Evolution of the Indian Parliament, declining standards and reforms needed

The evolution of the Indian Parliament since independence can be divided into 3 phases:

1947-1967
1967-1989
Post 1989

Important features during 1947-67:

First generation of political leaders; MPs were men of high stature who enjoyed the
credibility among the masses; Nehru nurtured democratic institutions such as the
Parliament; the quality of debates was high; all the MPs including the PM religiously
attended parliamentary sessions; notwithstanding the small opposition, the parliament
held the executive accountable; there were no adjournments or disruptions

Important features during 1967-89:

The beginning of fragmentation of polity; 1967 elections were a watershed event in the
Indian political history; non congress governments were formed in a number of north and
central Indian states; political competition increased which in turn led to criminalization
of politics; criminals started to support political parties by wielding money and muscle
power; there was a considerable decline in the quality of parliamentary functioning;
parliamentary control over the executive declined and the period witnessed Prime
Ministerial form of government; 1975-77 was the darkest period in the history of Indian
parliamentary democracy; emergency imposed and most of the opposition leaders were
put in jail; the parliament functioned without any opposition; the tenure of the parliament
also extended for 1 year
During Rajiv Gandhis tenure also, the decline continued. Even basic Parliamentary
conventions were not followed. For instance: the JPC to investigate the Bofors scam did
not have a single opposition member; similarly, the PAC was not headed by a leader of
opposition political party as was and has been the convention

Important features Post 1989:

Further fragmentation of polity; era of coalition governments started; since 1989 we have
not had a single election wherein any party has got an absolute majority of seats; intense
political competition led to politicization of crime i.e. criminals instead of supporting
candidates from outside, started participating in electoral process directly and became a
part of the parliament and executive; communalization of politics which started in mid
1980s reached its peak with Babri masjid demolition; caste based regional political
parties became prominent
There has been further decline in parliamentary standard. Few incidents to highlight this:

o 1993 JMM bribery scandal: Narsimha Rao government bribed JMM MPs to
vote in their favour in the o confidence motion; the scandal was unearthed but
given the fact that courts cannot interfere in the manner in which MPs vote inside
the Parliament, nothing could be done
o 2006 cash for question scam: In a sting operation, few MPs were caught on
camera taking money to ask certain question in the Parliament
o 2009 cash for vote scam: After the withdrawal of left parties, the UPA
government was accused of bribing few MPs to vote for the government in the no
confidence motion. Cash was flashed inside the Parliament which was a
disgraceful event
Evaluation of Parliamentary functioning:
Number of days of meeting in a year/productive time

1st Lok Sabha: 135 days on an average

14th Lok Sabha(2004-09): 65 days on an average
Monsoon session of the Parliament this year (2013): total productive time in Lok Sabha
was just 58%, while in Rajya Sabha, it was 80% of the scheduled time

However, it must be noted that Departmentally Related Standing Committees were instituted in
1993. Since then, Parliament refers many Bills/ issues to these committees for detailed analysis.
This
work
happens
outside
the
scheduled
sittings
of
Parliament.
Time on legislative matters:
Legislation is one of the most important functions of the Parliament:

1st Lok Sabha: 49% of total time on legislation; 72 bills passed on an average each year
14th Lok Sabha: 21% of total time on legislation; just 18 bills passed in 2004; 173
members did not speak anything on legislative matters
15th Lok Sabha: on average, government has a success rate of getting 39 percent of Bills
passed
Monsoon session of the Lok Sabha this year: Of the 43 Bills listed for passing this
session, only 12 Bills were passed; 123 Bills are pending in Parliament at the end of the
Monsoon Session which included important bills such as GST, DTC etc.

Private members bill:

No Private Members' Bill has been passed by Parliament since 1970

Till date, Parliament has passed 14 Private Members' Bills. Six of these were passed in
1956 alone.

Monsoon session of the Lok Sabha this year (2013): No Private Members Business was
conducted in Lok Sabha; Rajya Sabha devoted 2 hours

Adjournments and disruptions

1st Lok Sabha: No/negligible adjournments and disruptions

Monsoon session of the Parliament this year: Question Hour was disrupted on all days,
but one in Lok Sabha; the Lok Sabha lost 42 per cent of the total time while Rajya Sabha
lost 20 percent due to adjournments. On 12 days, Lok Sabha sat for less than an hour.
Question Hour was conducted for only 13% of the scheduled time in Lok Sabha and 29%
in Rajya Sabha.
According to official estimates, each hour of running Parliament during sessions would
cost the exchequer Rs. 25 lakh. A normal day in Parliament may last upto eight hours and
that would mean a loss of Rs 2 crore on a day if no business is transacted.

Parliamentary control over finance: From 2004 to 2010, only 20 demand for grants were
discussed while 298 were guillotined
Parliamentary standing committees: Average acceptance of the recommendations of these
committees in 2004-09 has been around 50%; however, there has been a lot of delay in the
presentation of Action Taken Report by the government
PAC had submitted 54 reports in 2004-09; 70% acceptance rate
Criminalization of politics:

31% of the MPs in the electoral college for Presidential elections have criminal cases
against them
641 MPs and MLAs have serious cases against them

Role of money power:

306 MPs in 15th Lok Sabha and 131 in Rajya Sabha are Crorepatis
Average asset of an MP is 5.8 crore
The winning chance of the candidates with assets between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 5 crore is
18.5 per cent; for those with assets below Rs 10 lakh, it is only 2.6 per cent. This clearly
indicates that money power is one of the major factors in the election system

Age profile of MPs:

There has been a noticeable shift in the age profile of MPs in Lok Sabha. The percentage of older
MPs has increased significantly. In 1952, only 20 per cent of MPs were 56 years or older. In
2009, this figure had increased to 43 per cent. In the 1st Lok Sabha, there was no MP over the
age of 70. This number has risen to 7 per cent in the current Lok Sabha. The number of MPs

below 40 has decreased from 26 per cent in 1952 to 14 per cent in the current Lok Sabha.
There is a need to infuse the youth into our parliamentary system.
Some positives:
The education level of MPs has improved since 1952:

The percentage of MPs without secondary education has decreased from 23 per cent in
1952 to 3 per cent in 2009.
The percentage of graduates has increased from 58 per cent in 1952 to 79 per cent in
2009

Women constitute 11 per cent of the 15th Lok Sabha. In comparison, only 5 per cent of MPs
in the 1st Lok Sabha were women.
Though the percentage of women MPs has increased over the years, it is still lower in
comparison to some countries. These include Sweden (45 per cent), Argentina (37 per cent), UK
(22 per cent), and USA (17 per cent).
Reforms needed:

Minimum number of days of sitting: The All India Conference of Presiding Officers,
Chief Ministers, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Leaders and Whips of Parties held in
2001 had called for immediate steps to ensure that Parliament meet for a minimum of 110
days every year. It had recommended that this change be brought in through a
constitutional amendment if necessary.
Speaker needs to use his/her statutory power to deal with adjournments and
disruptions: use of rule 374 and 375

Changes in anti defection law: Instead of leaving it to the discretion of presiding officer
to suspend members under the anti-defection law, the governor in case of State Assembly
and President in case of Parliament should be the deciding authority (2 nd ARC
recommendations)

Implementation of SC verdict on section 8 of RoP act to check criminalization of

politics

Name: Rishi Varma

References:

PRS Legislative Research website

Indian Politics Since Independence: NCERT Political Science, Class XIIth

http://newindianexpress.com/nation/Dangerous-decline-of-Parliaments-role-inIndia/2013/09/15/article1785661.ece

http://164.100.47.132/estudy/duration.pdf

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/indian-parliament-at-60-years-facts--statistics/257794-3.html

2nd ARC, Ethics in Governance