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DiwakarChauhan
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The number of bills passed during the last session of Parliament were cited as a reason for calling it the most productive session in recent times. However, as any entrepreneur/manufacturer will tell you, the real test of productivity lies in quality and not just quantity. Let us not forget to examine the time spent deliberating on any piece of legislation from diverse perspectives. This is particularly important because there is no evidence to show if the "swiftness" of passing a legislation contributes to its effectiveness in governing.
The time allocated for the important legislative business pertaining to J&K reorganisation, triple talaq and the National Medical Council in the upper house was four hours. No wonder, careful consideration of disagreements, and respect for dissent were absent. The intention of the government seemed to be to pass the bills in both houses with just a pretence at discussion.
Also, as per the established rule of the House, parties like AIADMK, DMK, RJD, CPM, JDU and TRS get time in the range of four to six minutes, which does not allow these parties to express their views in comprehensive manner. In the best interests of a deliberative parliament, a mechanism must be evolved whereby numbers alone do not dictate the time allocated to each party.
This would also help realise Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan's idea He emphasised on multiple occasions that Parliament is not only a legislative but a deliberative body. "So far as its deliberative functions are concerned" he said, "it will be open to us to make very valuable contributions". He advocated for better balance between legislation and deliberation, even if it requires sitting early and continuing till late. The history of parliamentary democracy from across the world shows that when any political party gets a huge majority, there is a temptation to acquire an authoritarian posture and one of the most obvious features of the same is to set aside quality deliberation by pushing legislation in haste under the cover of "mood of the nation".
Let us not forget that understanding and explaining the mood of the nation and its reflection through a majoritarian parliament is a fundamental intellectual question that has not received due attention. Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, author of Hitler's Willing Executioners, shows that studies of the Holocaust were marred by a poor understanding and under-theorising of anti-semitism. Similarly, evidence suggest that even in the Indian case the demonisation of the "other" has been working at subterranean level for very many years. The other could encompass minorities, Dalits, Kashmiris or many other groups, depending on the issue at hand.