By TCN News,
New Delhi: Eminent legalists and intellectuals have expressed serious concern at the growing culture of disruption in Parliament Earlier, 49 percent of the Parliament’s time was spent for law making, and now it has come down to 13 percent. They were speaking at a symposium on the “Role of Parliament in Modern Democratic India” organised by Institute of Objective Studies here on 5th Feb.
The oft-repeated cliché “Founding Fathers of the Constitution” should be changed to “Founding Fathers and Mothers of the Constitution” in the interest of fair-play and gender justice, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Justice Rajindar Sachar, said. He was delivering the presidential address at the inaugural session of the symposium at the India Islamic Cultural Centre.
Justice Rajindar Sachar (center) delivering presidential address
He said that India had copied and internalised the expression “Founding Fathers” of the US Constitution. However, we also had some remarkable women among the founders of our Constitution, like Begum Anisa Kidwai, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur and Sucheta Kirplani. There has to be some clarity about the actual position of Parliament among the other two centres of power, executive and judiciary as all three draw upon the same source of sovereignty that is “We the People of India”. Js Sachar termed the present criminalization of politics as ‘politicisation of crime’. He explained that while politicians used criminals for their purposes earlier, now the criminals have themselves joined politics. MPs should forego their salaries and allowances for the days on which no business was conducted. He opined that the privileges of MPs were in many ways “excessive, out of proportion and unrealistic” and that the citizens of India should now say “this far, and no further”. The law of representation should be amended to bring in people of cleaner record, women and minorities.
Earlier, 49 percent of the Parliament’s time was spent for law-making, and now it has come down to 13 percent, recalled Dr Subhash Kashyap, former secretary general of the Parliament. The quality of laws had suffered as very few members took care to read and discuss bills before passing them. Over the last few years the requirement of quorum (the presence of a minimum number of members in the House during the session) had been ignored and bills had been passed with as few as seven, twelve or fifteen MPs present in the Lok Sabha. For over 30 years no private member’s bill had been passed while government bills were passed unthinkingly. Parliament no longer controls government, it is the other way round. Parliament has no financial control over the government. Hundreds of financial demands are passed in hours, even the whole budget is passed within minutes. He added that the number of Lok Sabha MPs with a criminal background had been on the increase over the years. Ironically, “the present Lok Sabha has 300 crorepatis” while it represents a country with the world’s largest number of illiterates and poor. Dr Kashyap said the Lok Sabha was full of members representing the “elitist civil society” not “We, the People of India”.
India has only a 20 percent democracy, said Syed Shahabuddin, former Parliamentarian and diplomat. People come to power by getting merely 20 percent of the votes polled. One of the ways of dealing with present ills would be to adopt the presidential system of government. He also spoke against the public funding of candidates for assembly or Parliament seats.
Veteran journalist Kuldeep Nayar said that Parliament failed the nation in 1984 and 2002 when it made no meaningful intervention in the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi and parts of north India, and in the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat. He advocated the right to recall under which voters have the right to nullify the election of their representatives in case of unsatisfactory performance. He was disturbed about the dismal performance of MPs.
The low representation of the disadvantaged communities in the Parliament was equally worrisome as the loss of public money caused by a stalled Parliament, said Prof AS Narang in the afternoon session chaired by Js AM Ahmedi. Economist Abusaleh Shariff, Prof BS Siddhu, Supreme Court lawyer Mushtaq Ahmed, Advocate Feroz Ahmed Ghazi and Js Fakhruddin also spoke. Education was the only way of empowering the disempowered, said Js AM Ahmadi in his presidential address.
The symposium adopted several resolutions, which expressed its deep concern over the deteriorating standards of the Indian Parliament, lack of interest in the Parliamentarians in legislation which led to passing of laws without necessary debates and discussions. It demanded that the Parliamentary privileges should be codified and well-defined. MPs should not be paid if no work is carried out in either house of the Parliament. Steps should be taken to ensure the representation of all sections of the people in the Parliament.
Dr Mohammad Manzoor Alam, chairman of the IOS, said that the Institute would continue to debate and highlight the major issues of public concern in the following months. The Silver Jubilee celebrations of the IOS, beginning from April 15, would continue for a year, during which seminars and symposia would be organized all over the country.