New Delhi: In an unprecedented move, over 16,000 people, including country’s top industrialists have signed a petition urging the parliamentarians to allow the temple of democracy to function, debate and legislate.

The signature campaign was started on Saturday on change.org and has already been signed by leading industrialists such as Infosys founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj, Hero MotoCorp boss Pawan Munjal, Adi Godrej, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Ajay Sriram, Sumit Mazumder and GE India head Banmali Agrawala.

"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," the petition says.

The petition further says: “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. Important laws like the Constitution amendments in Goods and Services Tax which improves India’s growth rate is held up. 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.”

We, therefore, urge all political parties to have a collaborative and consultative process in the Parliament and allow the Parliament to function, to debate and legislate.

The Monsoon Session, which began on July 21 and is due to end on August 13, has witnessed huge uproar and faced continued disruptions over the alleged help extended to former IPL chief Lalit Modi by Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, and over the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh.

The Congress has been demanding the resignations of Swaraj, Raje and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Though, the Modi government has accepted to debate on Lalitgate, however, it has made it amply clear that there would be no resignations and also refused to discuss state issues in Parliament.