DailyPost 1570
WHO IS A LAW MAKER?
Who is maker? Without getting into a straight jacketed definition, we will get into a few analogies, which will make it crystal clear. First and foremost, we can start with the Home Maker and all of us know her very well and what she means. It will give you some idea of the dedication, expertise, involvement and ownership that goes into the role of a maker. Sometimes, some odd thing might go awry, but the effort is to take 360 degrees responsibility and deliver without supervision. On the other side we can think of flimsy job like that of a key maker. The key maker because of ultimate skill makes a key for the lock you are looking for. Maker is the other word for creator in simple parlance and he has the capability to sort out any issue in his arena.
He can provide reply to all queries on his creation to the satisfaction to one and all. There are no vested interests, hidden agendas, game plan and broadly they remain in the trade for all his professional life and lots carry it on for all their life, in some way or other. It might teaching, skilling, mentoring or writing about it. A writer is also a creator. See the research and originality that goes into it and it remains in his name for posterity. Does the same yardstick apply to the law maker? If not why? Some body who creates the law, whatever might be the number, individually and collectively have to held responsible for that.
It is not a paradoxical journey, it is the irony of our times that individuals who have performed the role of a law maker for decades, are not known by that role. Somebody might be renowned for his parliamentary debates but it well nigh impossible to name the iconic law makers in the country. Even the lawyers who become MPs and MLAS /MLCs are barely referred that way. It is precisely for the reason that their contribution has not been to that level. The making of the law in the present mechanism is an administrative creation which has go through the mandated legislative process.
Whatever might be criticism to a law, it does not affect the law maker. Nobody takes this as either a personal or a collective affront even when truckload of criticisms is offloaded at their doorstep. In the fitness of things the Union or the State Legislature has to defend the law and not the govt. The job of the government is only to execute the law. They are the political executive and not the law makers. It finally boils down to few members of the political executive and the bureaucracy to keep defending it. The proceedings of the Constituent Assembly will give you a clear inkling of what law making is all about; what professionalism, expertise, language, thought process, domain and visionary elements go into making a professional law maker.
A LAW MAKER IS BEST SUITED TO DEFEND HIS LAW. A PRESUMED FUNDAMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY.
Sanjay Sahay