The will behind each Bill
Ruhi Tewari -
Thursday, April 23, 2009 4:33 PM
On 16 May, the results of the 2009 Lok Sabha election would be declared and the country will (hopefully) have a new government within a fortnight from then. And once the entire cacophony in this vast political theatre subsides, our elected representatives would perhaps have some time to look back at the performance of the 14th Lok Sabha and reflect on its failures in letting some crucial Bills lapse, stalling essential legislation. A report brought out by PRS Legislative Research, a Delhi-based independent research initiative, gives a list of all the Bills that lapsed at the end of the 14th Lok Sabha or are pending in the Rajya Sabha.
The Companies Bill, 2008, for instance. The bill which sought to enable the corporate sector in India to operate in a regulatory environment of the best international practices, was introduced by the government in the Lok Sabha only in October 2008, almost at the end of the tenure of this House. If it were really serious about getting the bill passed, the government would have introduced it much earlier, so as to give it enough time for discussion and to garner the required numbers.
The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (Amendment) Bill, 2009 (introduced on 17 Feb, 2009) and the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2008 (introduced on 19 Dec, ’08) also suffered the same fate.
Some Bills lost their way in the maze of differing ideological views and varying political compulsions. The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2005 (introduced in March, ’05) could not be passed because the Congress-led UPA government’s then allies, the Left parties, expressed their “strong opposition” to it.
The fate of the 33% Women’s Reservation Bill still hangs in the balance because of a lack of consensus among various political parties. Though the government introduced it in the Rajya Sabha to prevent it from lapsing (a move perhaps more political than anything else), it failed to get it passed in its 5-year tenure. The BJP-led NDA government brought the bill to the Lok Sabha twice in 2002 and 2003 but never could get it passed even though the Congress and the Left, constituting a majority, had assured their support.
However, it is not as though a shortage of discussion time or lack of consensus prevents the House from passing Bills it really wants to. Several bills have been passed without any debate whatsoever. According to PRS, on the last day, the Lok Sabha passed 8 Bills in a span of just 17 minutes! "In all, 28% of the Bills were passed with less than 20 minutes of discussion, and a further of 19% with less than one hour of debate," states the PRS report.
And to think that even five years of discussions and bickerings are not enough for some Bills! Or is it just about the lack of will, more than anything else? Does for instance, the Women’s Reservation Bill make more sense politically when not passed so that each political party can use it (the promise of getting is passed if voted to power) as one of its main agendas too woo female voters? It just might be saving them the trouble of coming up with new promises!
Lack of consensus, shortage of time, need for discussion…all seem like mere excuses. It all boils down to whether there is a political will behind each Bill and it would do the members of the 15th Lok Sabha some good to reflect on the importance of paying honest and adequate attention to crucial legislations.