Yes, I know. The above paragraph would have provoked howls from the leftist in India - Calling it a sell out. But honestly, doesnt our dharma teach us to learn from whoever has something to teach ? So why all the fuss ?
Anyhow, from quite sometime now, I have been greatly enthused by the concept of seperation of powers between the various arms of a country's pillars. As every school student knows, the three arms of democracy are - the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. In India, the Legislature is Parliament, the Executive is the President and the Judiciary is ofcourse the Judges.
Unlike in America, where the seperation of powers is - thicker. In India, the seperation between the Executive and the Legislature is not - that finely defined, in my humble opinion. The Executive is actually the President and his/her Cabinet Ministers headed by the Prime Minister. The Cabinet and the Prime Minister are ofcourse members of Parliament. Whereas in the American case, the President and his/her cabinet are not part of the legislature.
Anyways, my point being that in the US, the Congress (parliament) always acts as a check against the President misusing his/her powers or over stepping his duties or getting overzealous with a few laws.
The present spying case going on is a case in point. Congress has summoned various "cabinet ministers" to question them on this case. Any of you interested can watch it on C-Span.
Alas ! in India I dont see any of this "Parliamentary" activism. I was hoping to see parliament take cognizance of the oil-for-food scam involving a senior minister and so order an enquiry conducted by one its standing commitees. Why should the opposition clamour for an enquiry by the government. They should have asked the chairman of the relevant Standing commitee to summon the involved minister and various department heads in the foreign ministry to get to the bottom of this.Take the case of the French vessel anchored off the Indian Coast, waiting for the Supreme Court's verdict. What is parliament doing. By parliament, I mean Parliament. Not the government, not the council of ministers but the legislature. There surely should be a parliamentary committee on environment or health that looks into these issues. Why is that committee sleeping. Should'nt it summon the Shipping minister or commerce minister and give him/her an earful.
So that brings me to an interesting point. Two parliamentary sessions have passed but the Prime Minister in his infinite wisdom has not kept parliament informed of the Indo-US nuclear energy deal and the draft that is being worked on. Imagine that happening here in the United States. The Congress would have pulled up the relevant departments and given them a through dressing down.
But in India, what do we see ? The leftist threaten to disrupt parliament. The BJP led NDA seems to be clueless. And no prizes for guessing what would happen at the budget session of parliament. MPs would use their lung power to stall parliament until one side blinks first. And then its all back to normal until the next storm builds up.
Truth be damned, until some concerned citizen files a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court !!
If the opposition wishes to embarass the government they could still do so at the parliamentary committee hearings. The hearings could be open to the press and media. The members of the commitee could summon department and ministry heads and grill them. The left could even demand that the Prime Minister be summoned since he holds the additional charge of the Ministry of External Affairs. All this in the full media glare.
The founding fathers/mothers have empowered parliament with the power to pass legislation. Parliament alone can do it. The President cannot pass laws unless and until parliament concurs.
Its time Parliament became activist like the Judiciary. Else the present trend of the Judiciary eating into Parliaments domain would continue unchallenged.
Its time to serve a Parliamentary summons to the Prime Minister.
9 comments:
Nice article!
Sometimes I think it s all a deja-vu when one scam after another crops up!
Guess, USA would have also gone through the same-motions that India is currently going through i.e lack of accountability in various departments of government and widespread corruption. USA took long time to mature itself to get to a stage like this. Guess, what India needs is time!
Wonder how come Canada, UK, AU are successful in the parliamentary style of governance!
Eshwar, sometimes you are bit too hard on Communists. They are good at times :)
Sancho...you are right about India needing more time. I really hope we do more a little more quicker though !!
Maybe its worth reading about other West Minister style Democratic country's and how they function.
And about the leftist - well me too sometimes thinks I breath fire at them. I am not against them. Its only their ideology that I dont agree with. But as far as our Indian leftists are concerned, I just cant stand their holier than thou attitude. And this lingering feeling that they were beholden to the USSR and now may be China, irritates me (to put it mildly).
Eshwar,
I am not a fan of communism, but sometimes they really standup to excesses. For example, they vehemently opposed USA's unilateralism or the way they oppose BJP's hindutva or the way they oppose Israel's excesses or the way they oppose this Iraq war or the would-be Iran war. Infact Communists are well-informed about current affairs than anyother party in India(except for Congress).
Of course, they were ignorant of excesses by China or any other communist power. But, me trying to reiterate that they are good at times.
In response to your point that commies acting smart point, i.e by showing their China or USSR card time and again, agreed it is highly irritating! But so are BJP showing Ram temple-card or Akhand Bharat-card or the Congress playing we gave India its independence or their irritating misuse of Gandhi's posters etc.,
Off the track, I think this whole Cuban solidarity conference conducted by N Ram in Chennai, made up bad reading in 'the hindu'. 'The Hindu' is irritating in its virgin potrayal of communists. Guess, you might have enjoyed reading news stories about this conference ;-)!
Eshwar,
Good article. They cannot summon the concern minister because the ministers are also member of the parliament. In US, the senators represent the states. And the secretaries are appointees. So as a group, they have more authority than the secretaries.
Hindu - we can read every other section, except their opinion-ed. Indianexpress has the best opinion-ed among newspaper in India.
Karthik
Sancho...the leftist china-card is extra-territorial...which according to me is treason. The Congress' independence card and the BJP's hindutva card should not be confused with that of the leftist !
Karthik you are right. However I would still like to see the standing committee's in Parliament to summon the Law Minister in the "Q" case, the foreign minister in the oil-for-food scam, and may be even the Governor of Bihar for his anti-constitutional authorities. Since Governors are appointed by the President just as he appoints various cabinet ministers, they too like ministers should be answerable to parliament.
Eshwar,
the leftist china-card is extra-territorial...which according to me is treason.
Dont think it is wrong for a party to follow foreign ideas/ideals. And I feel the concept of 'patriotism' is a bane to any country. It leads to fanatism. Really hate this fanatism based on ideas like race/religion/language/cult etc.,
Karthik,
Got to agree with you i.e Indian express' editorial is good!
Sancho...thats a seperate debate. However given to choose between their ideological mentors and india's supreme national interest...which way do you think the indian leftists would sway ? The answer is in history.
SS...thanks for visiting. Enjoyed your comments. And I agree with your assesement that over time Indian democracy will mature. Though our version of democracy will be Raj Dharma.
I would also like to add that I do not wish to get into the debate of american democracy vs Indian democracy and where each one is in the timeline. Thats a seperate chapter in itself.
I am also glad to hear that the parliamentary standing commitee on health is looking into more serious matters than the french vessel issue. Makes sense though I dont belive the commitee is doing much.
Please read this article in the Indian Express by Shekar Gupta. There is an interesting incident he recalls of parliament and its questions !!
http://iecolumnists.expressindia.com/full_column.php?content_id=87644
Anand,
Stop kidding da. I support Piyush Chawla not for his religion but for his cricket da.
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