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LIVING IN A SHRUNKEN HOUSE
What the article is about?
- Talks about the challenges Indian Parliamentary practices pose to democracy.
Syllabus: GS-II Indian Constitution
No debates in Parliament:
- The Monsoon Session of the Indian Parliament in 2021 saw the Lok Sabha clearing over 18 bills with about 34 minutes of discussion for each.
- The Essential Defence Services Bill (2021), enabling the government to prohibit strikes, lockouts and lay-offs in units in the defence industry, saw 12 minutes of debate in the Lok Sabha, while the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill (2021) had just five minutes of debate (PRS India, 2021).
- Not one bill was referred to a parliamentary committee. MPs were rarely mustered in the House to record votes.
- The Parliament’s productivity is notable (129 per cent for the Lok Sabha in the last session in 2022) but a tradition of debate has been lost.
Comparison with foreign democracies:
- Deliberation on legislation is a design feature of parliamentary democracy.
- In the US, Senator Ted Cruz was given the opportunity to speak for 21 hours and 19 minutes in the Senate House, against Obamacare in 2013.
- Meanwhile, in India, the Farm Laws Repeal Bill (2021) was passed in just eight minutes (three minutes in the Lok Sabha, five minutes in the Rajya Sabha).
- MPs rarely have adequate resources to conduct in-depth research — a typical MP gets an allowance of Rs 40,000 per month to hire a legislative assistant.
- Meanwhile, in the UK, the average MP salary is £84,144, while in 2021, they got an allowance of £193,000-2,16,000 to hire legislative assistants.
- In Westminster, the British prime minister is required to answer questions from MPs in the House of Commons every Wednesday, from 12 pm to 12:30 pm.
- Even during Covid-19—induced lockdowns, PMQs were held virtually, enabling accountability (India, notably, scrapped Question Hour during this period).
- In India, this tradition has rarely been considered, with the prime minister and ministers often given queries in advance.
- In the US, Senate and House Committees scrutinise laws, confirm government appointments, conduct investigations, and hold hearings.
- In the UK, the House of Commons ran a public reading mechanism in 2013 where members of the public could add comments to draft legislation via a web portal, with 1,000 individuals participating with over 1,400 comments.
- In India, long-term development plans are simply not subject to parliamentary scrutiny, with just annual outlays approved.
- New Zealand makes it compulsory for all bills to be referred to a select committee for scrutiny.
- The UK has passed seven private member bills since 2019, while Canada has passed six bills.
- In India, meanwhile, just 14 private member bills have been passed by both Houses since 1952 (six of them when Nehru was in power).
- Beyond Parliament, for most MPs in India, the ability to drive change in their constituencies is limited.
- Consider the Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme, which enables MPs to recommend select development initiatives to the local district authority, with a maximum cap of Rs 5 crore.
- With about 6,38,000 villages in India, the average parliamentary constituency ends up having 1,000 each.
- If one were to equitably divide the sum, it would add up to Rs 15,000 per locality (barely enough to have three metres of concrete road).
- And even this amount was suspended over the past 1.5 years, with the government reportedly “saving” Rs 6,320 crore.
- Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the Priority Development Assistance Fund provides funds to senators for small-scale infrastructure and community projects. Such schemes unlock constituency-specific development, enabling bottom-up democracy.
- Instead, we have institutional mechanisms to stifle debate and remove initiative for MPs.
- The anti-defection law punishes any errant MP or MLA who leaves one party for another – going against the party whip could lead to an MP losing his seat.
- The consequence has been chilling, with MPs rarely getting access to any legislation prior to it being tabled. This law has disincentivised MPs to have a distinguished voting record.
- The anti-defection law has not served its purpose and should simply be scrapped. If not, MPs will not be lawmakers who ideate and debate.
- The average MP in India represents over 25 lakh citizens — larger than the population of countries like Botswana, Slovenia, Estonia and Bhutan.
- In comparison, each MP in the UK represents 92,000 citizens, while each member of the US House of Representatives is accountable to 7,00,000 people.
- With such numbers, no MP can ever adequately represent the interests of their constituents.
- While ensuring representation is key, with this, MPs are unlikely to have significant speaking time, let alone space to influence debates or take initiative.
