Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India. Our constitution provides
for parliamentary form of government. We have borrowed the constitutional
features of several democratic countries. But our parliamentary model is
predominantly based on the British system. The Head of Government in our
system, the Prime Minister, can hold office only so long as he commands the
confidence of the Lok Sabha. Confidence of the House is reflected in
existence/continuance of majority support - whether it be of a single party or
of a coalition of parties. This feature can, and does, cause instability in
governance. Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India.
In Presidential
democracies, the Head of Government, the President is directly elected by the
people and cannot be removed from office except in circumstances of high crimes
and misdemeanour established through impeachment process. Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India. Hence, Presidential
democracies provide stable governance. In our parliamentary system, we have had
changes of government through mid term elections or political realignments.
Changes in government undoubtedly bring about disruptions in implementation of
policies, development programmes and schemes. Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India.
Head of Government to be from the House of the People
Under Article 75 of the
Constitution, the Prime Minister is appointed by the President and the other
Ministers are appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister.
The Council of Ministers including the Prime Minister are collectively responsible
to the Lok Sabha. Often our Prime Ministers are not from the Lok Sabha but from
the Rajya Sabha.
His responsibility being
to the Lok Sabha, it is desirable that the Prime Minister is drawn from the Lok
Sabha.
Multi Party System
For a long time now, governance
through coalition arrangements has more or less become the order of the day in
the multi party system that we follow. In the current (15th) Lok Sabha, forty
political parties have their presence. As of now, the present UPA II Coalition
consists of 11 parties and is supported from outside by 9 parties. Running the
government by coalition formations like this is like running a handicapped
race. Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India.
The government gets to be
hamstrung in taking effective policy/reform measures. Coalition partners have their
regional, local and ideological agendas which they are often unable to
harmonize with the overall coalition programmes. Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India. While the Government tries to
ventilate its helplessness by referring to "coalition compulsions,"
the constituent partners complain of violation of "coalition dharma"
by the government in not reaching out to them. Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India.
Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India. There needs to be
effective and meaningful efforts on the part of ruling coalitions at what late
Prime Minister V.P Singh characterized as "management of
contradictions". This is feasible only if coordination mechanisms are
perfected and made functional by ruling coalitions.
Federalism
Our polity is a Union of
States. Our administration is decentralized. Sharing of powers is
constitutionally provided for and mandated. Rising up to local aspirations,
since original States Reorganization, several new States have been created. Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India. In
my experience, parliamentarians and constitutional authorities of other
countries have marvelled about our finely balanced Centre State relationship. Our
political leaders owe it to our people not to disrupt this balance. Of late,
especially with the rise of the regional parties, jurisdictional questions are
being increasingly raised on grounds of federalism.
Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India. Examples are
jurisdictional debates in the context of Lok Pal Bill and creation of National
Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC). On issues of national importance, National and
State level leaders and parties need to carefully harmonize their respective
concerns in a non partisan manner. This would be feasible only if National and
State governments reach out to each other for consensus building.
Money and Muscle Power in Elections
Money power plays a
significant role in our elections. Of course, the Election Commission does try
to keep vigil through its expense monitoring mechanisms against efforts at
mobilizing votes for money. That by no means can be considered to be adequate.
At least the public perception is that the election expenses incurred by
candidates are several multiples of the expenditure ceilings officially fixed.
Even as ceilings have to
be reviewed and revised, making them more realistic and consistent with ground
realities, statutory regulations in respect of their breach should be made
stringent and deterrent.
Criminalization of
politics caused by the nexus between bureaucracy, political players and
criminals has been a subject matter for public debates over several years. But
the problem persists. Candidates having criminal background do enter
legislative bodies.
This is because parties,
cutting across the political spectrum, give seats to candidates on ground of
their so called "winnability." It is for the political parties
themselves to set up standards regarding clean candidature policy. Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India.
Of course, electoral
contestants are now making declarations regarding their criminal antecedents,
if any, as well as their assets in affidavits filed by them while filing
nomination papers. At present, this is being done by them based on Supreme
Court Ruling. Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India. It is desirable to have clear statutory provisions regarding
mandatory declarations. Such provisions should also stipulate appropriate
sanctions against non disclosure of full information. Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India.
Inner Party Democracy
Choice of candidates by
political parties for electoral contests is not necessarily driven by
transparent inner party democratic processes. Often, it is the Party High
Command which has the ultimate say in choice of candidates. Political parties
need to introspect on the "High Command Culture".
Representation
The system of election
that we follow in our country is the "first past the post system."
That is, among various contesting candidates, whoever gets the highest number
of validly polled votes is declared elected. This results in candidates who do
not necessarily get the majority (more than 50%) of valid votes getting
qualified for seats in the legislative bodies. This also results in political
parties having seats in the legislative bodies disproportionate to the popular
votes polled by them in electoral contests.
Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India. The merit of the
"first past the post system" is that in our country of a billion
people, we can conduct elections without complicated procedures inherent in
proportional system of representation. The latter system also results in
multiplicity of parties in the legislative bodies.
Rules of Order in the Houses
Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India. The Rules of Procedure for
the Conduct of Business of the Houses do contain elaborate provisions
concerning orderliness in business transaction. These provisions are more often
observed only in their breach. Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India.
• Members drown one
another in their noisy demands, projecting issues outside the agenda;
• demand suspension of the
Question Hour;
• do cross talking;
• don't comply with the
instructions of the Chair;
• repeat arguments in
debates, not having done home work on the subjects of debates;
• often force adjournment
of the Houses from hour to hour, day to day;
• boycott Ministers;
• pass budgets hurriedly
without serious debates, cause guillotining important demands for grants
Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India. In the process what
suffers is the performance of the parliament in holding the government to
account. The people are seriously concerned with chaotic parliamentary
proceedings. Of course, the Presiding Officers can discipline the Members. But
they rarely exercise their disciplinary powers in the interests of patiently
getting the business through.
Ultimately, it is for the
parliamentary parties to ensure the orderly conduct of their Members. Either
the writ of these parties does not run among its Members or they passively
allow the members to create chaos on partisan considerations. The parties
should introspect on this matter.
Constructive Opposition
The Opposition necessarily
has to play the role of vigilantly keeping the government on leash. But it has
a very constructive role to play. Indeed, in the British parliamentary system,
the senior leaders in the Opposition form "shadow cabinet" - to
"shadow" each member of the government. It keeps government initiated
laws and policies under scrutiny and offers alternative policies. Often, shadow
cabinet members themselves become Ministers when the Opposition gets to form
the government. Opposition unity and integrity is as important as unity and
integrity of the ruling dispensation.
People of the country
should not lose out in terms of delivery of services in a merry ground of
cyclical partisan hostility between the ruling dispensation and the Opposition.
Law Making
Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India. Law making is the primary
function of legislative bodies. In all parliaments, there are established
procedures for making laws. By and large, these procedures concern initiation,
introduction, general discussion, Committee scrutiny, public consultation, amendments,
discussion in the plenary and voting leading to authentication by the
President. We also have time honoured rules for legislation comparable to
international standards. Of late, Civil Society Organizations have tended to
become strident in regard to the manner in which they should be consulted in
law making. Of course, these organizations can provide invaluable inputs based
on their grass roots perception of people's aspirations. It is desirable that
any public consultation including with Civil Society organizations is done
within the framework of parliamentary procedures.
In representational
democracie
Laws touching, as they do,
millions of people should be formulated without capricious and partisan
orientations. Government, on their part, could study, and learn from, the
experiences of other countries such as UK in perfecting pre-legislative
scrutiny.
Integrity of Institutions
Ministers and civilian
officers come and go. But institutions are there to stay. They are expected to
provide important technical support in governance - in their respective areas
of competence. Indeed they constitute the memory for, and continuance of -
smooth governance.
Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India. The integrity of these
institutions needs to be preserved and strengthened. An example of such
institutions is the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). In all truly
democratic countries, the supreme audit institution has constitutional status,
autonomous and politically neutral. Our CAG also has constitutional status. He
is appointed by the President. Before entering upon office he swears, inter
alia, to perform duties of his office "without fear or favour, affection
or ill will and uphold the Constitution and the laws". His duties and
powers are as prescribed by law by the parliament.
It is very important that
the office of the CAG, being a watch dog institution meant to provide objective
professional support to the parliament in its financial oversight of the
government is not dragged into controversies.
Right to Information (RTI)
Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India. The RTI law established by
the parliament is an important landmark in the evolution of our system of
governance into a transparent and accountable one. While the law finely and
deeply enunciates Fundamental Rights, there are bound to be lot more efforts at
seeking its further liberalization. This is because there are numerous items of
information which are exempt from disclosure, apart from organizations
altogether excluded from the ambit of the law.
The exempted items are
likely to be ingenuously interpreted by the officialdom so as to negate the
intent of the law. The enactment of the Right to Information Act should be seen
not as the end of the movement for access to information, but rather the
beginning. Critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India.
Read Also:
Discuss the significance of the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments in Indian democracy
Analyse the working of the federal system in India
Discuss how democracy and development are co-related to each other
BSW 121 Solved Assignment 2021-22
BSW 124 Solved Assignment 2021-22
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