<\/p>\n
News: <\/span><\/b>Parliament\u2019s productivity was around 129% for the Lok Sabha in the last session in 2022. However, under the garb of enhanced productivity, a tradition of intense debate over bills has been lost.<\/span><\/p>\n In a parliamentary democracy, all the <\/span>proposals<\/span><\/b> or <\/span>legislations<\/span><\/b> must be put to <\/span>deliberations<\/span><\/b> and <\/span>discussions<\/span><\/b>. For example, India\u2019s constituent assembly debates to frame the Constitution went on for 166 days.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In a parliamentary democracy, the MPs are allowed to <\/span>take initiative<\/span><\/b>. For example, private member bills.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the 2021 Session (particularly Monsoon Session), the Lok Sabha cleared over 18 bills. Around 34 minutes were taken for discussion on each bill. For example, the <\/span>Farm Laws Repeal Bill (2021)<\/span><\/b> was passed in just eight minutes (three minutes in the Lok Sabha, five minutes in the Rajya Sabha).\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In fact, not even a <\/span>single bill<\/span><\/b> was referred to a <\/span>parliamentary committee in<\/span><\/b> the last few sessions of the parliament.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>voice vote<\/span><\/b> has become a norm. As a result, the MPs have rarely mustered in the House to record votes.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n MPs rarely have adequate resources to conduct <\/span>in-depth research<\/span><\/b>. In India, MPs gets an allowance of Rs 40,000 per month to hire <\/span>a legislative assistant<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In India, long-term development plans are simply not subject to <\/span>parliamentary scrutiny<\/span><\/b>, with just annual outlays approved.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In India, MPs do not have <\/span>freedom to take initiative<\/span><\/b>. For example, In the <\/span>UK<\/span><\/b>, seven private member bills have been passed since 2019, and In <\/span>Canada<\/span><\/b>, six private member bills have been passed. <\/span><\/p>\n However, In <\/span>India<\/span><\/b> just 14 private member bills have been passed by both Houses since 1952. For example, the <\/span>Parliamentary Proceedings (Protection of Publication) Act (1956<\/span><\/b>) was a private member bill. In India, MPs have the limited ability to drive change in their constituencies.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n India has <\/span>institutional mechanisms<\/span><\/b> to <\/span>stifle debate<\/span><\/b> and to <\/span>limit initiative by MPs<\/span><\/b>. For example, the anti-defection law punishes any errant MP or MLA. This law has disincentivise MPs. They go by the direction of the <\/span>whip.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n India can adopt the <\/span>Philippines model<\/span><\/b> for India\u2019s MPLAD programme. The Philippine\u2019s <\/span>Priority Development Assistance Fund <\/span><\/b>provides funds to senators for small-scale infrastructure and community projects. Its usher\u2019s <\/span>constituency-specific development<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The anti-defection law has not served its purpose. It should simply be scrapped.<\/strong> If not, MPs will not be lawmakers who ideate and debate.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In <\/span>comparison<\/span><\/b> to other democracies like the US and the UK (92000 people), Indian MPs represent a large number of <\/span>representatives<\/span><\/b> i.e., over <\/span>25 lakh citizens<\/span><\/b>. This number is larger than the population of countries like Botswana, Bhutan etc.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>time of parliamentary proceedings<\/span><\/b> should be set aside separately for debates and discussion on legislation. It will <\/span>improve<\/span><\/b> the <\/span>quality<\/span><\/b> of legislation and improve <\/span>consensus<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To revive deliberation, the government should <\/span>raise funding <\/span><\/b>for parliamentary research. The average allowance given to the MP for a legislative assistant in the UK is very high as compared to India.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the future, after 2026, there is the possibility that the number of MPs in the Lok Sabha may increase up to 1,000 seats.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In <\/span>Westminster<\/span><\/b>, the <\/span>British prime minister<\/span><\/b> is required to answer questions from MPs in the House of Commons every Wednesday, from 12 pm to 12:30 pm. This was done even during Covid-19<\/span> induced lockdowns.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>accountability<\/span><\/b> can be ensured through the <\/span>parliamentary committees<\/span><\/b>. For example, in the US, Senate and House Committees scrutinise laws, confirm government appointments, conduct investigations, and hold hearings.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the UK, in 2013, the House of Commons allowed public to <\/span>add comments<\/span><\/b> to draft legislation via a web portal<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It should be made <\/span>compulsory<\/span><\/b> to <\/span>refer<\/span><\/b> all <\/span>bills<\/span><\/b> to a <\/span>select committee<\/span><\/b> or <\/span>Department Related Standing Committees (DRSCs)<\/span><\/b> for scrutiny. For example, it is a compulsory phenomenon in New Zealand.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ideally, we should set up mechanisms to enable private member bills to gain a hearing and even to be put to vote.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Source:<\/span><\/b> The post is based on an article \u201cWhy is there no debate in Parliament?<\/strong>\u201d published in the Indian Express<\/strong> on 20<\/strong><\/span>th<\/strong> April 2022<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" News: Parliament\u2019s productivity was around 129% for the Lok Sabha in the last session in 2022. However, under the garb of enhanced productivity, a tradition of intense debate over bills has been lost. What are the features of a parliamentary democracy?\u00a0 In a parliamentary democracy, all the proposals or legislations must be put to deliberations… Continue reading Why is there no debate in Parliament?\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10500],"class_list":["post-180382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1701256149},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What are the features of a parliamentary democracy?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n
What is the situation wrt parliamentary debates in India?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n
What steps should be taken?<\/span><\/b><\/h5>\n