The president and the governors should transcend politics. The president must be allowed to prepare his own address to Parliament, rather than behave as a spokesperson for the prime minister. Governors must act as independent links between the Union and states rather than as partisan appointees.
Posts tagged as “parliament”
Questions from MPs are now widely brushed aside by the government. Meanwhile, in recent years, more Bills have been passed without debate, fewer Bills have been referred to parliamentary committees and an increased number of ordinances have been passed in order to sidestep Parliament altogether.
The current wave of authoritarianism across the world contains a strong message: One cannot rely on good faith politics alone. Codification of conventions and strengthening the voice of the Opposition is of utmost importance for democracies. India desperately needs to reform its Parliament to make it better.
India ranks 148th out of 193 countries in terms of representation of women in politics. Suppressed by deeply entrenched patriarchy, women make up only 9 percent of all ministers in India. But studies have shown that increasing their participation in politics leads to better governance, and quotas will help.
The Anti-Defection Law has created a democracy of parties and numbers in India, rather than a democracy of debate and discussion. Lawmaking is increasingly driven, not by the compulsive force of a party’s argument, but by the brute force of a party’s numbers in the legislature.