Parliament is Not a Village Panchayat-II
By Nandkumar M Kamat
MAHATMA Gandhi had envisaged a parliament of people with 700 thousand representatives elected from all villages and towns. This was impractical. India is divided purely on technical grounds into parliamentary constituencies which elect their members and it is not parliament which nominates 542 representatives.
Indian Constitution does not prescribe any duties or functions for Members of Parliament. The mandated duty of the representatives sent to Parliament is to follow the rules of procedure and conduct of business of the Lok Sabha and not to restrict one self to politics of constituency for which there are other representatives to do their jobs.
Freedom of religion
Secularism means separation of all religions from the business of the state. Constitution of India has given freedom of religion and not freedom to religions. With the parallel economy booming and even patronising religious leaders, rivers of liquor flowing, people getting crushed on road like flies and a record number of people committing suicide – the real issue is of crisis of morally strong leadership. The pickle of democracy in Goa is producing a rancid odour. India has advantage of numbers but elections and campaigning here has no quality or substance as compared to USA or UK.
I have keenly followed every American presidential election since entry of television in Goa in 1983 and advent of internet in 1996. I have not missed a single US presidential debate since 2000. Barack Obama’s biography showed me how hard one has to work to get elected as a senator and how difficult is the road to the august office of the American President.
Obama’s outstanding work as Illinois senator showed me the power of legislative instruments to do public good. He was noticed nationally only because of that- as a good senator. I had presented a copy of his biography to an ex-chief minister who had promised to read it. Winston Churchill was an outstanding parliamentarian. I had presented his biography in Marathi to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar last year with the hope that it would help him to be a better leader uniting all sections of Goa.
Goa could have made a difference during this election but so far it is a poor, pathetic campaign. With more than a million voters, now Goa has entered a critical phase of democratic dynamics. With voters from urban areas dominating, the whole state is practically an urban or quasi urban educated constituency which has failed to develop powerful instruments and mechanisms of citizens’ systematic political education. Where we go from here- to acquire more maturity or immaturity, add substance to public discourse or devalue the value of Parliament?
Add to these factors like almost hundred per cent literacy and highest per capita income and penetration of newspapers, televisions, mobiles and internet. Even slum areas sport DTH satellite dishes on rooftops. So definitely there is no information vacuum. But there is vacuum of substance and quality to public discourse. Casinos, Mopa, medium of instruction- are these issues to be discussed in Parliament? Then why those who have been elected on village panchayats, municipal councils, zilla panchayats and legislative assembly exist?
Not even five per cent work transacted on the floor of the Assembly of Goa reaches the people. Not even 10 per cent of village panchayat members in Goa have read the Goa Panchayat Raj Act, 1993. I am doubtful whether any of the contesting candidates including those who had been members before, can quote the relevant sections and subsections of rules of procedure and conduct of business of Lok Sabha.
Campaigning for Lok Sabha Polls
The campaigning for Lok Sabha election in Goa has reached cheap and ridiculous level as if candidates and the political parties believe that it is not important for them to tell people openly that no duties or responsibilities are fixed for members of Lok Sabha.
Goa needs to elect informed, studious and functional parliamentarians and not those who have developed the skills to give acceptable answers to questions on local issues and shower assurances. The candidates need to be questioned how if elected they would use the instruments available in Lok Sabha for raising issues of public importance. This can be done in the form of starred and unstarred questions.
On any functional day Lok Sabha permits 230 questions. We expect the MPs from Goa to use other instruments like short-notice questions, half-an-hour discussion and adjournment motion. We would like to know whether before deciding to contest they did any advance homework to prepare a checklist for drafting private members bills or submit petitions to the House on important public issues, for example how finance commission formula has been doing injustice to Goa in devolution of
central funds.
We expect that our future MPs would spell out clearly their strategy to move resolutions, motions, short duration discussions and calling attention notices. All these are very powerful instruments which are readily available to ambitious and aspiring parliamentarians.
Election campaign in Goa has to be actually steered in this direction because we don’t need parliamentarians who would be reducing the prestige of the Parliament to constituency-level petty politics and begin interfering in local administration. If our MPs work hard then they would be noticed and would get fair representation on various committees of the Parliament. The most important is business advisory committee. A committee is actually a ‘mini parliament’ and enjoys all powers and privileges of the Parliament. That’s the beauty of our democracy.
The committees of Lok Sabha include- committee on private members’ bills and resolutions, select committees on bills, committee on papers laid on the table, committee on petitions, committee on public accounts, committee on estimates, committee on public undertakings, committee of privileges, committee on subordinate legislation, committee on government assurances, committee on absence of members from the sittings of the House, rules committee, committee on the welfare of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Some years back an amendment was made and departmentally related standing committees were permitted. All these are powerful committees through which good parliamentarians can show their merit. Goa and Goans deserve only such MPs and not the opportunists who wish to take panchayat level politics to New Delhi. (To be continued).
http://www.navhindtimes.in/opinion/parliament-not-village-panchayat-ii
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