The Big Story: A bill to end all bills

India’s parliament is supposed to frame laws, debate them and then vote on them. The Union parliament is bicameral. The lower house is directly elected by general election. The upper house consists of representatives from the states – it is a chamber of elders who work to prevent “hasty legislation” and “serve as dignified chamber representing the federal principle”, as the Rajya Sabha website notes.

Or at least, that’s the theory. Recent moves by the Modi government mean the role of Parliament is shrinking. Very little debate about the provisions of proposed laws is conducted inside Parliament. The Rajya Sabha has been pummelled into near non-existence driven by the fact that Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party does not enjoy a majority in the house.

Take the case of the Finance Bill passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Its scope is unprecedented. This single Bill sought to amend 40 other Acts including key laws such as the Representation of People Act, which lie at the core of Indian democracy. By bringing in legislation of near-ridiculous scope, the Bill undercuts grievously the function of Parliament as a deliberative body. As a Revolutionary Socialist Party member from Kerala sarcastically remarked, “If you conduct the House like this, then there is no need for the monsoon and the winter sessions.”

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Even more alarmingly is that the Finance Bill is classified as a money Bill by the government. This means that the bill will not face a vote in the Rajya Sabha.

But the scope of the Finance Bill moved by the Modi government far extends beyond that of a money Bill. A money Bill concerns itself with government taxation and spending. However, the governmen’ts Finance Bill has provisions as wide-ranging as making Aadhaar cards mandatory for income tax returns, merging various Union government tribunals and changing the way political parties receive funding. None of these provisions have any relation to government spending or taxation. Classifying these amendments under the rubric of a money Bill is incorrect. It is, then, simply a way to circumvent the Rajya Sabha.

The Finance Bill might be the most egregious example of the Modi government trying to undercut Parliament but it is not the first. In November, 2016, the government peremptorily passed a Bill that gave it the power to tax black money deposited in banks. The Bill was introduced without giving the Lok Sabha any time to move amendment. Any amendments moved by the Opposition were dismissed by the speaker. Earlier in March, the government had classified the Aadhar Bill related to a national biometric identity project as a money Bill even when its provision had little to do with taxation and spending. Again, this was done to render the Rajya Sabha ineffective.

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Any democracy is a vote on numbers. Yet for a democracy to distinguish itself from mob rule, this vote needs to be channelled through institutions that can covert popular sovereignty into state power. In India 2017, there is no doubt that the Modi government is a popular democratic force. Yet, by undercutting the Union Parliament – the single most important institution in India’s democracy – the Modi government is putting Indian democracy at grave risk.

The Big Scroll

  1. In name of transparency, BJP has made it easier for parties to get anonymous corporate funds, writes Rohan Venkatramakrishnan.
  2. Does Aadhaar count as a Money Bill,asks Anumhea Yadav.
  3. The devaluation of Parliament is an alarming sign for Indian democracy, argues Shoaib Daniyal.

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Political Picks

  1. A court sentenced two Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh members to life imprisonment in the 2007 Ajmer Dargah blast case.
  2. Uttar Pradesh might now make the unlicensed slaughter of all animals a criminal offence. Till now, only the slaughter of cows was covered under the law.
  3. Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy accused Muslim bodies of creating hurdles in resolving the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute.
  4. The Lok Sabha has passed the Finance Bill, which makes Aadhaar compulsory for income tax returns and PAN cards.

Punditry

  1. Maruti case judgment: Can life and death be decided on the basis of dubious clues, asks Aman Sethi in the Hindustan Times.
  2. Those who want India to stay pluralist, must conserve strength, correct mistakes, construct networks, says Rajmohan Gandhi in the Indian Express.

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Aadhaar is a legal right, but the government can suspend a citizen’s number without prior notice, writes Anumeha Yadav.

“If the Aadhaar Act says every resident has a legal right to obtain an Aadhaar number, how can the regulations give the Authority the administrative discretion to deactivate an individual’s number without prior notice, he asked.

Reddy pointed out that the previous National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010 drafted by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government had provided for an Identity Review Committee, comprising nominees of the prime minister, leader of the Opposition, and a Union cabinet minister to monitor Aadhaar usage patterns and submit an annual report to Parliament. But the Aadhaar Act had diluted this requirement. ‘Such a committee could have provided independent oversight over the UIDAI and transparency in how Aadhaar numbers are being used, what do the usage patterns show, but now there is no such provision,’ he said.”