Law Making Must Be Above Politicking
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-12-21 10:39:38
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
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.
