Decline of Indian Parliament: The missing Debates

INTRODUCTION

Indian Parliament is the supreme legislative body of India. The law-making powers of the highest legislative body are supreme and an essential part of the functioning of any Parliament. It comprises of the President and the two Houses - Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and Lok Sabha (House of the People). The President has the power to summon and prorogue either House of Parliament or to dissolve Lok Sabha. The Constitution of India came into force on January 26, 1950. The first general elections under the new Constitution were held during the year 1951-52 and the first elected Parliament came into existence in April, 1952 Parliament is not merely a law making body, it is a multi-functional institution performing a wide variety of roles. It has a representative role, being the custodian of the nation‘s ideals, hopes and faith. Various procedural methods are available to the members under the rules of procedures governing both the Houses of Parliament, to debate, discuss and resolve the problems faced by the nation. Indian being an Indirect/ Representative democracy where the elected representative of people represent the people in the parliament of India. The parliament is considered as a platform where all the issues being faced by the society are raised by the elected representatives with common consensus find solution to these problems. The opposition has a great role to play in the parliament ,it acts as an opposing force to the irresponsible and despotic decision making .The opposition is there to balance the power equation ,in the absence of strong opposition it is difficult to keep a check on the government of the day. In the present times the role of parliament is gaining more importance as with increasing complexities in the society it becomes important for the parliament to ensure that the issues being faced by the society are deliberated upon . It becomes the duty of the representatives of the people to raise issues that are being faced by the people. The whole idea of parliamentary democracy revolves around - Accountability. - Responsibility. - Transparency. not very encouraging for our society as whole. The parliament is always running short of time for discussing those issue which require immediate action. There is a decline in procedural practices of the parliament , unnecessary disruptions are causing the parliamentary paralysis in our Democarcy. Trends showing decline of Indian Parliament : # Source- live mint/decline of Indian pariament Inferences from the figure: 1. Over the year the productivity of Indian parliament has gone down due to various reasons. 2. There is considerable decline in the number of days of parliament in session. 3. The number of total parliament sittings during all the session has decreased with every passing year. Hours of work by Lok Sabha: A comparison over the years #source- PRS India. complexities it is very important for a country to spend more and more time on discussing problem faced by the society and come up with new ideas and solution. In a parliamentary democracy this duty lies with the parliament and if parliament is underperforming it is a big worry for a country as a whole.

#SOURCE: Hindustan times The above data shows that nearly 50% of the members of Lok sabha has criminal cases against them .It raises some serious questions like what?? can we expect from such people in terms of their contribution for the people and the society. Do they deserve to sit in the Parliament?? . It puts the sanctity of Indian constitution in question. Some other indictors of Parliamentary decline are: # Shortening of sessions. # Time lost due to disruptions in proceedings by the opposition and violation of norms and precedents by the government of the day. # Rampant absenteeism of members from Parliament. # Actual hours of sitting as a percentage of available hours with parliament.

• Fall in Ethical standards of legislators – The Concern of the legislator towards the country and responsibility for the society is declining day by day. The people just want to get inside the parliament to acquire a power position and to get some privileges. • Reduced number of days of sitting has become a norm in the country, many sensitive issues go unnoticed and there is very less time for discussions on issues that require in depth analysis. not taking into consideration the suggestions of the oppositions party paralyses the whole parliamentary proceedings. • Criminalization of politics –Almost 50% of the members in current Lok Sabha are from criminal background such leaders raises some serious issues related to the moral authority of the parliament . And there is not much that can be expected out of these members in terms of contribution to the society. • Party whip acts as a hurdle for many of the members who want to take initiative to come up with something innovative and out of the box thinking. • Unnecessary disruptions in the house hampers the overall functioning of the parliament. • Lack of expertise among the members of the parliamentarians resulting in delegated legislation and bureaucratization which has somehow undermined the role of the parliament.

• There should be a legal codification for the conduct in the house, any sort of deviation from that code of conduct should invite some serious penalties for the offender. • Number of days of sittings of the Parliament should be increased keeping in mind the growing complex nature of the society and to satisfy the needs of the increasing population it is important that out parliament out in as much as of its time into discussing matters those are bothering the people and come up with solutions to these problems. • Monetary penalties should be imposed for any any sort of indiscipline and disturbance created by any of the member of the house. • More powers should be given to the ethics committee so that committee can ensure the smooth functioning of the parliament with its rules and regulations getting a broader reach • Speaker and the chairman should be given more powers in order to regulate the house in a more effective manner so that any sort of disruption would not lead to the wasting of the time in the house. so that everyone takes it as their duty to be there in the house wherever the Parliament is in session. • The bills from the private members should also get recognition as they might touch upon things which are missing from the agenda of the concerned minister. Every MP, who is not a Minister, is called a Private Member. Till date, Parliament has passed 14 Private Members' Bills. Six of these were passed in 1956 alone. • The opposition should be given time to work on their agenda like in British parliament 20 days a year is given to the opposition to form their agenda and to come up with their side of the story

India is the largest democracy in the word and If India wishes to maintain its democratic credentials, parliamentarians must understand that the task of representing the opinions, interests and needs of citizens is their paramount responsibility. Also, a parliamentary government is described as government by discussion. Therefore, by allowing for wider and more impactful participation in parliament, it is possible that some of the causes of disruptions would get ractified. Simultaneously, it may improve the quality of debates if members with more expertise on a given subject are allowed to speak longer in the House. All of these measures would have to be coupled with other capacity building activities such as providing office space to all MPs, access to institutional research support and quality training program in order to both deepen and broaden our democratic polity. In the recent past we have seen the credibility of parliament going down, instances of members fighting among each other, throwing things at each other are very common in the parliament. Thus, Parliament has shown a considerable decline in terms of institutional capacity. 'Parliamentary paralysis' has seriously eroded the democratic ethos and tradition, with the result that we have inappropriate socio-economic policies and ineffective legislations in place. In the 1950-60s, Parliament, used to meet, on an average, 125-130 days in a year. This has come down to just 65-70 days in the last decade. It means that the amount of time for which Parliament sits and deliberates has gone done considerably. There is a need to look into this as we live in a world where we need more and more legislations,discussions ,debates as society is getting complex day by day. There is need to check constitution has provided us to continuously improve upon as a society in the form of Parliament.

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Independent Researcher, Masters in Public Administration (Panjab University) Village-Jharag, Tehsil-Jubbal, District-Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) 171206 kksarta@gmail.com