· According to constitution parliament is the supreme law making body. It is a factory of laws
· But in recent histroy parliament has wilfully frittered away its supremacy
· Here are some of the ways in which this has happened
o After a bill is introduced in parliament, it is usually sent to parliament standing committee
§ the recommendations of standing committee are advisory in nature
§ government has no obligation to give reasons for rejecting the recommendations
§ it is a basic courtesy if not a right of MPs to know why their recommendations were rejected. Yet no one has bothered to ask for it so far
o most of bills are passed with little or no discussions
o the power to convene the parliament is in hands of government . hence government convenes it according to its requirements.
§ For instance in 2008, when India US nuclear agreement was a hotly debated issue. Government convened parliament for only 46 days which is the lowest in independent Indian history
o Anti defection law 1985: MPs have traded of their right to act independently
· Despite such glaring lacunae, our ministers and MPs assert that parliament is supreme in law making
· It is because of this lackadaisical approach of our MPs towards their duties that we are seeing a growing trend of judicial activism and civil society activism
· It is time our parliamentarians step up to the occasion and assert their right
o To demand reasons from government for rejecting their recommendations
o To act independently
o To discuss bills on important issues thoroughly
o To ensure that enough time is provided by government to discuss all issues
with inputs from centre for policy research
No comments:
Post a Comment