Report Card: Modi spent 800 days campaigning, not 80 in Parliament

In 2014 a ‘statesmanlike’ Prime Minister, Narendra Modi had declared, “We are here in Parliament, the temple of democracy... we shall work with all purity.” He had vowed that the government would rise above petty politics and promised to produce in 2019 a report card.

The report card is yet to be delivered. But Bharatiya Janata Party had come to power with a clear majority. No political party had secured a majority on its own since Congress in 1984. Expectations were, therefore, high.

But the Modi Government largely bypassed Parliament and took recourse to promulgating ordinances. In parliament, it avoided debates and discussions. And it now has the dubious distinction of getting even the Union Budget passed by the Lok Sabha without any discussion. For over three weeks in the Lok Sabha, with the help of a pliable Speaker, a No-confidence motion was stalled by Treasury Benches despite the Government running no risk of losing.

It merrily introduced Money Bills which did not require the consent of the Rajya Sabha. One such Bill was the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016. The opposition protests that the Aadhaar Bill did not qualify as a Money Bill fell on deaf ears. Some of the provisions of the Bill were later struck down by a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court.

The Government’s legislative competence has also been open to questions. Amendments to the Aadhaar Act after the constitutional bench verdict have been thumbed down by experts, for example. Two of the amendments, which were introduced in the winter session allowed banks and telecom operators to continue using Aadhaar authentication to bypass the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Its bullying tactics was also pronounced in its hurry to issue an Ordinance to introduce the Triple Talaq Bill which could not be passed by the Rajya Sabha.The Bill had also been struck down by the Supreme Court. But in its haste to appeasing the Muslim women and create a divide in the Muslim families just before elections the Government took the Ordinance Route to score brownie points.

Another contentious Bill was the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Fourth Amendment) Bill, which was passed to provide 10 per cent reservation in jobs and education to the poor who come from the forward castes. So desperate was the Modi government to get this through that the Bill was tabled on the last day of the winter session and pushed through the Rajya Sabha by extending the session without the formality of any notice. Members were handed over a copy of the Bill hours before it was introduced in the House, giving them no time to study it.

Both the treasury and opposition benches agreed that the Bill was flawed. Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had rhetorically described the constitutional amendment as a ‘slog-over six’. But so sensitive is the issue of reservations that even after a nine-hour long raucous debate, a motion to send the Bill to a select committee was thrown out as well as three amendments proposed by opposition MPs.

The 124th constitutional amendment, according to experts would alter the basic structure of the Constitution, which does not allow for granting reservation solely on economic criteria. It would also break the 50 per cent ceiling for reservation set by the Supreme Court.

The amendment also does not clearly identify the potential beneficiaries of the 10 per cent reservation. The government has conceded that it does not have any data on the economic status of the forward castes—other than perhaps the 2011 Socio Economic and Caste Census, the caste-related details of which have not been made public.

In sharp contrast to this tearing hurry was the 1992 legislation that gave reservation to the backward classes. Tabled nearly a decade after the Mandal commission report, identifying socially and educationally backward classes in the country, the commission had spent four years drafting and finalising the report.

Whenever the Modi government has tried to impose its will on the county through bullying it has cited reasons of popular opinion. The most glaring was its decision to reduce the age of juveniles from 18 to 16 to bring them under the adult criminal laws. By this one act the government has thrown thousands children literally to the wolves because they would now be lodged with adults in jails and not have the cover of anonymity to protect their childhood rights.

Many child rights activists had made presentations before a Parliamentary Standing Committee of the Human Resource Ministry and the Committee had unanimously recommended that there was no need to reduce the universally recognised age of children as barely 0.5 juveniles were involved in heinous crimes such as rape, dacoity and murder.

But the Modi cabinet over-ruled the 70-page report of the Standing Committee by saying that there was popular perception in the country that the age of juveniles should be reduced.

The most hilarious was an Ordinance to amend the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act in the very first days of taking with the lofty purpose of allowing Nripendra Mishra to take over as the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. On the other hand the first Anti Human Trafficking Bill in India which was passed by the Lok Sabha could not be passed by Rajya Sabha due to disruptions by the BJP allies in the last session of Parliament.

This Bill which received support from all the Opposition Parties could have saved thousands of women and children from slavery did not deserve an Ordinance, according to priorities of the popular Modi government.