Friday 2 January 2015

Brutal exercise of the tyranny of majority!

Less than 24 hours after the winter session of Parliament was adjourned sine die with key legislations left pending due to disruptions, the Narendra Modi government pushed through insurance and coal sector reforms by promulgating two ordinances on December 24 morning.
“The coal allocation ordinance was passed by the Lok Sabha but it was not allowed to be taken up for discussion in the Rajya Sabha. That ordinance has been re-promulgated,” Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters in the afternoon, shortly after the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It will facilitate e-auction of coal blocks to private companies for captive use and allot mines directly to PSUs.  Jaitley said with the Insurance Amendment Bill pending “for a long time” the government had decided to promulgate an ordinance that raises the FDI cap in the insurance sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.
This constitutes a grave violation of the conduct of business in the Houses of Parliament, under the accepted Rules.
In the recently concluded Winter Session of Parliament, (third Session of 16th Lok Sabha) a total of 16 legislations (Bills) were taken up. An unprecedented 13 of these were passed without being referred to, thus scrutinized by the Parliamentary Standing Committees.
To use a phrase that emerged during the European Enlightenment establishing modern Parliamentary democracy, this practice is the brutal exercise of the “tyranny of democracy”.
In the Rajya Sabha, Select Committees were constituted to examine three such Bills, passed by the Lok Sabha. This itself was an unprecedented number in any one session.
The Lok Sabha Rule 75(2a) states that “if the member in charge moves that the Bill be taken into consideration any member may move as an amendment that the Bill be referred to a Select Committee of the House, or a Joint Committee of the Houses with the concurrence of the Council, or be circulated for the purpose of eliciting opinion thereon by a date to be specified in the motion;”. Such Rules are no longer being respected through the exercise of ‘brute majority’. Bills are being adopted even in the midst of a din.
It must be ensured that such violation of Parliamentary procedures is not permitted. Unless otherwise specified in the Rules or under extraordinary circumstances no legislative bill should be exempt from being scrutinized thoroughly by the Parliamentary Standing Committees.
It is being widely reported in the media that the Government is seeking to take recourse to the ‘Ordinance Route’, particularly on two important Bills -raising FDI ceiling in Insurance and on coal block allocations. This is because the Government could not muster a majority in the Rajya Sabha.
A Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha scrutinized the Insurance Bill. Its report has been tabled in the House but not yet deliberated upon. It, hence, remains the property of the House on which a decision is pending. Until this process is completed, the issuance of an Ordinance would be a grave violation of the sanctity of Parliamentary proceedings.
Taking recourse to such an ‘Ordinance Route’ under these circumstances would be a clear violation of our established Parliamentary Democracy.
The opposition parties should ensure to nip in the bud such tendencies which may result in imposing an authoritarian manner of parliamentary functioning. This would be completely antithetical to the letter and spirit of our Constitutionally established Parliamentary Democracy.      

No comments:

Post a Comment