"Today we have a goal to fulfill the dreams of an independent India. We have a target to build a new India before the 100th year of independence, 2047", avowed Prime Minister Narendra Modi after unveiling the hologram statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at India Gate on 22nd January, 2022. It is an irrefutable point of view that the New envisioned India can take its shape only through the proper guidance and support of qualified legislators and quality legislations. And the enactments of such revamping legislations are possible only when legislators take into consideration the mind and need of the ‘aam aadmi’ of India. In his maiden speech in Lok Sabha on June 11, 2014, Mr. Modi proclaimed, “Victory teaches us many things and we should learn also. Victory teaches us to be humble. I give my trust to this Parliament, I believe that the seniors here, from whatever group they may be, with their blessings, we will get that strength which will save us from arrogance. It will teach us every moment to be humble. Whatever be the number here, but I will not move forward without you. We should not move on the basis of numbers. We should move on the basis of the power of collective approach. We want to move forward with the feeling of collective approach”. But what is happening in reality is contradictory to what the Prime Minister spoke of. The entire country is watching the proceedings in the Parliament on whether the legislations in the recent years are enacted, based on the majoritarianism or in the interest of the public. The lack of discussions and consultations over Bills being passed in the Parliament is very obvious.
One of the most important functions of our Parliamentarians is to enact legislations. And in India we have a long chain of standardized motions which has to be adopted by both the Houses of Parliament before a bill becomes a law. The ministry drafts a text of the proposed law, which is called a ‘Bill’, after calling comments from other ministries, and even from the public. The draft is revised to incorporate such inputs and is then scrutinized by the Law Ministry. It is then presented to the Cabinet for approval. After the Cabinet approves the Bill, it is introduced in Parliament. In Parliament, it goes through three Readings in both Houses. During the First Reading the Bill is introduced. The introduction of a Bill may be opposed and the matter may be put to vote in the House. After a Bill has been introduced, the Bill may be referred to the concerned Departmentally Related Standing Committee for examination. The Standing Committee considers the broad objectives and the specific clauses of the Bill referred to it and may invite public comments on a Bill. It then submits its recommendations in the form of a report to Parliament. In the Second Reading (Consideration), the Bill is scrutinized thoroughly. Each clause of the Bill is discussed and may be accepted, amended or rejected. The government, or any MP, may introduce amendments to the Bill. However, the government is not bound to accept the Committee’s recommendations. During the Third Reading (Passing), the House votes on the redrafted Bill. If the Bill is passed in one House, it is then sent to the other House, where it goes through the second and third readings. After both Houses of Parliament pass a Bill, it is presented to the President for assent. He/She has the right to seek information and clarification about the Bill, and may return it to Parliament for reconsideration. (If both Houses pass the Bill again, the President has to assent) After the President gives assent, the Bill is notified as an Act. But the actual happening in the recent years is far from this procedural reality.
Nine minutes in Rajya Sabha and three minutes in Lok Sabha: that’s how long the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021, for which hundreds of farmers sacrificed their lives, took to be passed on 29 November, 2021 — without any discussion. This is the reality of law making in India today. The present Union government has often faced criticism for rushing Bills. The last session saw 15 Bills — 14 in Lok Sabha and one in Rajya Sabha — being passed in less than 10 minutes, and 26 Bills in less than half-an-hour. In its second term, over six Parliament sessions, the Modi government has passed 42 Bills in less than half-an-hour, and 19 in less than 10 minutes, according to PRS Legislative Research data. While many of the Bills were ordinary in nature, some deserved serious discussion.
For instance, the 14 Bills passed in less than 10 minutes in Lok Sabha in the Monsoon Session included the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill (discussed for 8 minutes), The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill (5 minutes), The Tribunals Reforms Bill (9 minutes), and The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill (6 minutes). The Opposition wanted the general insurance Bill to be referred to a standing committee; in Rajya Sabha, but the Bill was passed in 22 minutes.
According to the PRS data, the Monsoon Session perhaps holds the worst record when it comes to Bills being rushed through in Parliament. The other Bills passed in under 10 minutes were: The National Institutes of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management Bill, The Inland Vessels Bill, The Coconut Development Board (Amendment) Bill, The Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Bill, The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (Amendment) Bill, The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Bill, The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, The Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, The National Commission for Homoeopathy (Amendment) Bill and The National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (Amendment) Bill.
It is no wonder why the ordinary Indian citizens have to get on to the streets to fight for their rights every time when such hasty laws are enacted. In the recent years our country has been witnessing such protests one after another. We protested against the NRC, NPR and the CAA.
NRC, to put it simply, can be described as the National Register of People: a register that will have the list of all the country’s genuine citizens, even though it is currently only done in Assam, and as our leaders put it, there will soon be a national NRC. NPR is a database which contains a list of all the country’s regular residents. The goal is to provide a comprehensive identity database of individuals residing in the country. It is generated by house-to-house enumeration during the census’ phase of “house-listing,” which is held once in 10 years. CAA stands for Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, the Act was passed in parliament on December 11, 2019. Under this Act, the Indian government plans to give citizenship to religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, which are people belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities. This trio is supposed to provide people who have been called migrants belonging to the neighbouring countries and the idea is to provide them with an identity while purposely excluding the people a from particular community of faith. Though the union government vehemently defends these laws, it sounds superficial to most of the legal experts and the social activists.
On 5 August 2019, the Parliament of India voted in favour of a resolution tabled by Home Minister Amit Shah to revoke the temporary special status, or autonomy, granted under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir—a region administered by India as a state which consists of the larger part of Kashmir which has been the subject of dispute among India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. Along with the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019 it was also passed to divide Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories called Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh. This had the Indian constitution applying to the people of Jammu and Kashmir from then onwards. The action did result in a lot of protesting and anger against this decision and the region was put on lockdown, with Section 144 being imposed and internet and phone services being blocked.
The Indian agriculture Acts of 2020, often termed the Farm Bills, are three Acts initiated by the Parliament of India in September 2020. The Lok Sabha approved the Bills on 17 September 2020 and the Rajya Sabha on 20 September 2020. The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, gave his assent on 27 September 2020. The three Acts are: (i) the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, (ii) the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, and (iii) the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. These controversial anti-farmers’ laws gave rise to the longest and also the biggest protests by the farmers all over India to withdraw the laws. Eventually, many poor farmers had to even sacrifice their lives in the process of protests. Finally, as an electoral gimmick (just before the Utter Pradesh, Punjab assembly elections), the union government had finally yielded repealing the farm laws on 29 November, 2021.
We can go on enumerating such hasty, controversial and politically motivated legislations such as the CGST Act, 2017, The Dam Safety Act, 2021, The New Education Policy, 2021, and so on. Every time the legislators propose a particular legislation, they should focus on maintaining order, establishing standards, protecting liberties and resolving disputes of the nation. The focus should be on the interest of the ordinary poor men and women of the society than the hidden political agenda of the ruling parties. All that the people look from the Parliamentarians is not the creation of a ‘New India’, but regaining the originality of the independent India and its constitutional values of ‘Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Republic nation, imparting the values of Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity to all section of people irrespective of their religion, language, culture, etc., Every enacted legislation of our country should be a “boon and not a bane” to the nation.
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