Our founding Fathers had adopted a parliamentary system of governance based on the pattern of the British parliamentary system. In India, it has been operating for more than 50 years now. But our socio-political set up has been increasingly witnessing a deterioration that the parliamentary system with all its advantage has failed to check.
Our country is an amalgamation of heterogeneous elements relating to various socio- cultural denominations such as religion, language, caste etc. However, many divisive forces of different nature have come to the fore in recent years and these have flourished in the parliamentary setup to further undermine its growth.
Criminalisation of politics has been a result of growing corruption, black money, use of muscle power in politics. This is reflected in the entry of criminals into politics and the parliament.
The mushrooming of political parties has resulted in a large scale erosion of political values owing to growth in electoral malpractices, etc. A multiparty system has also witnessed the emergence of minority governments based on coalition. The result is political unstability and decay of democracy.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Increasing unaccountability of the executive to the legislature has been reflected in shorter parliamentary sessions, rampant use (or misuse) of the practice of issuing Ordiannces, keeping the president in the dark on many matters, and the passage of the commission of enquiry amendment Act, 1986 that empowers the government to with-hold the report of an Enquiry commission from being placed in parliament. Absence of proper or coded parliamentary conventions so that they have been often ignored and flouted resulting in arbitrary dismissal of ministries ruling with popular support etc.
A basic aspect of the parliamentary system is the principle of collective responsibility which has been ignored time and again Where ministries ought to resign with respect to policy matters, often one of its ministers resign and the ministry concerned thus escapes the crisis.
The politics of defection has worked against the principle and spirit of parliamentary democracy in our country. There is an urgent need to alter the state of affairs brought about by the working of the above mentioned factors in Indian polity.