Indian GDP potentially by 1% (read: only 1-fiscal year). We saw them taking hostage of Industry & Business sectors, by not letting the GST Bill passed in Upper House (Rajya Sabha), which is currently being seen as a crucial piece of tax reform linked to the Modi government's efforts to improve ease of business and boost revenues.

We saw a section of our parliamentarians turning into 'Demons' who were hell-bent to curtail the Indian Growth story, by adopting the policy of disruption. Continuous disruption by opposition parties, with Congress as chief cheerleader for protests, subverted all efforts to take up important legislation for discussion and passage. But parliamentarians have been elected to debate issues, not force continuous adjournment of the legislature. If Congress Party continues to be in protest mode and hold up all legislative business, then it risks being branded as anarchic and anti-development ­ the online petition by industrialists deploring incessant disruptions in Parliament points to this.

It was nowhere like the battle of ideologies among 2-mainstream political parties. They subjugated the national interest by enforcing their party interests first. Rajya Sabha worked for just 9% of its allotted time, the worst since the 2010 winter session, while Lok Sabha functioned for 48% of the time. Excluding money bills, the Delhi HC (amendment) bill 2014 was the only bill to be passed by both Houses. Lok Sabha, aided by the expulsion of 25 Congress members for five days, managed to work for almost half the time (48%) allotted to it.

Times of India reported today that, "This session witnessed the lowest number of bills being passed in the last five years. This productivity is in sharp contrast to the budget session this year, which was the most productive session in the last 15 years.....As a result of continuous disruptions during Question Hour, only 2% of questions were answered orally while only 1% of the time was spent on legislative business in RS." Times of India summarized:

The government seems determined, but their efforts to roll out GST from April 1, 2016 are severely jeopardized. Congress held the Rajya Sabha at hostage, where Congress commands 68 MPs. The darkest culmination of Monsoon Session forced the Government & allies to undertake 'Save The Democracy' march.

However, Narender Modi government faces the same uphill-task of doing what it needs to do for the nation which the King Leonidas was forced to undertake in the face of same demon-cracy.

Can Prime Minister Modi do the same with his 300s? Of course, the prize is supreme, but the costs are grand too...!!