Presiding officer - Speaker - Order Order !!!

Continuing our series on Parliamentary reforms.

The parliament is a deliberative platform. Apart from enacting laws, it also has responsibility to accountability  of government whenever it meets. Elected representatives raise debate and discuss issues concerning constituencies and nation at large. In order, to make the house perform its function orderly and efficiently it is essential that someone plays the role of referee. That role in Lok Sabha is played by the Speaker. Unfortunately, the post has been not immune to scrutiny for its alleged partisan role.

Powers & Functions of the Speaker of LS?
Power

• On the order of precedence, ranks sixth, along with the Chief Justice of India.
• can punish a member for their unruly behaviour by suspending them to maintain discipline and decorum in the house 

Functions

• conducts the business in house
• decides on the agenda to be taken up for discussion during the meeting
• permit the moving of various kinds of motions and resolutions such as a motion of no confidence, motion of adjournment, motion of censure and calling attention notice as per the rules.
• also presides over the joint sitting of both houses of the Parliament of India.
• Article 110(3) makes speaker the final authority to decide whether a bill is a Money bill or not.
• Tenth schedule grants Rule making power and Deciding authority on matter of defection.

Issues with the post of Speaker arises from situational discretion and huge power bestowed to the office from constitution and other laws/rules :

• use of voice vote even in passing of budget (in some state assemblies)
• partisan role - selective in taking up issue.
• misuse of power wrt Money bill - to eclipse deliberation in RS.
• misuse of power wrt Anti-defection law
• Article 122 prohibits courts from inquiring into proceedings of Parliament and examining their validity
• Politicization of the post

Important judgments : 

• Kihoto Hollohan case, 1992 - Speaker acts a tribunal while deciding on Schedule X and is subject to judicial review.
• Mohd. Saeed Siddiqui v State of U.P. (2014) SC - decision of Speaker on Money Bill is final. 

Suggestion for Improvement :

• The speaker should apply conscience and play non-partisan role in true spirit of constitution. Must follow the principle "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion."
• A collegium of 3, headed by Speaker and 2 MP as member may be constituted to decide whether a bill is Money bill or not
• the question of Anti-defection may be decided by President after consultation with ECI as suggested by NCRWC 2002.
• A convention should develop as in UK, where elected Speaker resigns from her past party.

TB - cough cough (ADR)

Continuing our series on health, we now dive into the issue becoming a big headache for policy makers - Tuberculosis or TB. Compounding the problem is the issue of Drug resistant TB(MDR/ XDR TB) & HIV/TB. 


First let us get the scale of TB prevalence in India.

• 2.2 million of 9.6 million TB cases worlwide are found in India i.e. roughly 25% of TB patients are Indian  or every 4th TB patient is an Indian. (TB capital of world)
• India also is largest host of MDR-TB.

Cost ? 

• Human cost - kills more than 300,000 people in India every year
• Economic cost - causes economic losses of $23.7 billion annually.

What measures have been taken in past ? 

• NTP - 1962
• RNTCP - free WHO-DOTS((Directly Observed Treatment, Short-Course)) dosage
• Phase I (1998–2005): focus was on ensuring expansion of quality DOTS services to the entire country.
• Phase II (2006-11) : aims to firstly consolidate the gains made to date, to widen services both in terms of activities and access, and to sustain the achievements.
• NIKSHAY web based portal since 2012
• May 2012 India declared TB to be a notifiable disease - aim of improving the collection of patient care information. in future all private doctors, caregivers and clinics treating a TB patient had to report every case of TB to the government.

Flaws in existing scheme of things? What is the cause that despite programmes targeting TB patients , there are no signs of ending TB prevalence in India ? 

• low awareness among TB patients about free drugs
• stigma attached to the disease
• incomplete treatment cycle
• lack of reliable data on patient record
• low notifications by doctors in the private sector to government despite catering large TB patient
• Poor nutrition due to prevalence of poverty

Recent Schemes : 

• National Strategic Plan 2012–17, with a vision of achieving a "TB free India", and aims to achieve Universal Access to TB control services.
• Free Bend-aquiline for MDR-TB on case to case basis. 
• Improving Access to Affordable & Quality TB Tests (IPAQT) - 2013 @ subsidized price
• National Action Plan to combat Antimicrobial Resistance(AMR)
• India's Red Line campaign to curb over-the-counter use of antibiotics
• National nutrition mission

Way Forward : 

• enhancing awareness, 
• strengthening surveillance, - completion of treatment cycle
• improving rational use of antibiotics, (including in Poultry) 
• reducing infections and promoting research.
• efficient data collection mechanism
• effective use of technology e.g. SMS to patient  
• public-private partnership : engaging private hospitals in constructive manner -  very important in India as nearly 80% of the population in India first seek the private sector.
• incentivizing better performing states
• Poverty allevation

To conclude, TB cannot be fought by drugs alone but requires comprehensive approach to address all factors related to the disease including many social issues such as alleviation of poverty, overcoming illiteracy and universal access to primary health care.

What's causing steep rise in MDR-TB cases ? 

• overuse of anti-biotics 
• rampant misuse of antibiotics in the poultry industry. 
• antibiotic misuse in aquaculture in West Bengal

Solution : 

• Rational drug use & regulation - Red line campaign to curb over-the-counter use of antibiotics is a welcome move
• Surveillance 
• R&D 
• Clean animal husbandry, agriculture & aquaculture

Thus, it will require holistic approach in which inter-ministerial effort is required and working in silos will not work.

NGOs in India

Non-Governmental Organisations or NGOs, as they are commonly called are

• citizen based
• voluntary organisations
• outside the grasp of government
• that works for humanitarian purpose on not-for-profit motive

They constitute an important arm of civil society. Some notable examples of desi NGOs

• Karuna Trust - Universal access to Health Care
• Pratham - Education (prepares the famous ASER report)
• DHAN Foundation - Innovations for Inclusive Development
• PRADAN - Sustainable livelihood in villages.
• Sightsavers - FI for visually challenged
• GUIDE - study of understanding and addressing environmental, ecological and social problems.+ promoting sustainable development in arid/semi-arid regions of the state

Need of NGOs 

• they have strong grass-root presence & know-how of local issues
• professional + proven mettle. 
• Even UN recognizes their role in development & promotes governments to seek their active cooperation 
• LPG reform necessitated minimalist state for better governance
• Voice of Voiceless

Thus, they play a catalytic role in development.

Some challenges posed by NGOs in recent times : 

• Rapid proliferation in NGOs count coupled with poor registration ratio.
• Tax avoidance by non-filing of annual returns (IT Act) e.g. Greenpeace in 2015
• Non compliance with Foreign Contribution Regulatory Act (FCRA) despite large source of revenue being foreign donations
• Difficulty in National Integration : In 2014, IB(Intelligence Bureau) highlighted NGOs as threat to internal security 
• Anti-development - they are also seen to propagandize protest against Nuclear power plants, mining activity, dam construction , GM crops etc thus thwarting development measures.
• Cherry picking "Cause" on donor preference e.g. only few involved in nuclear disarmament, failure in providing justice to Bhopal gas tragedy causalities. further, French donated NGOs are usually soft on maoist.
• Fund diversion - but utilizing for intended purpose

Thus, many of NGOs are also seen to play obstructionist role in development.

Action taken by Government in recent past : 

• NGOs brought under ambit of Lokpal
• cancellation of registration of NGO, blacklisting of activists, freezing of bank accounts of those violating law.
• NITI Aayog maintains DARPAN portal for registration of NGOs/VOs

Criticism of government action : 

• stifling voice of NGOs who have rather highlighted governments flaws

So what's the long term solution ? 

• Cash flow to NGOs need regulatory law as suggested by SC
• ARC report - those receiving substantial public funds be brought under PCA,1988 & RTI,2005
• Implementation of S. Vijay Kumar Panel(2017) suggested measures
• Modernize registration procedures
• Ensure seameless operation of provision of IT Act & FCRA
• Reduce need for a physical interface b/w NGOs & public officials
• A 3-tier monitoring system for NGOs receiving Central fund
• Details of NGOs should be available as searchable database information

To conclude, NGOs are indispensable devices in India's development pathway and achieving targets set under SDG & Paris Climate deal. There is urgent need for a framework law to lightly regulate NGOs in India.

Health issues

"Good health" is one of the key goals under SDG(number 3) adopted for duration 2015-30. It has high correlation with other goals like clean environment, quality education, ending hunger etc.

India being a welfare state, primary responsibility lies on state for providing quality & affordable healthcare to its citizen. Under our constitutional framework, health has been enlisted in List II(State List). Nevertheless, successive Central government has provided necessary help in achieving a healthy society.

India has dubious distinction as being one of the most lucrative destination for medical tourism while being poor performer in several health indicator(on some worse than its Asian neighbors & African countries)

Why is health so significant to an economy? And more so for India?

• Moral & constitutional obligation - DPSP + modern conception of liberty is linked with individual's capacity.
• Economic rationale - the healthier the workforce, more productive the economy(demographic dividend). Further, if health expense
• To fight poverty - For a country like India, where 22% of its population is below its official poverty limit, every year significant earning is spent for better health as out of pocket expense keeping them under perpetual poverty.
• International commitment - SDG

Thus, better healthcare will not only help converting unhealthy population from liability to asset but also have spill over affect on other areas.

In this blog, we will have an eagle-eye view on health related issues and later zoom in to sub-topics giving more focus on recent trends e.g TB, MDR, Mental healthcare bill etc.

1. Diseases specific 
• TB, HIV/AIDS
• Vector borne - Kala Azar
• Leprosy
• Non-communicable diseases/ Life-style diseases : poor more affected than rich
• Mental illness - suicides , new bill .
2. Age/Group specific
• Pregnant & Lactating(P&L) women & new born - MMR, IMR etc
• Children - stunting, wasting , poor vaccination etc. (Eco Survey - Early intervention)
• Adolescent - anemia(girls), tobacco, drugs etc. 
• Dependent/ Elderly 
3. Health related Legislative framework & policies 
4. General challenges in health care in India
• affordability
• accessibility
• quality
• data collection and monitoring
• less than required doctor to population ratio
• poor budgetary support - high Out of Pocket expense(OOP) ;
• poor medical education (MCI reform)
• drugs - IPR, pricing, quality, manufacturing (API drugs dependence on China) 
5. Some generic suggestions
• time for "health" to be moved in Concurrent list ?
• health budget as % of GDP demand not less than 2.5% 
• Universal insurance a panacea to all problems ? 
• Kerala Model , TN model(mass procurement of drugs) 
6. Miscellaneous 
• Palliative health care ?
• NITI Ayog's proposal - PPP for NCDs in District Hospitals
• Superbugs / Drug resistance 
• AYUSH particularly Yoga
• euthanasia 

Of particular significance, in this thread will be recent initiatives :

• Indradhanush Immunization scheme 
• Swachh Bharat Abhiyan - Kayakalp for making hospitals clean
• Budget 2017-18 : Action plan to eliminate 
• Kala-Azar +Filariasis by 2017, 
• Leprosy by 2018 and 
• Measles by 2020
• New National Health Policy
• RSBY 

In the upcoming blogs we will zoom-in to individual sub-topics and explore in detail ....

Anti-defection law : Time to review it ?

Please see this for basics of Anti-defection such as :

• important amendments 
• what constitute defection
• SC judgement on anti-defection

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It has been more than 3 decades since 52nd constitutional amendment(1985) which added a new Schedule, Tenth, to stop the defection among parliamentarians. The 91st amendment (2003) raised the bar of wholesale defection from 1/3 to 2/3. Let's review it's efficacy and limitations which calls for fine tuning of the law.

Efficacy of Anti-defection law : 

• Provided much needed stability. It has certainly reduced the phenomena of 'aya ram gaya ram' prevalent in 1980s.
• It has also reduced the cases of horse trading.
• Strengthened the position of party over whose ticket MPs contest election.

However, of late anti-defection law in the present form has been felt to be doing more harm than good. Reasons being :

• Stifled individual legislator's voice. MPs/MLAs are representative of their constituencies. Yet they cannot raise will of their constituencies on important issues.
• legislators hostages to political party
• changed the very nature of Westminster model of parliamentary democracy
• fundamental feature of the first-past-the-post system is that it increases the accountability of individual MPs. Anti-defection breaks this link as MPs do not have to justify their individual votes on issues that may be important to their voters.
• removed the need for the government to build a broad consensus for its decisions: ruling party has to convince only the leader of opposition party
• dis-incentivized the individual MPs from taking seriously thinking & researching on any issue.
• at times, it has also led to questioning the neutrality of the post of Speaker, who acts as tribunal on matters pertaining to defection.

Viewed from this perspective, the Tenth Schedule has  violated the fundamental tenets of the Constitution if not the basic structure doctrine.

Thus, it indeed calls for reform. What can they be ? Some of the suggested reforms are : 

• Limiting the areas of applicability of anti-defection law : to such matters as confidence motion, no-confidence motion, adjournment motion, money bill or financial matters.( Dinesh Goswami Committee)
• Law commission in past has also suggested that party issue whip only when government is in danger.
• Reform in post of Speaker : selected legislator should resign from his/her party as a matter of convention as done in UK to make the post more neutral.
• NCRWC 2002 : question of anti-defection may be referred to ECI. 

The above steps will help making legislatures more accountability towards their voters and strengthen the roots of democracy. It will also necessitate the ruling party reach out to individual MPs thereby making most decisions consensus driven.

In the next blog, we will inquire into the relevance of Rajya Sabha ....

This blog is part of "Reforms in Parliament" series. 

Reforms in functioning of Parliament

Parliament is the most visible face of a democracy. An effective parliament is sine qua non for smooth functioning of a country based on rule of law. There has been general decline in function of parliament across the world and more so in India.

Important Facts worth remembering :

• Cost :  running Parliament in sessions costs ₹2.5 lakh per minute
• Session Duration : Lok Sabha - an average of 120 days/year(b/w 1950s-60s).  
• Last decade - an average of 70 days/year.
• Productivity : 2016 winter session was 14%, while that of the Rajya Sabha was 20%
• 2018- Parliament Sees Least Productive Budget Session In 18 Years
• Lok Sabha - 1950s - avg 127 days vs 2017 - 57 days; 1st LS - 72 Bills vs 15th LS - 40 Bills

Major issues plaguing legislature of India (Parliament in particular) are :

• Poor attendance of MPs, 
• Poor quality of debates and 
• pandemonium marking the proceedings - 'federation of anarchists' RS chairman Hamid Ansari
• Presiding officer - an impartial institution?
• Anti-defection law
• Abuse of parliamentary privileges ( primarily against journalists)
• Relevance of Rajya Sabha  
• Voting Method - Closed/open ballot, e-voting or voice vote(Uttarakhand budget passage issue)
• Low Women Representation- neither house seen women MPs cross the 12% mark(108th CAA)
• Separation of power - Parliamentary secretary, MPLAD, Ordinance 

Ways of Disqualification of MP :

• Office of Profit : Art 102(1) & 191(1)
• Anti-Defection  : Schedule X
• Parliamentary law : RPA, 1951

In this blog, we look at decline of meaningful debates in parliament with some depth and explore feasible solutions.

Cause of decline in debates :

• Extremely competitive party system
• Lack of majority of ruling party in Upper house
• Anti-defection law has also gagged individual MPs belonging to a party
• Ruling parties have failed to reach out to opposition on major policy issues.
• Rise of coalition government
• Live telecasting of session (but state legislative sessions not televised?)
• Decreased ideological differences between party - "catch-all" parties.

Consequences of this decline in parliamentary debates :

• Poor accountability of executive 
• Hasty & ad-hoc manner of passage of bills
• Increasing adoption of Ordinance route & money bill route 
• clubing of matters other than listed in Article 110 and passing as money bill e.g. on AADHAR
• No private bills passed was in 1970 - only 14 since independence  
• Loss of public faith in democracy
• Cost : not merely monetary but in terms of depriving the elected members from doing their constitutionally mandated task

This has resulted in very low productivity of the Parliament despite the cost of running parliament being very high.

How to solve this issue ? Well, it will require urgent reform in Constitution & rules of procedure in Parliament : 

• Political wherewithal is required to give priority to policy/national-agenda over party agenda.
• Anti-defection law needs recast in order to empower our legislators --> limit it to important issues like no confidence motion, money bill etc.
• Impartiality of Presiding officer - Lok Sabha speaker should resign from his/her party as done in England.
• Presiding officer need to take all steps necessary to ensure order in the House as empowered by the Rules.
• Opposition party needs to have more say in setting the agenda of the house. 
• Increase in duration of parliament e.g. UK/USA session entire year
• There is need of continuous communication b/w ruling party & opposition. As country's first PM Nehru ji used to say the ruling party & the opposition are like the two wheels of same cart. Both needs to move only then the nation will move forward.

"Democracy says that opposition must have its say and the government must have its way because it is as per the mandate of the people". VP M Venkaiah Naidu

Other suggestions :

A commission to examine our parliamentary system on lines on NCRWC is the need of the hour

National Commission to review the working of the Constitution recommended 120 & 100 days for LS and RS, respectively. 

Passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill (108th amendment) reserving 33% of all seats in Parliament and State legislatures for women.

Institutionalized process - needs a parliamentary budget office, akin to the U.S. Congressional Budget Office

In other blogs, we shall see remaining parts...