Monday, January 12, 2015

Ordinance raj-----goodish or hellish


Announcing the promulgation of an ordinance to pass any bill in the parliament and, which is needed for the benefits of one and all, is definitely advisable.  But some legal experts term this as a “constitutional terrorism”.  Now what the treasury bench can do?  The last session of Rajya Sabha was so much pervaded with almost similar to hooliganism of the opposition forces  that makes  Modi also look weak and hobbled. 

 

Under this crippling condition of the treasury bench’s members in the upper house of the parliament, Modi has no choice except to take the course of action of issuing 8 no’s of ordinances successively  As of now, considering the ruling of past fourteen Prime Ministers, Indira Gandhi issued 208 ordinances followed by her father J.L. Nehru, who issued 200 ordinances in their total periods of 5825 and 6126 days of ruling respectively.

Lal Bahadur Shashtri issued only nine ordinances in his ruling of 581 days, whereas the last Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh had issued 61 ordinances in his ruling of ten years. 

 

The hoggish attitude of the opposition forces, which hampers the progress of utmost importance with respect to various reformative measures; they stalled the last session of the parliament and ultimately provoked Modi-led NDA government to issue the ordinances.

 

Whether the issuance of this ordinance is good or bad, it is a political weapon used by almost all the Prime Ministers.  The bills related to FDI cap in the insurance sector and coal block auction were not allowed to be discussed in the last Rajya Sabha session keep aside passing the same.  But if this situation is going to continue, then this government has no other choice, but to adopt this tactful decision again and again.

 

Modi has a different syndrome as compared to India Gandhi and J.L. Nehru as they both have no problem of numbers in Rajya Sabha because in those days, Congress was the only party dominating the political environment.  Despite their thorough administrative power and authoritative control of the working in the Parliament, they also issued ordinances just to pass various bills without waiting for the next parliament session. 

 

In the case of the present government, they are somewhat walking on a tight rope on the  slippery path of quarrelsome and trouble creators in Rajya Sabha and so Modi is issuing ordinances to increase the speed of the reforms for the benefit of the  country and its people.

 

The ordinance is an important instrument for the government to pass any bill in the parliament when the same is not passed in both the houses. But there is no need to issue any ordinance hurriedly in between the adjournment period of the two sessions. Modi has issued these ordinances without waiting for the next session of the parliament.  Firstly, he has released the ordinance for increasing the cap in the insurance sector and then coal block auction.  Similarly, he has almost finalized the plan to issue the ordinance to regularize the E-rickshaw in Delhi followed by land acquisition act; speed up arbitration, then to ease the visa related conditions for Non Resident Indians (NRIs) and the last one will be the  mineral related issues in tribal areas.  

 

One thing is sure that Modi-led government has understood that without issuing the ordinances, it is somewhat difficult to pass any bill and then convert the same into legislation and so he has no other option.   As per the constitutional norms, if one bill is rejected in one house and not getting passed in another house, the joint session of parliament can be called for, but Modi is not taking that course of action in the beginning itself. Perhaps, he may be keeping the same as a last resort.  As per the plan of action which is getting initiated by his government under his direction, he will go on issuing these ordinances after getting passed all the bills in the Lok Sabha. Of course,some of the bills are already passed in the Lok Sabha. But again, chaotic situation will not make his government to pass all these pending bills in the Rajya Sabha in the next session and it is also  very clear in everybody’s mind that this situation will be prolonged for a considerable period of time.  Considering these facts, Modi is not incorrect to issue ordinances to progress the passage of  various bill well ahead the next session of the parliament.  The importance of issuance of these ordinances is nothing but to speed up the reforms for economic growth and push the progress of the market driven economy. 

 

It may happen that all the bills, as stated above, after getting passed in the Lok Sabha will again fail in the Rajya Sabha because of the opposition parties disruption and in that case, Modi has  to take the action of calling a joint session of parliament under the intervention of the President of India. By any chance, if all these bills are not getting ratified in the joint session of parliament, then what would be the course of action?  That is why, the issuance of the ordinance is not at all a bad  sequential action and even the Supreme Court of India has not found any illegal measure considering the law into account.

 

One thing is very clear that ordinance raj is not a part of a good governance, but when the members pertaining to the highest body of the country, i.e. the parliament show rowdyism, hooliganism and not allow the houses to function properly, then there is no other choice to the authority except to call for an ordinance. As stated earlier, it is not a democratic instrument, but still to set right the unruly members and stop the disruption of the house at equal interval, this is the only method to be adopted for the benefit of the  people of the country.

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