oppn parties Law Making Must Be Above Politicking

News Snippets

  • For the first time ever, Mukesh Ambani buys a 29% stake in Gautam Adani's Mahan Energen, a subsidiary of Adani Power to source 500MW of electricity from the company's power plant in MP
  • Stocks continue to rise on Thursday - Sensex gains 639 points to 73635 and Nifty 203 points to 22326
  • Golf - Indian Open: 3 Indians at tied 14th as Joost Luiten takes the lead with a wonderful 7-under 65
  • IPL: RR beat DC by 12 runs as Riyan Parag (84 off just 45 balls) shines
  • SP drops two candidates owing allegiance to Azam Khan from Rampur and Moradabad
  • In Assam, a controversy erupted after a picture of UPPL leader Benjamin Basumatary, lying on a stack of Rs 500 notes circulated on social media. UPPL is an ally of the BJP
  • AAP's Jalandhar-West MP Sushil Kumar Rinku joins the BJP. He was the only AAP Lok Sabha MP
  • Supreme Court dismisses Centre's plea to review its 2023 verdict in the PMLA case
  • Close save for passengers as they remain unhurt after the wings of two planes graze at Kolkata airport. Pilots derostered and inquiry ordered by DGCA
  • Bengal BJP leader Dilip Ghosh gets notice from the EC as well as the BJP for making ugly remarks about Mamata Banerjee's parentage
  • Sadanand Vasanth Date, who faught terrorists in the 26/11 attack and was awarded the Preisent's Police medal, has been appointed the head of the NIA
  • Centre will borrow Rs 7.5L cr in the first six months of FY25, nearly 50% of the target for the full year
  • 25 stocks, including SBI, will see same day trade settlements from today in the world's fastest settlement mode in both BSE and NSE
  • Stocks recover smartly on Wednesday: Sensex rises 526 points to 72996 and Nifty 118 points to 22123
  • Tennis: Rohan Bopanna-Matthew Ebden reached the semifinals of the Miami Open
Delhi Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena says government cannot be run from jail, hints at President's Rule in the capital ////// In a dangerous incident, the wings of two planes grazed while taxiing on the runway at Kolkata airport, all passengers were safe but DGCA ordered an inquiry and the pilots were derostered
oppn parties
Law Making Must Be Above Politicking

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-12-21 10:39:38

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

The NDA government is undertaking many reforms and hence, introducing many bills in Parliament that have an important bearing on a wide range of issues. But using its brute majority, it is trying to push through these bills in Parliament without following the norms of democracy. Legislation is serious business. Before drafting any new law or making changes to an existing one, there must be thorough discussions with all political parties, legal experts, civil society representatives and stakeholders. All bills, seemingly however innocuous and 'unimportant', need to be discussed in the houses and the more important ones need to be examined by select committees of Parliament.

The government follows all formalities as the draft bills are publicly circulated and feedback is solicited. But when the final draft is readied, many of these inputs are ignored. It seems that the government has made up its mind that it will push through its agenda and will listen to only those experts and activists who help it further that agenda. But that often results in laws that invite a backlash from the opposition and the people and at times these laws are challenged in the Supreme Court and declared unconstitutional.

The NDA government has seen that good intentions are not enough if laws are not properly examined and thoroughly vetted. Further in a democracy, the opposition has to be brought on board. Before pushing in the electoral reforms bill and the marriage age bill, the government should listen to saner voices and follow parliamentary norms by referring the bills to parliamentary committees. There is no harm in getting the bills vetted and fine tuning them. Then, after introducing them in the houses, it should allow proper debate. Good laws are made through an elaborate process - shortcuts or force always results in bad laws being made.

The government can consider other political parties as the opposition in political initiatives or during election times. But when it comes to making laws, the opposition should be treated as a partner and its opinion should be factored in or the government must convince them about the need for the law as it wants, instead of pushing them through by force. For it must remember at all times that the entire opposition represents the voice of more than 50 percent of the people of India and it should not - must not - be ignored. Law making must be above politicking.