Why Parliamentary Committees are vitally important for our democracy

The Budget Session 2017 is being hailed as the most ‘productive’ session of the 16th Lok Sabha since the Bharatiya Janata Party sweeped the 2014 General Elections. Thirteen Bills were passed in the last session alone, which is no small feat to achieve. But, then, there is one more interesting statistic that was revealed by PRS Legislative recently that puts things in perspective.

The 16th Lok Sabha has sent a significantly lower number of Bills for Parliamentary Committee scrutiny. But for us to understand the importance of this phenomenon, we need to first know what these committees are and what functions they perform. So, this week, we’ll delve deep into the concept of committees, their functioning and why they are frikkin important.

If the ‘speed with which legislations are cleared’ is touted an important factor, this government has the complete intention of becoming the rabbit rather than the tortoise.

We all know who won that race in the end.

Slow and steady wins the race

The Rabbit and Tortoise story is the perfect analogy one can draw for the process of legislation. Indulge me while I repeat the story quickly for those who haven’t heard it before. (Do these people even exist?)

One fine day, the Rabbit challenges the Tortoise (not turtle) to a race. Rabbit is super confident that it is way faster than the Tortoise, so #EpicWin is guaranteed. Tortoise, being the Buddha of the animal world, is like: “Meh! OK Rabbit. If it makes you happy, let us race.”

Both creatures line up one beside the other and start the race. Rabbit whooshes past the tortoise confidently, being fast and all, while the tortoise follows slowly. Soon, Rabbit is able to see the finish line closing in. It looks back and sees that the Tortoise is nowhere in sight. So Rabbit be like: “Ha! So ez. I’m just going to take a nap now. It’s *that* easy. LOL.”

An over-confident Rabbit, proud of his own ‘speed’, goes to sleep under a nice big tree close to the finish line but without really crossing it. Tortoise, still on its steady slow path towards the finish line eventually catches up with the sleeping Rabbit and gets super close to the finish line. Rabbit wakes up and sees that the Tortoise is about to win, so it puts on a spurt of speed to finish.

Too late. Tortoise has already won.

Legislation is a lot like that. If you want to have speed and intend to ‘win’ some fictional race that is only in your head, you will eventually end up getting over-confident, sleeping under a tree and waking up to see that nothing got done. Whereas, the Tortoise was not only moving steadily and slowly towards the finish line, but also had time to look around and absorb the environment.

Inside the Tortoise head: “Look at those amaze mountains! Look at those wonderful flowers! This road to the finish-line is so smooth only! Wait, there is a pothole here. Gotta go to my local representative and complain… Oh look, that Rabbit is sleeping under a tree. LOL! Bye bye Rabbit, I’m totally winning this one now!”

Our Parliamentary Committees are the Tortoise in the story of democracy. Slow, determined and thorough.

Too much to do, too many people, so less time

Our Parliament, on an average, functions 67 days a year (for more deets read this column: How Hard Is Your Parliamentarian Working for You?). Let’s assume that it takes around three working days for the consideration and passing of a single Bill. That’s actually the minimum amount of time that should ideally be given to a Bill so that Members of Parliament can study it. Going by this figure, only 22 Bills can be passed in a whole year. Compare this with the last session alone in which 13 Bills were cleared by the Lok Sabha. A whole bunch of them are still pending. (Complete list of pending legislations)

Take one more factor: We have 545 MPs in Lok Sabha and 250 in Rajya Sabha. That’s a total of 795 human beings with their own ideas, thoughts and, well, brain-farts about how this country should be run. Oh and these 545 members are representatives of THIRTY parties. (Yes, BJP and Congress are not the only parties in Lok Sabha, there are 28 others.)

Simply put, there is too much to do, too many people to be heard and very little time. Every time a piece of legislation comes into Lok Sabha, 545 members collectively sing this song:

(#TrueStory)

That’s where the wonderfully awesome Parliamentary Committees come in. They are like mini-Parliaments.

Committees: Mini-Parliaments

This is how the Parliament website describes Committees.

For the sake of simplicity, let us not get into details about the types of committees but rather focus on just what these committees (are supposed to) do.

There are 16 department-related standing committees at present (complete list), which are divided according to the subject they look into like Finance, Defence, Information Technology, Water Resources, and so on. Each of these committees have an upper limit of 45 members: 30 from Lok Sabha & 15 from Rajya Sabha.

But in practice, at present, all standing committees have 31 members: 21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha.

All of these committees consist of members from each party so that there is proportionate representation. These committees go into minute details of each subject in a way that Parliament, as a whole, has no time for. They can summon stakeholders, demand answers from ministries, ask for an outcome and implementation report on any policy that the government has put in place and it can suggest amendments to proposed legislations.

Basically, if Parliament looks at a sample slide with a normal microscope, the committees look at it with an electron microscope.

A very scrutinised Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2016

In the last Budget session, the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2016, was passed by Lok Sabha. It was introduced in August 2016 and was passed in April 2017. That’s eight months in between where the Bill was subjected to a thorough scrutiny by….

*drum roll*

THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT, TOURISM & CULTURE!

The committee gave a detailed report on the legislation and even suggested a few amendments to it (Full report). It went through each and every proposed clause and gave comments on it. For example, here is what it said about insurance claims. The proposed Bill puts a cap of Rs 10 lakh on third party insurance, the committee didn’t seem very happy about it:

There are many more instances like these in the report (read the highlights of the report).

The best thing about committees is that there are times when MPs from rival political parties agree with each other or oppose something together. They are given the freedom to give their own views and suggestions on a policy that have to be put into the final report. Unlike Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, where the individuality of MPs doesn’t really matter, standing committees have no whip system. (Did you know your MPs can’t vote freely?)

Which is AWESOME! Troo policymaking only!

In the above case, Road Transport Ministry accepted some suggestions and rejected some. And then, based on the recommendations by the committee, the government brought in a few amendments too.

Boys and girls, that is what true lawmaking looks like. In all its glory!

Ignoring committees at your own peril

Governments are wary of committees in general, but for one main reason: They are seen as a delay, a hindrance to their agenda. Over a period of time the government has been perceived as the whole and sole authority for making laws, the rest of Parliament (especially the Opposition) is perceived to have nothing valuable to add.

“They only oppose! That’s why they’re called the opposition!” is an often-used line. So their suggestions and amendments are rejected mostly during the voting on a Bill in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. It becomes a game of numbers, not of substance.

Committees, on the other hand, completely change that. Each member who is part of the committee can give opinions and make them part of the report. The government, then, has to go through the report and respond to suggestions/recommendations. This process makes the party in power more accountable towards Parliament as an institution. Committees can simply ignore particular political parties with their particular political bosses.

How does this benefit us? It’s like each one of us, the voter, has a voice on that circular committee table. That is the primary reason why all important legislations *must be* sent to the committee for scrutiny. Doesn’t matter if it takes a while as long as the law that comes out towards the end is decent and covers every aspect of the problem it’s dealing with.

Slow and steady wins the race, remember?

(Pro-Tip: Next time there is a legislation or programme you see which you think you want to give suggestions for, write to your MP and tell him/her to raise it in a committee. Believe you me, MPs take those suggestions very very seriously and are looking for issues to raise in committees.)

Until next time, ladies and gents, I leave you with an appropriate song.

(Yes, it’s James Blunt. And yes, you’re allowed to judge me for my music choices.)

The author can be contacted on Twitter @Memeghnad