The week is nearly over and the monsoon session of parliament is yet to begin as the opposition continued to stall the proceedings for the third consecutive day. The issue of skyrocketing prices is no doubt very serious and who is going to put the government on the mat if not the opposition?

But the opposition parties, which joined hands this month to stage a nationwide shutdown in protest, do not have a great record of controlling inflation where some of them ruled the country. The BJP lost in Delhi after it failed to control the prices of onions.

Instead of doing its business, taxpayers' precious money is being wasted in stalling the functioning of the two houses. The fine print of the opposition's goal is to force a debate under a rule that entails voting while the government is prepared for a debate without voting. Voting has significance in realpolitik: it would force some of the fringe constituents of UPA to take the unpopular stance of standing with the Congress or quit the alliance.

Beyond this, from the perspective of a citizen whose pocket has a huge hole now, what is it that a debate with voting is going to achieve that a debate without it cannot? And what is this debate in either format going to achieve that the shutdown did not?

In other words, we are happy that BJP and others are speaking up on this grave issue, but are they concerned about us or is it their politics as usual?