( the text of the following article on Accountability in Coalition Era written by my friend-idol , and reputed Gandhian researcher , a pristine man of letters sir SNS has been sent to the PARLIAMENTARIAN , a journal being published from London, for their consideration. The editors of the Parliamentarian normally publish his articles. His latest article Parliament and Public Policy has been published in the current issue of the Parliamentarian. Kindly go through the article Accountability in Coalition Era. ) ACCOUNTABILITY IN COALITION ERA ----------------------------------------------------------- Satya Narayana Sahu Accountability is the foundation of parliamentary democracy India took a well considered decision to adopt parliamentary system of democracy. Dr. B.R.Ambedkar, the principal architect of the Constitution, explained in his last speech in the Constituent Assembly that in adopting the parliamentary system of democracy, as opposed to the presidential form, the Constituent Assembly preferred accountability to stability. In other words the defining feature of our system of governance is accountability. The executive, particularly the political executive which comes from the legislature, remains accountable to legislature. Of course it is accountable to people; but its accountability to the legislature has always remained the hallmark of the parliamentary democracy. If the executive loses the confidence of the legislature then the Government of the day loses the mandate to govern. The accountability of the Government to legislature is a sacrosanct principle irrespective of the coalition or single party Government. The legislature, therefore, has devised several procedures to hold the executive accountable. For instance the procedure of asking questions, the method of moving different motions and the resultant debates on such motions, discussions on budgets, calling attention notices, etc., are some of the parliamentary devices which may be mentioned in the context of the mechanism to hold the executive accountable to the legislature. Crisis of Accountability However it has been observed that the culture of accountability is eroding. It can be said that there is a crisis of accountability confronting the system of parliamentary democracy across the world. In the recent past, some reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India threw light on the decisions taken by some of the Ministers of the United Progressive Alliance-II coalition Government. As a result, it was perceived that the culture of accountability has been compromised. Thanks to the vision of the framers of the Constitution that we have a body like CAG which so effectively acts as the watch dog of parliamentary democracy. That is why Dr. B.R.Ambedkar said in the Constituent Assembly that CAG is the most important institution in our constitutional framework. India: A coalition society In India the culture of coalition politics and Government is of recent origin. In a society like ours which is a coalition of diverse religions, languages, ethnicities, political parties and regions we should have a culture of coalition politics and Government. To have a coalition Government is quite natural and usual in Indian setting. In the Rajya Sabha itself, the second chamber of the Indian Parliament, there are representatives of 27 parties. In the Lok Sabha we find representation of more than 30 political parties. The existence of so many parties at the national and regional levels and election of their representatives to the legislatures of our country make India a natural choice for coalition Government. Coalition Government and Britain Even in a country like Britain where there are only two or three parties there is a coalition Government. If we study British politics we realise that in that country there used to be coalition Governments only during war or other emergencies such economic crises. In fact long years back Benjamin Disraeli had commented that England does not love coalitions. If we open pages of history we learn that Britain truly did not love coalitions and therefore, we find the formation of a coalition Government only in 1974 arising out of hung parliament. Yet again a coalition Government was formed in Britain in 2010 because no political party got clear majority. It is anticipated that increasingly the Governments in the UK would be coalition Governments. Professor Vernon Bogdanor in his book The Coalition and the Constitution, published in 2011 after the coalition Government headed by Mr. David Cameroon came into being, observed that The coalition, moreover, may well not be an aberration. There are signs that, with the rise in strength of third parties, hung parliaments are more likely to recur than in the past. Perhaps, therefore, the era of single party majority Government, to which we have become accustomed since 1945, is coming to an end. if coalition Governments are going to be there in countries with two or three parties, then in a country like India, with multiple parties, we our bound to have Governments based on coalition arrangement and politics. Coalition Government is not negation of accountability Just because governments are coalition governments does not mean that the culture of accountability will suffer erosion. The coalition Government is guided by whats called the doctrine of the supremacy of the coalition agreement. Prime Minister David Cameron famously said, a day before the 2010 elections, The point about a hung parliament is that the decisions that really matter to people are taken behind closed doors. Instead of people choosing the government, the politicians do. Instead of policies implemented on the basis of a manifesto there will be compromises and half measures. In India Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh talked of coalition compulsions in taking decisions. Coalition Government cannot compromise basic values What has to be stressed is that coalition politics need not be a negation of accountability. It need not be a negation of stability and good governance. Rather we have seen that coalition politics helped us to defend and safeguard certain basic principles which are at the heart of governance. Let us take the principle of secularism which is enshrined in the Preamble of the Indian Constitution and is one of the building blocks of our nation. In India the Janata Government of 1977, the first coalition Government at the national level, collapsed, according to some analysis, on account of departure from secularism when some Ministers of the coalition Government refused to delink themselves from Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh(RSS) which . Because some members of the Government compromised on secularism the Government fell. But look at the NDA Government under Mr.Vajpayee. It survived only when issues such as Ram Mandir, abolition of special status to Kashmir and Uniform Civil Code were abandoned by the dominant party of the Coalition Government. What is argued is that basic principles which are inviolable cannot be compromised. If these are compromised then the Government would not survive. When the NDA Government departed from the principles of secularism when riots took place in Gujarat in 2002 they lost the minority votes in 2004 general elections. Some of the constituent parties of the NDA such as TDP said in so many words that due to Gujrat riots in 2002 they lost the faith of minorities in their programmes and policies. Similarly it is said that the crisis facing the UPA-2 Government has arisen from the departure from the basic principles of probity and integrity. The coalition compulsion does not mean compromising basic principles. When basic principles are compromised then the crisis confronts not only the Government but also the nation. The lesson, therefore, is that we cannot afford to lose sight of the certain fundamentals which are at the root of the system. Better scrutiny leads to better Government and stability Due to the neglect of the culture of accountability by compromising certain basic principles the opposition, the CAG and even the larger civil society has come forward in upholding the culture of accountability which is the defining feature of parliamentary democracy. Even in a country like UK there is serious reflection that culture of accountability has suffered decline. That is the reason why one of reports of the House of Commons on the issue of modernization of the Parliament very appropriately observed that Better scrutiny leads to better Government. In fact accountability can be taken forward if there is better scrutiny of the policies of the Government. If Parliament does not function then better scrutiny of the Government policies cannot be done. It is felt that the functioning of the Parliament is itself has suffered decline. The number of days the Parliament is sitting is not adequate. On several occasions the Conference of Presiding Officers in India has passed resolutions for increasing the days of sittings of legislatures in India. Most of the time of the parliament is taken by the Government. So the number of days when the parliament has to sit must be increased for the cause of better scrutiny of the Government policies. Without this the culture of accountability will further putting at stake the very foundation of parliamentary democracy. I recall that the late President of India Shri K.R.Narayanan while inaugurating the new legislature complex of Kerala in 1998 had invoked the words of Mr.Achuta Menon who led one of the very successful coalition Governments in that State in 1967, the year in which the era of one party dominance came to an end in Indian politics. What Mr. Achut Menon said in the context of coalition government is significant for our own time. He said that for the successful running of coalition Governments there should be common minimum programme and code of conduct for ministers. And of course he said that the Chief Minister had to consult the coalition partners to change Ministers and their portfolios. Mr. K.R.Narayanan referring to that example of coalition Government of Mr. Menon said that coalition politics could also provide stability of Government and promote good governance. What was done in Kerala can be followed in other parts of India and even at the national level. Fixed term Parliament in Britain In England measures have been taken to strengthen the culture of accountability after the coalition Government under the leadership of Mr. David Cameron took over. The term of the Parliament has been fixed by an act of Parliament. Under the provisions of this Act the Parliament cannot be dissolved before completion of its term except when a no confidence motion is passed by the House of Commons and no other party is in a position to form the Government or when the tow -thirds of the Members of the House of Commons pass a resolution to dissolve the House. In doing so the prerogative of the head of the Government to dissolve the Parliament at his or her own free will has been taken away. Such a measure can be described as a bold measure which would ensure stability of the Government and thereby promote the cause of accountability. Definition of compromise At the end let me refer to the issue of compromise which is at the heart of coalition politics and democracy as a whole. Obviously without compromise we cannot have a coalition Government. The whole architecture of politics is based on compromise. But what is compromise? One of the wonderful explanation on compromise came from Mahatma Gandhi who nonviolently fought for what he called Parliamentary Swaraj(independence).While fighting for the rights of Indians in South Africa he talked of compromise with the British authorities who assured that the certain law restricting the rights of Indians would be repealed and in turn Indians would have to give finger prints. Gandhi who was opposed giving finger prints on the ground that only finger prints were taken from criminals, eventually agreed to give finger prints. Many Indians disagreed with him and were furious with his decision to give finger prints. Gandhi then said that compromise meant giving concessions and not compromising principles. He explained that he did not compromise on his demand for abolition of law restricting rights of Indians. However, since the Britishers were assuring to repeal the law let the Indians give the concession by giving finger prints. We must be mindful of the definition of compromise Mahatma Gandhi gave more than hundred years back. The sum and substance is that the basic principles of parliamentary democracy cannot be compromised by any Government which includes the coalition Government. Only by ensuring this we can safeguard the culture of accountability and promote better scrutiny which in turn will promote good governance. ( views expressed are personal views of author and not that of Rajya Sabha Secretariat , where the author sir SNS works as a high functionary )
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 06:52:21 +0000
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