Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda has expressed deep concern over what he described as rising disorder and casual protests in Parliament during the ongoing Budget Session. In a detailed letter dated March 16, the 92-year-old veteran wrote to senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, warning that repeated disruptions risk weakening the foundations of India’s parliamentary democracy.

Drawing on his long political career, Gowda noted that he has spent nearly 65 years as a legislator, with about ninety percent of that time on the Opposition benches. Despite his extensive experience in opposition, he stressed that he never resorted to entering the well of the House or staging protests in either Parliament or state legislatures. “You, yourself have spent long years in Opposition, and while there, you have conducted yourself with grace and maturity,” he observed in the two-page letter.

Gowda criticized Congress MPs, led by the Leader of Opposition, for what he described as frequent disruptions, slogan shouting, and demonstrations inside Parliament in recent days. He highlighted the growing practice of dharnas and blockades outside the parliamentary complex, which he called unprecedented in scale. “Parliament in recent times has witnessed an excess of slogan shouting, display of placards and name-calling. There has been an attitude of non-seriousness, which has assaulted my very idea and construct of parliament and parliamentary democracy,” he wrote.

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The former Prime Minister also called out what he described as an emerging “culture of casual protests” within the Parliament premises. Referring to demonstrations where members were seen sitting on the steps of Parliament while ordering tea, biscuits, and pakodas, he said such behavior diminishes the dignity of the institution. He cited the March 12 protest at the Makar Dwar entrance, where Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, joined colleagues in what was widely shared on social media.

Acknowledging that protest is a legitimate democratic tool, Gowda emphasized that such actions must remain within established parliamentary rules and traditions. He invoked the guidance of India’s founding leaders, including Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, B.R. Ambedkar, and Abul Kalam Azad, noting that Parliament has never previously witnessed such levels of chaos and casualness.

In his appeal to Sonia Gandhi, Gowda urged the senior leader to draw on her political experience to encourage her party to restore decorum and responsibility in parliamentary conduct. “I urge you, who is the eldest in the ranks of the Opposition, to speak to your party leaders and others… You can perhaps ask them not to harm themselves, their cause and their political futures in the long run,” he wrote. He concluded by affirming that while the Opposition must continue to raise issues, it should do so without undermining institutions built over more than seventy-five years of democratic practice.

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