07-08-2007, 07:20 PM
<!--emo&:cool--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/specool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='specool.gif' /><!--endemo--> FROM THE RINGSIDE A very dull House indeed
N K SinghPosted online: Sunday, July 08, 2007 at 0000 hrs
Do nations have the collective guts to look global risk in the face?
After the installation of the new president, the attention of policy makers will inevitably shift to the pending business of government. Getting stalled legislations off the ground is one such area. Since the monsoon session is around the corner, the broad picture on pending government bills looks worrisome. Bills pending before the last budget session were 65, and 26 new bills were introduced during the session, adding up to 91 bills.
Out of these only 20 could be passed in the last session and the cumulative pendency of 71 suggests a growing backlog. Needless to say, the bills relate to important areas of policy. Among them are the Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority Bill, Small & Medium Enterprise Development Bill, the Indian Medical Council Amendment Bill, the Labour Laws (Exemptions from Furnishing Returns & Maintaining Registers by Certain Establishments), Forward Contracts Regulations Bill, Payment & Settlement Systems Bill. There are others pending in the Rajya Sabha, introduced before the formation of the 14th Lok Sabha, including the Coal Mines Nationalisation Amendment Bill, the Arbitration & Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, Private Universities Establishment Regulations Bill, and Foreign Contribution Regulations Bill. These, of course, do not include other important legislations promised by government in areas like insurance, which is yet to be introduced.
There is no dearth of literature explaining the factors behind Parliament becoming increasingly dysfunctional and its serious consequences on the governance matrix. A recent book by Arun Maira, Discordant Democrats â Five steps to Consensus, goes a step prior to the introduction of legislation, namely, seeking ways in which we can proliferate what he describes as the âways in mass dialogueâ. In the tool kit suggested by him, the first principle is to light the spark of aspirational vision by asking people what they care for most and why they do so, and thereafter engage people to frame the issues based on the diversity of views after listening to them and building deeper channels for communication beyond recognised institutions. These can be in multiple forms from civic bodies, building societies, co-operative federations, or even resident welfare organisations. The objective would be to work towards a programme in which corporations, NGOs and governments can be provoked to ask three questions: If not this, then what? If not now, then when? If not you, then who?
The methodology of consensus building prior to action provides a bridge to the second book, Indiaâs Politics â A View from the Backbench, by the noted economist and parliamentarian Bimal Jalan.
Jalan laments the decline in institutions whose meshing together constitutes the basic fabric of governance. In his section on âThe Reform of Politics in a Resurgent Indiaâ, he has made important recommendations including options for state funding of elections, defining the role of small parties in government where they can be prevented from commanding a disproportionate influence as partners in coalition politics and improving the conduct of Parliament.
His many suggestions on improving the conduct of parliamentary business can help in enabling legislators to focus more coherently in fulfilling their principal obligation, mainly as law-makers: to legislate. While these will help, there are more basic questions which remain unanswered. Why, for instance, in the age of electronic media, is there greater glory for MPs to be disruptive than orderly? Does the electorate value its representative more if he has stalled parliamentary proceedings on some extraneous issue than if he makes a valuable contribution in shaping an important legislation? How is it that while we claim ourselves to be a mature democracy electoral campaigns rarely highlight a parliamentarians performance in the analysis and skills he has brought to the debate on an important legislation? If law making is so dull as not to evince electoral interest, then one of the cardinal functions of our parliamentary system is at peril.
This asymmetry between parliamentary performance and electoral campaign need to be bridged to improve the conduct of business within the House. It is only when parliamentarians realise that their behaviour in Parliament is making an electoral difference and impacts votersâ choice will there be a strong enough incentive to carry out their functions in an appropriate manner. Educating the electorate on the conduct of parliamentarians has received scant attention. While the electronic media has been aggressive, the space for coverage of parliamentary performance over the years in the print media, particularly in the vernacular and regional languages, has suffered greatly. This has compounded our woes.
In the final analysis, it is a principal obligation of the government in office to get legislations debated and enacted. The complexity of negotiations, even in a coalition government, can mitigate but not absolve failure to get key legislations off the ground particularly those perceived to be central for economic development and addressing security concerns. Redressing this failure will improve governance.
N K SinghPosted online: Sunday, July 08, 2007 at 0000 hrs
Do nations have the collective guts to look global risk in the face?
After the installation of the new president, the attention of policy makers will inevitably shift to the pending business of government. Getting stalled legislations off the ground is one such area. Since the monsoon session is around the corner, the broad picture on pending government bills looks worrisome. Bills pending before the last budget session were 65, and 26 new bills were introduced during the session, adding up to 91 bills.
Out of these only 20 could be passed in the last session and the cumulative pendency of 71 suggests a growing backlog. Needless to say, the bills relate to important areas of policy. Among them are the Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority Bill, Small & Medium Enterprise Development Bill, the Indian Medical Council Amendment Bill, the Labour Laws (Exemptions from Furnishing Returns & Maintaining Registers by Certain Establishments), Forward Contracts Regulations Bill, Payment & Settlement Systems Bill. There are others pending in the Rajya Sabha, introduced before the formation of the 14th Lok Sabha, including the Coal Mines Nationalisation Amendment Bill, the Arbitration & Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, Private Universities Establishment Regulations Bill, and Foreign Contribution Regulations Bill. These, of course, do not include other important legislations promised by government in areas like insurance, which is yet to be introduced.
There is no dearth of literature explaining the factors behind Parliament becoming increasingly dysfunctional and its serious consequences on the governance matrix. A recent book by Arun Maira, Discordant Democrats â Five steps to Consensus, goes a step prior to the introduction of legislation, namely, seeking ways in which we can proliferate what he describes as the âways in mass dialogueâ. In the tool kit suggested by him, the first principle is to light the spark of aspirational vision by asking people what they care for most and why they do so, and thereafter engage people to frame the issues based on the diversity of views after listening to them and building deeper channels for communication beyond recognised institutions. These can be in multiple forms from civic bodies, building societies, co-operative federations, or even resident welfare organisations. The objective would be to work towards a programme in which corporations, NGOs and governments can be provoked to ask three questions: If not this, then what? If not now, then when? If not you, then who?
The methodology of consensus building prior to action provides a bridge to the second book, Indiaâs Politics â A View from the Backbench, by the noted economist and parliamentarian Bimal Jalan.
Jalan laments the decline in institutions whose meshing together constitutes the basic fabric of governance. In his section on âThe Reform of Politics in a Resurgent Indiaâ, he has made important recommendations including options for state funding of elections, defining the role of small parties in government where they can be prevented from commanding a disproportionate influence as partners in coalition politics and improving the conduct of Parliament.
His many suggestions on improving the conduct of parliamentary business can help in enabling legislators to focus more coherently in fulfilling their principal obligation, mainly as law-makers: to legislate. While these will help, there are more basic questions which remain unanswered. Why, for instance, in the age of electronic media, is there greater glory for MPs to be disruptive than orderly? Does the electorate value its representative more if he has stalled parliamentary proceedings on some extraneous issue than if he makes a valuable contribution in shaping an important legislation? How is it that while we claim ourselves to be a mature democracy electoral campaigns rarely highlight a parliamentarians performance in the analysis and skills he has brought to the debate on an important legislation? If law making is so dull as not to evince electoral interest, then one of the cardinal functions of our parliamentary system is at peril.
This asymmetry between parliamentary performance and electoral campaign need to be bridged to improve the conduct of business within the House. It is only when parliamentarians realise that their behaviour in Parliament is making an electoral difference and impacts votersâ choice will there be a strong enough incentive to carry out their functions in an appropriate manner. Educating the electorate on the conduct of parliamentarians has received scant attention. While the electronic media has been aggressive, the space for coverage of parliamentary performance over the years in the print media, particularly in the vernacular and regional languages, has suffered greatly. This has compounded our woes.
In the final analysis, it is a principal obligation of the government in office to get legislations debated and enacted. The complexity of negotiations, even in a coalition government, can mitigate but not absolve failure to get key legislations off the ground particularly those perceived to be central for economic development and addressing security concerns. Redressing this failure will improve governance.