DailyPost 2732
UNBRIDLED POWERS
Are unbridled powers a part of our constitutional mechanism? The straight answer is NO. The practice over the successive governments in last couple of decades is of creating a “congenial democratic atmosphere” for unbridled use of power. The distinction of executive and the legislature in operational terms has vanished and more importantly, the political party in power becomes omnipresent and all pervasive. This combination can only bring unbridled powers to the incumbent government. The creation and use of unbridled powers are directly proportional to the nature of majority you enjoy in the house and then the strength of the leader. If the two add up correctly in someone’s favour, the cocktail is called unbridled power.
The lack of intra-party democracy provides you with this nature of grooming. No politician is a democrat by DNA or grooming in this country. That role has to be played. With water tight democratic checks and balances, how does unbridled power comes into play? Are our law makers conversant with the law of the land? Devoid of any understanding of law or the practice of it, they feel that everything is doable. The laws and rules are treated as political clay good enough to create whatever they want on potter’s wheel. They have seen their seniors in government doing it and also by governments of the other political parties. This has finally become the norm.
For most part of the country the real utility of the politician is when you are caught on the other side of the law and you are able to bail him out. They also view themselves in a similar manner and act accordingly. They are convinced that no expertise is required is required for governance or law making. This thought process in the genesis of unbridled powers which they end up wielding. The bureaucracy who are the experts on governance, the practitioners have been brought to a stage, where they are supposed to just carry orders. With the fate of bureaucrats in their hands, the vast majority takes orders; good, bad or ugly. Some end paying for others crimes and some for being active co-partners.
How can blatantly unconstitutional laws be enacted? Does the expertise of the bureaucrats, the legal experts in and out of government and top law officers of the government have no value? They become so feeble at times that they become inconsequential. The organizations concerned also air their views and that too in writing. Even if some views expressed are to the contrary the unbridled power practitioners can ride roughshod over all of them, with the pliable ones making this passage easy. Passing it through the legislature where you have a majority is more of a shepherd’s show. The first comprehensive act to get into the unbridled power mode it to get bureaucrats / experts of your choice. They are already bought to you and your idea till the farthest end. It leads to executive’s reign of terror, so to say, camouflaged in law. At the end of it all, the whole ecosystem created is to execute the whims, fancies and wishes of the governments, which generally thinks no end of itself. People, the sovereign, ironically always remain at the receiving end.
POWERS WITH ADEQUATE CHECKS AND BALANCES IS NO POWER FOR THE INDIAN POLITICIAN.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.