The president and the governors should transcend politics. The president must be allowed to prepare his own address to Parliament, rather than behave as a spokesperson for the prime minister. Governors must act as independent links between the Union and states rather than as partisan appointees.
Posts published in “Governance”
India is said to grow at night while the government sleeps. Freedom Gazette is rethinking India’s institutions in order to make our government more transparent, accountable and effective in solving everyday problems.
Questions from MPs are now widely brushed aside by the government. Meanwhile, in recent years, more Bills have been passed without debate, fewer Bills have been referred to parliamentary committees and an increased number of ordinances have been passed in order to sidestep Parliament altogether.
In many democracies, judges are appointed by the executive, but in India, judges appoint other judges through the collegium system. Both systems have flaws. Allowing the executive to appoint judges can lead to pressure on judges to please the government. The collegium system, however, lacks transparency.
The burden of upholding democracy rests on three pillars: government, institutions and civil society. In India, while the former two have received attention from researchers and the media, the third pillar is scantily discussed. In recent years, civil society organisations have increasingly come under attack.
The current wave of authoritarianism across the world contains a strong message: One cannot rely on good faith politics alone. Codification of conventions and strengthening the voice of the Opposition is of utmost importance for democracies. India desperately needs to reform its Parliament to make it better.
Centralisation might seem at first glance to improve efficiency. But that isn’t always the case. Centralisation of power by the Union government has undermined the fiscal and policy autonomy of states, and altogether weakened governance in India. The Opposition must fight to reverse the trend.
India could soon become the first country in the world to introduce legislation on non-personal data protection. But the draft framework leaves more questions than answers on the rights of individuals and the duties of data businesses, and the feedback received on the draft law has been kept confidential.
The newly planned Uttar Pradesh Special Security Force is meant to reduce the workload of the Uttar Pradesh Police and Pradeshik Armed Constabulary. But the law introduced by the Uttar Pradesh government protects the Force from being prosecuted for any excesses or criminal violations.