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Union PARLIAMENT

 UNION PARLIAMENT 


Introduction
  1. considered all three options
    1. gandhians: partyless democracy
      1. opposed party system since it pursues party interest in name of national interest
    2. modernist like Nehru, Ambedkar: preferred parliamentary system
      1. previous experience
      2. more accountable to legislature
      3. more democratic since result into cabinet system
      4. india's diversity
    3. western scholars were apprehensive
      1. society and economy was not suitable for democracy
      2. Moris Jones: book- Parliament in India
        1. western in origin
        2. lack of experience
        3. scale of diversity
        4. adverserial democracy due to social cleavages rather than consensus diversity
        5. extreme competition in politics since traditional society so hunt for power
        6. weakness during Pt Nehru
          1. lack of opposition
          2. lack of independent thinking among back-benchers
          3. close relationship between govt and party
          4. concealed dictatorship of Nehru
          5. social environment in country

Evolution of Parliamentary Democracy
  1. uptil 1960s
    1. Nehru's time
    2. refer Moris Jones
  2. phase 2 1960s-1990s
    1. beginning of disillusionment and decline of parliamentary system
      1. death of Pt Nehru
      2. breakdown of congress
      3. beginning of defection
      4. Indira Gandhi started concentrating power in her hand
      5. decline of cabinet system
      6. rise of regional parties
      7. growth of corruption
    2. rise of  social movements in 1970s
      1. anti-price rise movement
      2. chipko movement
      3. JP Narayan for Total Revolution
      4. govt imposed emergency
      5. adversarial politics started
      6. breakdown of law and order in north east and JK, Punjab
  3. phase 3 1990s
    1. greatest amount of decline
    2. Hamid Ansari: parliament has become 'federation of anarchy'
      1. debates are rare, informed debates are rarer
    3. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Devesh Kapoor- book- 'public institution in india'
      1. criminalisation of politics made indian parliament self-serving institution
    4. shankar and Rodrigues: book- Indian Parliament
      1. following reason for decline
        1. plebianisation of indian democracy
        2. coalition politics
        3. lack of responsible opposition
        4. lack of electoral reforms
        5. presence of criminal in parliament
        6. politicisation of post of speaker
        7. problem of defection
        8. poor functioning of committee system
        9. lack of training and capacity building among parliamentarian
        10. disruption in parliament
        11. increased no. of ordinance
  4. 6 parameter of World Bank to evaluate working of legislature
    1. financial
      1. cost to country have to be evaluated
    2. compliance
      1. assess how much parliamentarians comply with conduct of parliament
    3. efficiency
      1. quality of work, time invested
    4. effectiveness
      1. how much presence is felt in country
    5. relevance
      1. how much qualitative improvement institution  is bringing in life of people
    6. sustainability
      1. is institution in rise or decline
  5. result on the basis of above is not satisfying
  6. parliament has brought many landmark legislation
    1. RTE
    2. Right to Food
    3. right to employment
  7. massive participation of people in election show that there is trust of people in democracy
  8. it is necessary to implement institutional reforms
  9. presidential form is neither desirable nor possible
    1. except US, it couldn't maintain its democratic nature
  10. need to think on direct democracy
    1. Prof Deepankar gupta, Neeraja Gopal Jayal; question should be not whether we should have direct deomcracy but when and how
 
Role of Opposition
  1. integral component of parliamentary form of govt
  2. priviledges with opposition
    1. right to ask question
    2. bring motion
  3. opposition in Britain is called His Majesty's Opposition
  4. Leader of opposition enjoys rank of cabinet minister
    1. included in screening committee for appointment of important posts
  5. role of opposition not satisfactory
    1. initially lacked no. and worked from margins
    2. after breakdown of congress, couldn't play important role due to lack of solidarity
    3. since coalition politics, considerable growth in power of opposition
    4. major factor for decline of parliament and ordinance raj
    5. doesn't follow parliamentary ethics
    6. opposition sabotages functioning of govt
      1. doesn't even support right policies of govt
    7. opposition doesn't take interest in standing committee of parliament
      1. prefer joint parliamentary committee to investigate scam

Reforms
  1. electoral reforms
    1. check the entry of criminals
    2. reform institution of speaker and adopt british system, once a speaker always a speaker
    3. reform anti-defection law
    4. codification of  priviledges
    5. training and capacity building
    6. minimum working hours of parliament
    7. media should also patronage positive role of parliament
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