Shaveta Sharma
To say India is the largest democratic country in the world. Indian Parliament has been given a sacrosanct place in the political decision making mechanism by the Indian constitution. No doubt, Parliament is and will always be one of the mos t honourable institution of our country along with the judiciary but it is unfortunate that the quality of the stuff that consist this highly reputed institution i.e. Parliament now a days has been degrading with every coming year and with this the credibility of the laws passed by this institution has been questioned-marked by many. And this question mark has been put on the credibility of the Indian Parliament in lieu of the growing criminalization of the legislature (both central and state) in India. The under-discussed points would clearly highlight the fact that how credibly our Parliament has been working in the present scenario.
First is the issue of Lokpal Bill which was firstly introduced in Parliament in 1968. I would rather call it an ill-fated bill as its going to be over four and a half decades since its introduction but till date this bill could not see the light of the day. It was introduced around 10 times in both the houses of the parliament but every time it has been either postponed or rejected or the house in which it was under process, itself got dissolved. The reason is crystal clear behind the lingering of this bill which has hampered its passage. As the bill is intended to cover all the parliamentarians under its preview and most of our esteemed members of Parliament do not want this to happen. These so called public representatives are too scared to be under the scrutiny of the public eyes and letting go their privileges. Countless cases of bribes and corruption are charged against many members of Parliament so how could they simply let themselves expose and face punishment? So the best way they have adopted is to keep the bill lingering from many decades on one pretext or the other.
Second is the Women Reservation Bill which has been introduced in the Parliament many a times but it also met with little success. Impressive and pro-women statements given by these parliamentarians on the floor of the house were just a hyper-rhetorical act but all these rhetorics fell roughly on floor when it comes to give them a practical shape. 73rd amendment act of 1992 provided for giving 33 percent reservation to women and no doubt it has been provided to women but only in the grass root level/ panchayats. But no substantive and whole-hearted approach has been ever adopted as far as the matter of providing reservation to women in the central legislature and state legislatures have been concerned. The reason in the patriarchal mindset of the male members of the Parliament. Almost 90 percent members of Parliament and state legislatures are males and how could they simply accept the challenge to their dominance by sharing their privileges and by implementing the reservation act for women?
Moreover, to give reservation to women in the legislative wings is supposed to be an act of respecting the dignity and appreciate the contribution of women in the society but how much respect most of these MPs and MLAs have in their heart for the women community gets amply clear by the following data. Around 369 MPs and MLAs are facing charges of crimes against women. UP has got the notorious place at the top as there are 8 MLAs followed by Orissa and West Bengal having 7 members each sitting in the state assembly who are facing charges of crimes against women thus marking a blot on the face of Indian democracy; so one can see the credibility of our esteemed legislatures. In this scenario, can we really expect that women reservation bill aspired to be one of the foundation stones for women empowerment would ever become a reality.. A big question mark.
Third point to be highlighted is the criminalization of politics or rather I should term it as ‘legislative criminalization’ which is termiting both the state and central legislatures and deeply blotted the democratic fabric of our country. In every elections whether in states or Lok Sabha, political parties did not even hesitate to give tickets to the candidates having criminal records and unfortunate thing is that many of these candidates with criminal records managed to even win the elections and hold one of the most prestigious seats in the legislatures- which they do not deserve for sure. When the institution which has been reposited with the power and responsibility to enact stringent laws against criminalization of politics itself is blotted by members having criminal records; what fair and substantive laws one can expect?
All the above discussed issues clearly highlight the degrading standard of the legislatures in India and question its credibility. India is not only the biggest democracy but also unfortunately the biggest criminalized democracy in the world where the future of our country is mostly in those hands which are already coloured with the blood of several murders, bribes, kidnapping, extortion, rapes, harassment so on and so forth. And I think this would not give our country a bright-colored future…will it?
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