Today is an unfortunate day for India.
The much hyped, controversial and talked about food security bill
(FSB) was cleared in the Rajya sabha today and it is not a bill
anymore. It is an act.
I cannot help but think, no matter how
well this act will serve the economically challenged 67% people of
the nation (ofcourse at the expense of the other 33% population), is
it the right time for India to shell out 28 Billion USD? A country
that is reeling with a falling GDP, sliding INR and scams in the
multitudes of billions of dollars is just not ready to take up this
financial obligation.
The question is – Why the Govt. Of
India that is headed by an elite economist like Dr. Manmohan Singh
(who was hailed for chalking out the strategy to open the Indian
economy in 1991) cannot see this through? Afterall, he is much closer
to the economic reality than I am. The only plausible answer to this
question could be that he does see, but cannot act. The reasons for
not acting could be various but the consequence of such a disastrous
bill will be the same.
The situation begs the question. What's
the way forward? Status-Quo is definitely not an option. Hard reality
is that this situation is not an isolated case. I can almost
guarantee a play-by-play repeat again, the next time a similar
socially popular bill will be tabled in the parliament. No political
party, ruling or principal opposition alike, will have the political
will to challenge or oppose such bills. Quite honestly, even if they
have the will, they cannot dare to veto it. It will be a political
suicide.
Doesn't the situation suggests that the
system is broken somewhere? After all, it takes two to tango. In order
for the bill to become an act, it needs to be cleared BOTH in Lok
Sabha first and Rajya Sabha later. Of course there is an additional
formality that once the both houses clear the bill, the President of
India will need to sign it off too. But it is just a formality.
Coming to the house of the People,
reforms are a lost cause. With the social and economic divide, as big
as the one India faces, It is almost unfair of us to expect that
eligible candidates will be elected to the house. Since the elections
in India are reduced to mere money and power play, getting the truly
desrving candidates to the house is a far fetched dream. India will
need social and economic stability first ir order for its people to
choose the right leaders to represent their cause. The problem is
that The social and economic stability reforms will take time. Time
that our nation cannot afford to wait for right now. Even though Lok
Sabha reforms would have been an ideal solution, but alas, we need an
alternative solution.
Upper house reforms seem like our only
hope to save the World's biggest democracy. Currently 12 members are
nominated by the President and the rest of the 238 are elected by the
Legislative Assemblies and Union territories. This needs to change.
We MUST decouple the political linkage. Political parties must not
have any say in who gets elected to the house. Instead, the house
should mimic the Union cabinet ministerial portfolio and should have
subject matter experts in all concerned areas. Most importantly, none of the ruling parties should have any say in who gets selected into being a member of the Rajya Sabha. This is the only way to keep the system apolitical.
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