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| Abstaining from voting process - A trickery of representatives | | | Mahadeep Singh Jamwal
The Parliament is the final authority for making laws
in India. The task of making a law is called legislation. Hence, the parliament or the assemblies are called legislatures. The legislature can make a new law. It can also change the existing laws or abolish existing laws. In India, the making of Laws is the primary concern of both houses of the Indian Parliament. Every law in our country begins as a proposal from a member of the either house of Parliament as a bill. The Legislative procedure in India for the Union Government requires that proposed bills pass through the two legislative houses of the Parliament of India, i.e. the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha and then sent to the President of India for his ascent (the President has very limited choice to withhold the ascent) as a requirement under Article 111 of the Indian Constitution. When a Bill is introduced in either House of Parliament, that represents the faith Indians have in the principles of democracy, the MPs are supposed to debate on various provisions of the Bill, and propose amendments if they so wish. A bill can become a law only after both the houses pass it. In States having bicameral legislatures requires that proposed bills be passed, at least in the state's Lower House or the Vidhan Sabha and not mandatory to be passed in the Upper House or the Vidhan Parishad. A Member of Parliament (MP) holds a very important position in a parliamentary democracy like India. A Lok Sabha MP on an average represents more than 2.2 million people. A Rajya Sabha (Upper House) MP is the voice of his State in Parliament, and as such, has a very important role in our federal political system.
Interestingly, after blowing hot and cold, on the floor of the house many members both in Lok Sabha as well as in Rajya Sabha, walk out of the House ahead of voting on the motion or on the Bill. Is there an underlying rationale behind this? It clearly reflects the mysterious agenda of these parliamentarians and some sort of settlement (mostly horse trading) for their personal gains with one of the players (mostly with the ruling party) flexing muscles in the boxing ring. In this way they assist in fending off the challenge to the party with lesser number of counting heads in the house. The populace of the country has been observing the trickery of Parliamentarian/Legislators from abstaining during voting process that may be a vote of confidence on survival of a government or over enactment of a law or over any amendment in Law. This way a law enacted does not carry the concern of all the citizens of the country. Moreover such representatives (Representation means acting on behalf of voters and citizens) violate the principle of confidence that is reposed by the common man on these Parliamentarians. The voice of those electing them is silenced by this fraternity by abstaining from voting process. This way they also violate the responsibility placed on their shoulders by voters as their concern do not form part of the enactment of any Law in the country. We can attribute it as a complete lack of moral fibre and conviction. It shows them to be the last people in the world we want as an MP.
The Constitution of India has some provisions to make Members of Parliament accountable to their constituents. Under Article 101, if an MP is absent from the meetings of his House for more than 60 days without permission, his seat may be declared vacant, under Article 104, if an MP sits or votes in Parliament without taking oath, he shall be liable to pay a fine of up to Rs 500 per day. Though such provisions exist, but there is no provision either in the Constitution or in the Rules of Procedure to measure the performance of MPs. Under Article 102 of Indian Constitution an MP can be disqualified if he holds an "office of profit" under the Government of India or the Government of any State. Now it is also needed that a representative of people whether in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha or in any State Assembly, should be deprived of his representation and his membership be ceased, if he mysteriously, deliberately and without reasonable cause walk out or abstain from voting as and when required in any matter to be decided on the floor of the house. This will be a step forward to make Democracy a healthy and vibrating Democracy. This fraternity that walk out or abstain from voting process in actuality is the decision making segment on such occasions of no confidence motion, on any passage of Law or any amendment and not those who actually take part in voting process. Their taking active participation for hours together in debate on any issue to be decided by voting at the last is a managed drama and remind us of rare species of two-headed snake nicknamed 'Double Dave' found in US (a venomous pit viper that has two fully formed heads, meaning it has four working eyes and two flickering tongues). This wired trickery is to avoid disqualification for openly quitting their party or their defection to another party after being elected as an MP under the Tenth Schedule to the Indian Constitution, if any settlement stands worked out.
Here we have to realize that India is a strong democratic country where we as the public elect our rulers and leaders. Some of them are educated and some of them or not. In today's fast moving world, where all nations are striving to become one of those developed countries, India also needs educated politicians. The education has the power to analyze the things in better perspective. The Indian Constitution that has several blank pages requiring certain provisions to be included can be enlisted as: 1. Those facing serious criminal charges should be debarred to contest elections. 2. The political parties giving mandate to criminally charged candidates should be heavily fined with ban to contest elections for certain period. 3. Provisions of literacy are incorporated in 'Peoples Representation Act'. 4. The voters need to be empowered to call back non-performing representatives. 5. Those that abstain or walk out from voting in a process on floor of the house to lose their membership. |
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