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...