Evolution of the Indian Parliament, declining standards and reforms needed
The evolution of the Indian Parliament since independence can be divided into 3 phases:
• 1947-1967
• 1967-1989
• Post 1989
Important features during 1947-67:
• First generation of political leaders; MPs were men of high stature who enjoyed the credibility among the masses; Nehru nurtured democratic institutions such as the Parliament; the quality of debates was high; all the MPs including the PM religiously attended parliamentary sessions; notwithstanding the small opposition, the parliament held the executive accountable; there were no adjournments or disruptions
Important features during 1967-89:
• The beginning of fragmentation of polity; 1967 elections were a watershed event in the Indian political history; non congress governments were formed in a number of north and central Indian states; political competition increased which in turn led to criminalization of politics; criminals started to support political parties by wielding money and muscle power; there was a considerable decline in the quality of parliamentary functioning; parliamentary control over the executive declined and the period witnessed Prime Ministerial form of government; 1975-77 was the darkest period in the history of Indian parliamentary democracy; emergency imposed and most of the opposition leaders were put in jail; the parliament functioned without any opposition; the tenure of the parliament also extended for 1 year
• During Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure also, the decline continued. Even basic Parliamentary conventions were not followed. For instance: the JPC to investigate the Bofors scam did not have a single opposition member; similarly, the PAC was not headed by a leader of opposition political party as was and has been the convention
Important features Post 1989:
• Further fragmentation of polity; era of coalition governments started; since 1989 we have not had a single election wherein any party has got an absolute majority of seats; intense political competition led to politicization of crime i.e. criminals instead of supporting candidates from outside, started participating in electoral process directly and became a part of the parliament and executive; communalization of politics which started in mid 1980s reached its peak with Babri masjid demolition; caste based regional political parties became prominent
• There has been further decline in parliamentary standard. Few incidents to highlight this:
o 1993 JMM bribery scandal: Narsimha Rao government bribed JMM MPs to vote in their favour in the o confidence motion; the scandal was unearthed but given the fact that courts cannot interfere in the manner in which MPs vote inside the Parliament, nothing could be done
o 2006 cash for question scam: In a sting operation, few MPs were caught on camera taking money to ask certain question in the Parliament
o 2009 cash for vote scam: After the withdrawal of left parties, the UPA government was accused of bribing few MPs to vote for the government in the no confidence motion. Cash was flashed inside the Parliament which was a disgraceful event
Evaluation of Parliamentary functioning:
Number of days of meeting in a year/productive time
• 1st Lok Sabha: 135 days on an average
• 14th Lok Sabha(2004-09): 65 days on an average
• Monsoon session of the Parliament this year (2013): total productive time in Lok Sabha was just 58%, while in Rajya Sabha, it was 80% of the scheduled time
However, it must be noted that Departmentally Related Standing Committees were instituted in 1993. Since then, Parliament refers many Bills/ issues to these committees for detailed analysis. This work happens outside the scheduled sittings of Parliament.
Time on legislative matters:
Legislation is one of the most important functions of the Parliament:
• 1st Lok Sabha: 49% of total time on legislation; 72 bills passed on an average each year
• 14th Lok Sabha: 21% of total time on legislation; just 18 bills passed in 2004; 173 members did not speak anything on legislative matters
• 15th Lok Sabha: on average, government has a success rate of getting 39 percent of Bills passed
• Monsoon session of the Lok Sabha this year: Of the 43 Bills listed for passing this session, only 12 Bills were passed; 123 Bills are pending in Parliament at the end of the Monsoon Session which included important bills such as GST, DTC etc.
Private members bill:
• No Private Members' Bill has been passed by Parliament since 1970
• Till date, Parliament has passed 14 Private Members' Bills. Six of these were passed in 1956 alone.
• Monsoon session of the Lok Sabha this year (2013): No Private Members’ Business was conducted in Lok Sabha; Rajya Sabha devoted 2 hours
Adjournments and disruptions
• 1st Lok Sabha: No/negligible adjournments and disruptions
• Monsoon session of the Parliament this year: Question Hour was disrupted on all days, but one in Lok Sabha; the Lok Sabha lost 42 per cent of the total time while Rajya Sabha lost 20 percent due to adjournments. On 12 days, Lok Sabha sat for less than an hour. Question Hour was conducted for only 13% of the scheduled time in Lok Sabha and 29% in Rajya Sabha.
• According to official estimates, each hour of running Parliament during sessions would cost the exchequer Rs. 25 lakh. A normal day in Parliament may last upto eight hours and that would mean a loss of Rs 2 crore on a day if no business is transacted.
Parliamentary control over finance: From 2004 to 2010, only 20 demand for grants were discussed while 298 were guillotined
Parliamentary standing committees: Average acceptance of the recommendations of these committees in 2004-09 has been around 50%; however, there has been a lot of delay in the presentation of Action Taken Report by the government
PAC had submitted 54 reports in 2004-09; 70% acceptance rate
Criminalization of politics:
• 31% of the MPs in the electoral college for Presidential elections have criminal cases against them
• 641 MPs and MLAs have serious cases against them
Role of money power:
• 306 MPs in 15th Lok Sabha and 131 in Rajya Sabha are Crorepatis
• Average asset of an MP is 5.8 crore
• The winning chance of the candidates with assets between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 5 crore is 18.5 per cent; for those with assets below Rs 10 lakh, it is only 2.6 per cent. This clearly indicates that money power is one of the major factors in the election system
Age profile of MPs:
There has been a noticeable shift in the age profile of MPs in Lok Sabha. The percentage of older MPs has increased significantly. In 1952, only 20 per cent of MPs were 56 years or older. In 2009, this figure had increased to 43 per cent. In the 1st Lok Sabha, there was no MP over the age of 70. This number has risen to 7 per cent in the current Lok Sabha. The number of MPs below 40 has decreased from 26 per cent in 1952 to 14 per cent in the current Lok Sabha.
There is a need to infuse the youth into our parliamentary system.
Some positives:
The education level of MPs has improved since 1952:
• The percentage of MPs without secondary education has decreased from 23 per cent in 1952 to 3 per cent in 2009.
• The percentage of graduates has increased from 58 per cent in 1952 to 79 per cent in 2009
Women constitute 11 per cent of the 15th Lok Sabha. In comparison, only 5 per cent of MPs in the 1st Lok Sabha were women.
Though the percentage of women MPs has increased over the years, it is still lower in comparison to some countries. These include Sweden (45 per cent), Argentina (37 per cent), UK (22 per cent), and USA (17 per cent).
Reforms needed:
• Minimum number of days of sitting: The All India Conference of Presiding Officers, Chief Ministers, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Leaders and Whips of Parties held in 2001 had called for immediate steps to ensure that Parliament meet for a minimum of 110 days every year. It had recommended that this change be brought in through a constitutional amendment if necessary.
• Speaker needs to use his/her statutory power to deal with adjournments and disruptions: use of rule 374 and 375
• Changes in anti defection law: Instead of leaving it to the discretion of presiding officer to suspend members under the anti-defection law, the governor in case of State Assembly and President in case of Parliament should be the deciding authority (2nd ARC recommendations)
• Implementation of SC verdict on section 8 of RoP act to check criminalization of politics
Name: Rishi Varma
References:
• PRS Legislative Research website
• Indian Politics Since Independence: NCERT Political Science, Class XIIth
• http://newindianexpress.com/nation/Dangerous-decline-of-Parliaments-role-in-India/2013/09/15/article1785661.ece
• http://164.100.47.132/estudy/duration.pdf
• http://ibnlive.in.com/news/indian-parliament-at-60-years-facts--statistics/257794-3.html
• 2nd ARC, Ethics in Governance
The evolution of the Indian Parliament since independence can be divided into 3 phases:
• 1947-1967
• 1967-1989
• Post 1989
Important features during 1947-67:
• First generation of political leaders; MPs were men of high stature who enjoyed the credibility among the masses; Nehru nurtured democratic institutions such as the Parliament; the quality of debates was high; all the MPs including the PM religiously attended parliamentary sessions; notwithstanding the small opposition, the parliament held the executive accountable; there were no adjournments or disruptions
Important features during 1967-89:
• The beginning of fragmentation of polity; 1967 elections were a watershed event in the Indian political history; non congress governments were formed in a number of north and central Indian states; political competition increased which in turn led to criminalization of politics; criminals started to support political parties by wielding money and muscle power; there was a considerable decline in the quality of parliamentary functioning; parliamentary control over the executive declined and the period witnessed Prime Ministerial form of government; 1975-77 was the darkest period in the history of Indian parliamentary democracy; emergency imposed and most of the opposition leaders were put in jail; the parliament functioned without any opposition; the tenure of the parliament also extended for 1 year
• During Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure also, the decline continued. Even basic Parliamentary conventions were not followed. For instance: the JPC to investigate the Bofors scam did not have a single opposition member; similarly, the PAC was not headed by a leader of opposition political party as was and has been the convention
Important features Post 1989:
• Further fragmentation of polity; era of coalition governments started; since 1989 we have not had a single election wherein any party has got an absolute majority of seats; intense political competition led to politicization of crime i.e. criminals instead of supporting candidates from outside, started participating in electoral process directly and became a part of the parliament and executive; communalization of politics which started in mid 1980s reached its peak with Babri masjid demolition; caste based regional political parties became prominent
• There has been further decline in parliamentary standard. Few incidents to highlight this:
o 1993 JMM bribery scandal: Narsimha Rao government bribed JMM MPs to vote in their favour in the o confidence motion; the scandal was unearthed but given the fact that courts cannot interfere in the manner in which MPs vote inside the Parliament, nothing could be done
o 2006 cash for question scam: In a sting operation, few MPs were caught on camera taking money to ask certain question in the Parliament
o 2009 cash for vote scam: After the withdrawal of left parties, the UPA government was accused of bribing few MPs to vote for the government in the no confidence motion. Cash was flashed inside the Parliament which was a disgraceful event
Evaluation of Parliamentary functioning:
Number of days of meeting in a year/productive time
• 1st Lok Sabha: 135 days on an average
• 14th Lok Sabha(2004-09): 65 days on an average
• Monsoon session of the Parliament this year (2013): total productive time in Lok Sabha was just 58%, while in Rajya Sabha, it was 80% of the scheduled time
However, it must be noted that Departmentally Related Standing Committees were instituted in 1993. Since then, Parliament refers many Bills/ issues to these committees for detailed analysis. This work happens outside the scheduled sittings of Parliament.
Time on legislative matters:
Legislation is one of the most important functions of the Parliament:
• 1st Lok Sabha: 49% of total time on legislation; 72 bills passed on an average each year
• 14th Lok Sabha: 21% of total time on legislation; just 18 bills passed in 2004; 173 members did not speak anything on legislative matters
• 15th Lok Sabha: on average, government has a success rate of getting 39 percent of Bills passed
• Monsoon session of the Lok Sabha this year: Of the 43 Bills listed for passing this session, only 12 Bills were passed; 123 Bills are pending in Parliament at the end of the Monsoon Session which included important bills such as GST, DTC etc.
Private members bill:
• No Private Members' Bill has been passed by Parliament since 1970
• Till date, Parliament has passed 14 Private Members' Bills. Six of these were passed in 1956 alone.
• Monsoon session of the Lok Sabha this year (2013): No Private Members’ Business was conducted in Lok Sabha; Rajya Sabha devoted 2 hours
Adjournments and disruptions
• 1st Lok Sabha: No/negligible adjournments and disruptions
• Monsoon session of the Parliament this year: Question Hour was disrupted on all days, but one in Lok Sabha; the Lok Sabha lost 42 per cent of the total time while Rajya Sabha lost 20 percent due to adjournments. On 12 days, Lok Sabha sat for less than an hour. Question Hour was conducted for only 13% of the scheduled time in Lok Sabha and 29% in Rajya Sabha.
• According to official estimates, each hour of running Parliament during sessions would cost the exchequer Rs. 25 lakh. A normal day in Parliament may last upto eight hours and that would mean a loss of Rs 2 crore on a day if no business is transacted.
Parliamentary control over finance: From 2004 to 2010, only 20 demand for grants were discussed while 298 were guillotined
Parliamentary standing committees: Average acceptance of the recommendations of these committees in 2004-09 has been around 50%; however, there has been a lot of delay in the presentation of Action Taken Report by the government
PAC had submitted 54 reports in 2004-09; 70% acceptance rate
Criminalization of politics:
• 31% of the MPs in the electoral college for Presidential elections have criminal cases against them
• 641 MPs and MLAs have serious cases against them
Role of money power:
• 306 MPs in 15th Lok Sabha and 131 in Rajya Sabha are Crorepatis
• Average asset of an MP is 5.8 crore
• The winning chance of the candidates with assets between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 5 crore is 18.5 per cent; for those with assets below Rs 10 lakh, it is only 2.6 per cent. This clearly indicates that money power is one of the major factors in the election system
Age profile of MPs:
There has been a noticeable shift in the age profile of MPs in Lok Sabha. The percentage of older MPs has increased significantly. In 1952, only 20 per cent of MPs were 56 years or older. In 2009, this figure had increased to 43 per cent. In the 1st Lok Sabha, there was no MP over the age of 70. This number has risen to 7 per cent in the current Lok Sabha. The number of MPs below 40 has decreased from 26 per cent in 1952 to 14 per cent in the current Lok Sabha.
There is a need to infuse the youth into our parliamentary system.
Some positives:
The education level of MPs has improved since 1952:
• The percentage of MPs without secondary education has decreased from 23 per cent in 1952 to 3 per cent in 2009.
• The percentage of graduates has increased from 58 per cent in 1952 to 79 per cent in 2009
Women constitute 11 per cent of the 15th Lok Sabha. In comparison, only 5 per cent of MPs in the 1st Lok Sabha were women.
Though the percentage of women MPs has increased over the years, it is still lower in comparison to some countries. These include Sweden (45 per cent), Argentina (37 per cent), UK (22 per cent), and USA (17 per cent).
Reforms needed:
• Minimum number of days of sitting: The All India Conference of Presiding Officers, Chief Ministers, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Leaders and Whips of Parties held in 2001 had called for immediate steps to ensure that Parliament meet for a minimum of 110 days every year. It had recommended that this change be brought in through a constitutional amendment if necessary.
• Speaker needs to use his/her statutory power to deal with adjournments and disruptions: use of rule 374 and 375
• Changes in anti defection law: Instead of leaving it to the discretion of presiding officer to suspend members under the anti-defection law, the governor in case of State Assembly and President in case of Parliament should be the deciding authority (2nd ARC recommendations)
• Implementation of SC verdict on section 8 of RoP act to check criminalization of politics
Name: Rishi Varma
References:
• PRS Legislative Research website
• Indian Politics Since Independence: NCERT Political Science, Class XIIth
• http://newindianexpress.com/nation/Dangerous-decline-of-Parliaments-role-in-India/2013/09/15/article1785661.ece
• http://164.100.47.132/estudy/duration.pdf
• http://ibnlive.in.com/news/indian-parliament-at-60-years-facts--statistics/257794-3.html
• 2nd ARC, Ethics in Governance
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