Tag: india

It’s Time India’s Parliament Had A Calendar

by Derek O'Brien

The dates for the forthcoming Budget session of Parliament have been announced. Once again, at very short notice. We did some research and here is what we found. Historically, the Indian Parliament provided ample time for preparation. The first two Lok Sabhas (1952–1962) averaged a commendable 47 days between the time the notice was given, and the start of the session. Over the years, however, this gap has narrowed significantly. Under the current government, the average has plummeted to 17 days notice for summoning sessions—one of the lowest in the  history of independent India. This time around, the Parliamentary bulletin announcing the starting date (31 January) of the Budget Session, was announced on 17 January. Abysmal. 15 days notice!   

India’s Parliament has seen this troubling trend in the last two decades. The lack of proper planning hurts the functioning of a Parliamentary democracy. The diminishing lead time between the issuance of summons and the commencement of sessions is only one of the many ills that is ‘turning Parliament into a deep, dark chamber’. If schools and colleges can set up their calendars way in advance, why can’t Parliament? There are multiple advantages of preparing and then announcing a calendar for Parliament with sufficient lead time. Proper lead time will ensure higher quality of outputs from Members of Parliament (MPs). 

The Constitutional Gap

Unlike many other democracies, India does not have a fixed parliamentary calendar. Conventionally, Parliament meets for three sessions a year:

i. Budget Session (usually February-May),

ii. Monsoon Session (usually July-August), and

iii. Winter Session (usually November-December).

The only constitutional requirement is that there should not be more than six months between two sessions. The gap has enabled successive governments to carve out timing for sessions to suit themselves. This selfish tactic undermines the robustness of Parliament and raises serious questions. 

Can a Parliament that meets sporadically, with just two weeks notice, be an effective amplifier to voice concerns of citizens? Can a Parliament that gives MPs insufficient time to prepare, be a shining example of representative governance? Members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha are elected not just to legislate, but also to hold the government accountable, scrutinise its actions, and debate matters of national importance. These responsibilities will be fulfilled far better with a structured and predictable Parliamentary calendar.  

Efforts to address this issue go back many decades. In 1955, the General Purposes Committee of the Lok Sabha explored the idea of a fixed Parliamentary calendar. Then again in 2002, the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution, emphasised the need for a minimum number of sittings. Unfortunately, these proposals have still not been implemented.  

In 2019, your columnist introduced a Private Member’s Bill in Parliament to establish a fixed calendar for Parliamentary sessions and mandate a minimum of 100 sitting days annually. This aimed to enhance the functioning of Parliament by ensuring governments do not evade accountability by delaying sessions or cutting them short. A fixed schedule would allow Members of Parliament to plan their legislative and constituency responsibilities effectively, ensuring adequate time for debating and scrutinising bills, policies, and issues of public importance. By guaranteeing at least 100 sitting days, the bill sought to strengthen the democratic process, improve legislative efficiency, and uphold transparency and accountability in governance.

During the Constituent Assembly Debates, members like K.T. Shah argued that the flexibility of not having a fixed calendar should not lead to misuse, emphasising that Parliament must meet often to ensure proper oversight of the executive.India prides itself on being the world’s largest democracy. Yet, the strength of a democracy is measured not by its size but by the effectiveness of its institutions. Parliament is the cornerstone of this system, and its proper functioning is essential for ensuring that the voices of citizens are heard and their concerns addressed. A fixed Parliamentary calendar is not just a procedural reform, it will be a big step toward restoring some measure of the dignity and purpose of this institution.  

In countries like the UK and the US, Parliament and Congress have fixed session schedules. For instance, the UK House of Commons follows an annual calendar approved months in advance, ensuring MPs can prepare and balance their legislative and constituency duties.

This issue transcends political affiliations. It is about safeguarding the democratic framework and ensuring that Parliament fulfills its constitutional mandate. Seventy five years after adopting the Constitution, is as good a time as any, to give the world’s largest Parliamentary democracy a calendar with a well-planned schedule, and at least 100 days of Parliament being in session. 

Let’s get this done.

[This article was also published in NDTV| Monday, January 20, 2025]

Posted 19th January 2025 by Derek O'Brien

The Modi Government’s 25 Things-To-Do in 2025

by Derek O'Brien

When Julius Caesar’s Senate fixed January 1 as the ‘first day of the year’, the idea wasn’t only to ‘start afresh’. It was also when those in civil office were to set in motion their responsibilities. In that tradition, coming down from 45 BC, let the existing coalition government headed by Narendra Modi set out to focus and do a lot better with this list: Top 25 Must Get Done In 2025.

1. Control inflation: Retail inflation reached a 14-month high of 6.21% and food inflation reached a 15-month high of 10.87% in October 2024. In 2023, savings by households dipped to a 50-year low.

2. Make the GDP grow: The Reserve Bank of India reduced GDP growth estimates from 7.2% to 6.6% in December 2024. The repo rate was not cut for eleven consecutive terms.

3. Attract foreign investment: 13 thousand crore (1.6 billion USD) worth of foreign direct investment has decreased between 2022-23 and 2023-24.

4. Make the rupee strong: In December 2024, the rupee stayed weak for the third straight session and settled at an all-time low of 85.27 against the US dollar.

5. Generate employment: Youth unemployment rate has been at 10% for the last two years. As per the Economic Survey, half of all individuals are not ready to be employed after graduating from college.

6. Favour the common man: In the last four years, Rs 5.65 lakh crore has been written off for the industrial sector. Agriculture, the largest employer in the country, received the least attention in terms of loan write-offs among all sectors from Scheduled Commercial Banks.

7. Provide food for all: Annually, 17 lakh Indians die from diseases related to insufficient food intake.

8. Ensure equal wages for all: Annual growth rate of real wages over the last decade has been close to zero at the all-India level. Rural real wages for the last five years have declined at 0.4% and agricultural wages have become stagnant at 0.2%. Four out of five people earn less than Rs 515 as of 2021.

9. Ensure dignity of life for farmers: As per the NCRB, 30 farmers commit suicide every day. Since February 2024, 22 farmers have lost their lives and over 160 have been injured while protesting for a legal guarantee for MSP.

10. Enable safety for women: Section 63 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita deals with the offence of rape but provides an exception for marital rape, stating that “sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under eighteen years of age, is not rape”.

11. Ensure dignity for the marginalised: Between 2018 and 2020, 443 people died cleaning sewers and septic tanks. Manual scavenging was banned in 2013.

12. Protect the press: Between 2014 and 2019, there were 200 serious attacks on journalists, along with arrests and interrogations. At least 194 journalists were targeted by government agencies, non-state political actors, criminals, and armed opposition groups in 2022 alone.

13. Ensure equitable representation: The representation of women in the 18th Lok Sabha is merely 13.6%. This is even less than the 17th Lok Sabha, which had 14.4% women. Only two out of 24 Parliamentary Standing Committees are chaired by women.

14. Allow legislative scrutiny: Since 2019, over 100 bills have been passed in less than two hours. In the 17th Lok Sabha, nine out of 10 bills introduced in Parliament have been marked by zero or incomplete consultations.

15. Select the Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha: The 17th Lok Sabha did not have a Deputy Speaker for its entire five-year term. The office of the Deputy Speaker continues to remain vacant even in the 18th Lok Sabha.

16. Allow criticism: The number of opposition MPs who have been suspended in the last five years has increased 13-fold. As many as 95% cases by the Enforcement Directorate in the last ten years have been filed against those from the Opposition.

17. Respect institutions: The National Commission for Backward Classes, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights do not have a Vice-Chairperson.

18. Support Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes & Other Backward Classes: As of March 2024, one out of 10 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBV) were not functional. Two out of five Eklavya schools were not functional as of July 2024.

19. Complete timelines: The 2021 Census has still not been conducted. This makes it the first Census to be delayed between 1887 and 2011.

20. Utilise funds better: As much as 80% of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’s total fund was spent on media advocacy, not for interventions on health or education.

21. Release dues owed to states: The government owes Rs 1,500 Crore under MGNREGS and Awas Yojana to West Bengal. The non-payment of the funds has directly affected the livelihood of 59 lakh MGNREGS workers.

22. Care about Manipur: The violence in Manipur has continued for more than a year, causing the displacement of 67,000 people, of which 14,000 are school-going students. The Prime Minister is yet to visit the state.

23. Safeguard minorities and their welfare: The NCRB recorded 378 instances of communal violence in 2021 and 272 such instances in 2022. In 2023, India witnessed 668 documented hate speech incidents against one community alone. One hundred and twenty-eight properties were demolished between April and June 2022, following communal violence and protests.

24. Build secure public infrastructure: There were 244 train accidents between 2017 and 2022. As many as 135 people died when a suspension bridge collapsed in Morbi. Fourty-one workers were trapped for 17 days after the Uttarkashi Tunnel caved in.

25. Enable a safer internet: Frauds relating to “digital arrests” in the first nine months of 2024 amounted to losses worth Rs 1616 crore. The Digital Data Protection Rules have not been notified despite the Act being passed over a year ago.

[This article was also published in NDTV| Thursday, January 2, 2025]

Posted 2nd January 2025 by Derek O'Brien

In Parliament this winter

by Derek O'Brien

You are reading this on the concluding day of the Winter Session of Parliament. Thoughts on the 21-day session.

Five proper nouns dominated: Common nouns like price rise, inflation, federalism, and unemployment were expected to dominate the debates in this session. But instead, only these proper nouns made headlines for all the right/wrong reasons: George Soros, Gautam Adani, and Jawaharlal Nehru.

In the concluding days of the session, it was B R Ambedkar and Home Minister Amit Shah who were trending. This columnist was sitting only a few seats away, on the same row, from where the Home Minister was delivering his speech. Here is what he said (translation): “It has become fashionable, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar… If you had taken God’s name so many times, you would have gone to heaven for seven lives”. The Leader of the Opposition, sitting on this columnist’s right, immediately responded (his intervention was not picked up on the microphone, nor was the camera on Mallikarjun Kharge who said) “Mr Home Minister, by what you just said it seems you have a big problem with Ambedkar. Why?”

Who spoke the most: As of December 18, Rajya Sabha ran for a total of 43 hours. Of this, Bills were discussed for 10 hours. The debate on the Constitution lasted for 17 and a half hours. Of the remaining 15-and-a-half hours, who spoke for four-and-a-half hours, or nearly 30 per cent of the remaining time? It was the Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President. Did Jagdeep Dhankar set a new record in Parliament?

Sparkling debut: Six MPs were sworn in earlier this week. Sana Sathish Babu (TDP), Masthan Rao Yadav Beedha (TDP), Ryaga Krishnaiah (BJP), Rekha Sharma (BJP), Sujeet Kumar (BJP), and Ritabrata Banerjee (AITC). Ritabrata even got the opportunity to speak on the Constitution the day after he was sworn in. While his party colleagues took each word of the Preamble as the theme for their speech, he spoke on Rabindranath Tagore and read out four stanzas from Tagore’s ‘Morning Song of India’. The first stanza of that poem was adopted by the Constituent Assembly as our national anthem. Ritabrata’s jugalbandi of Bengali and English gave us goosebumps.

Marathon speeches: During the debate titled ‘Glorious Journey of 75 Years of the Constitution of India’, someone murmured: “Listening to some of the speeches from the Treasury benches, was wondering whether we are discussing 75 years of the Constitution or 49 years of the Emergency!” A few members spoke for over one hour. Messrs Modi, Shah, Rajnath Singh, Kiren Rijiju, J P Nadda, and Nirmala Sitharaman. Mallikarjun Kharge was the only Opposition MP to speak for more than an hour.

My favourite speech by a BJP MP: In the government’s previous term, Bhupendra Yadav used to be the Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change as well as Labour and Employment. Since June 2024, the Labour and Employment portfolio has been given to someone else. Enjoyed listening to him as he referred to a research paper by the University of Chicago that analysed life spans of constitutions around the world. Quoting from the paper, the Minister shared that 50 per cent of Constitutions are likely to be dead by age 80 and only 19 per cent survive until age 50. Seven per cent do not even make it to their second birthday. Intriguing.

Best birthday party: Several parties are hosted by MPs during a session of Parliament. It was Sharad (Uncle) Pawar’s 84th birthday on December 12. His daughter, Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule, organised a cosy birthday dinner. The celebration was not only for her father, but also for Pratibha Pawar, her mother, whose birthday was the next day. Among the guests in attendance were Telangana Chief Minister (CM) Revanth Reddy, former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav along with spouse MP Dimple Yadav, former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah, and MPs Jaya Bachchan, Saugata Roy, and Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Wish more octogenarians had such a positive mindset.

An excerpt from my speech on the Constitution: The Constitution is more than a book in a library. It is a living, breathing document on the streets of India. We are a week away from Christmas. There is a Jewish bakery in Kolkata that makes delicious Christmas cake. All the 300 workers in that Jewish bakery belong to one community. They are all Muslims. And about a week before Christmas, you see long queues outside the bakery. If you go and ask the people standing in those queues, they will tell you their names: “Bhaskar, Reema, Arun”. It does not matter. They are all Indians. Cake for a Christian festival, made by Muslim bakers, and enthusiastically purchased by Hindu buyers. Come, celebrate Christmas in Bengal next week at the Kolkata Christmas Festival. Come again at the end of March to line up on Red Road and watch the Eid prayers. And, mark the date, April 30, 2025. Come to Digha to see the beautiful new Jagannath Temple.

[This article was also published in The Indian Express| Friday, December 20, 2024]

Posted 20th December 2024 by Derek O'Brien

Parliament Session: BJP Don’t Want To Answer Some Hard Questions

by Derek O'Brien

We are into the second week of the Winter Session of Parliament. The first week was washed out. MPs from Opposition parties, like the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party, are demanding ‘issues of national public importance’ be discussed on the floor of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha: price rise, unemployment, the situation in the North East and Manipur, states being deprived of funds by the Union government, and violence in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, among others. The principal Opposition party, the Congress, wants a discussion on the alleged financial irregularities of the Adani group. Deadlock.  

At the time of writing this article, there is news that the deadlock between the Opposition and the Union government has been broken. Media reports suggest that in exchange for a discussion on the Constitution to be taken up in mid-December (almost two weeks from now), the government and the Opposition will ensure Parliament functions smoothly. I find this ludicrous.    

How can you come to an understanding on December 2, about what will be discussed in mid-December on the floor of Parliament! What will happen in the interim? If an agreement has indeed been reached between the government and the Opposition, why wait for two weeks to implement it? Start the discussion this week itself. The Modi-led NDA coalition is being too clever by half.  

Let me put it straight up. It is the Union government that does not want Parliament to function. But do not take the view of this Opposition MP seriously. Here is what two BJP stalwarts had said about the functioning of Parliament:

“Parliament’s job is to conduct discussions. But many a time, Parliament is used to ignore issues and in such situations, obstruction of Parliament is in the favour of democracy.” – Arun Jaitley, 2011.  

“It is the government’s job to run the Parliament, not that of the opposition.” – Sushma Swaraj, 2012.

Disgraceful Record In Parliament

Even when Parliament functions, what is the track record of Mr Narendra Modi in the last decade. Consider this:

  1.  In the 15th Lok Sabha (2009-14), seven out of 10 Bills were sent to committees for scrutiny, in the 7th LS (2019-24), only two out of 10 Bills were sent for scrutiny.
  2. Nine out of 10 bills introduced in Parliament were marked by zero or incomplete consultations in the 17th LS.
  3. A total of 221 Bills were passed, of which over one-third were hurried through with less than a 60-minute discussion.
  4. No Deputy Leader was elected in Lok Sabha for the entirety of 17th LS. The current Lok Sabha still has no Deputy Leader.
  5. In the last eight years, not a single notice by a member of the Opposition has been accepted for discussion under Rule 267 in Rajya Sabha.
  6. The Prime Minister has not answered a single question on the floor of Parliament.

With such a disgraceful track record, it is not surprising that the ruling dispensation is trying to turn Parliament into a deep, dark chamber and choke the Opposition.  

Let us now handle the second issue in the headlines: the demand to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). A JPC only looks good on paper. Its very structure and track record suggests that it is most unlikely to deliver meaningful results, especially when the ruling dispensation enjoys a dominant majority in Parliament.  

Ruling Party Dominates The JPC

The composition of the JPC is determined by the strength of parties in Parliament. With the NDA’s majority in both Houses, any JPC formed today would be dominated by members loyal to the ruling party.

The chairperson, almost certainly a BJP MP, would steer the proceedings. Key decisions, from selecting witnesses to approving reports, would be controlled by the Treasury benches. This compromises the credibility of the entire process and makes the ruling dispensation a judge in their own case.

No Consensus, Only Dissent

JPCs rarely reach consensus on their reports. Opposition members are almost always outvoted by the majority. Any dissenting views are reduced to a footnote in the final report, which rubber-stamps the ruling party’s narrative.

Here are some examples. During the Bofors case, the committee, chaired by B. Shankaranand, was formed in 1987. It held 50 sittings and submitted its report in 1988. The committee concluded that there was no evidence of any violation of Indian law concerning the Bofors payments. However, it faced a boycott from Opposition members.  

For the Harshad Mehta scam in 1992, a committee was constituted following the discovery of irregularities in banking and securities transactions at the State Bank of India. The committee held 96 sittings and submitted its report in which included 273 recommendations. The report failed to address systemic market

issues, leaving room for future financial scandals. Of the 273 recommendations, the government accepted only 87 in its action taken report, presented in July 1994.

In many such instances, including the Ketan Parekh scam in 2001, Opposition members either boycotted or dissented from the final JPC reports because they were biased towards the ruling party.

Recommendations Go Nowhere

Even when JPCs make good recommendations, they are often ignored. The 2001 JPC on the stock market scam suggested stronger regulations, but many of its proposals were diluted or ignored. The 2011 JPC on spectrum allocation saw its findings mired in controversy, with little meaningful reform.

Bread and butter issues need to be discussed this Winter Session of Parliament. Why are the prices of onions, tomatoes, and garlic so high? Why are four out of ten youth unemployed? Why are States who oppose the BJP deliberately penalised? Why is Prime Minister Modi so skittish about visiting Manipur? These are just some of the hard questions the BJP refuses to answer on the floor of Parliament.  

[This article was also published in NDTV| Tuesday, December 3, 2024]

Posted 3rd December 2024 by Derek O'Brien

Indian cricket commentary on radio needn’t be mediocre

by Derek O'Brien

This column is not about the IPL, or fat cat pay cheques, or sons of politicians heading cricket bodies, or India being walloped by the Black Caps in a home series. Once a cricket buff, I have switched off the sport in the last few years. A colleague reminded me that the five Test match series between India and Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy begins on November 22. So let us make this about celebrating, preserving and, most importantly, reigniting a flame of Indian and world cricket commentary on the radio.

In the age of gifs and 30-second reels, when was the last time you listened to cricket commentary on the radio? When was the last time you tuned into Akashvani (sitting in a car) to follow a match? Must have been decades!

Millennials and Gen Zs reading this column will be unfamiliar with the concept of turning on the radio to “listen” to a cricket match. It is not their fault. Those of us born in The Beatles or ABBA years looked away as “video killed the radio star”. Imagine the magic of radio commentary on the opening day at the Optus Stadium, Perth… “and here is Bumrah, right arm over the wicket, from the Langer Stand End, to Steve Smith. This one pitches outside the off stump, drifting away from the batsman. Smith shoulders arms.” November 2024.

In the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, radio cricket commentary had some class acts — Berry Sarbadhikari, Pearson Surita, Dicky Rutnagur, Anant Setalvad, Kishore Bhimani, among others. Some of these gentlemen had more than a hint of a British accent, very pukka, straight out of The Long Room at Lord’s. Currently, commentators Sushil Doshi and Sanjay Banerjee in Hindi, and Sunil Gupta and Prakash Wakankar in English, are in a different league.

Done well, radio commentary can be just as engaging as 24 frames per second on television. It involves the listener, makes her use her imagination, and puts her in the middle of the pitch. As Orson Welles said, “Radio is the theatre of the mind”. That is why the BBC’s ‘Test Match Special’ and the ABC’s ‘Grandstand’ have dedicated channels and listenership, including their podcasts. The success of these programmes is primarily due to their uncompromising standards of quality. It is important to engage top-rung commentators who eventually develop a long-lasting relationship with the listener. John Arlott, Jim Maxwell, Alan McGilvray, Henry Blofeld, and Christopher Martin Jenkins went on to become a part of cricketing folklore.

Why is Indian cricket commentary on radio now covered in the dust of mediocrity? With the exception of four or five commentators, it is a droning litany of facts and figures, and nothing else. No colour, no context, no history, no banter. This is a lost opportunity. Consider this: In the first three months of 2022, AIR averaged two crore listeners per month. The number of podcast listeners in India is estimated to be 17 crore. Revenues of Spotify, and audiobooks produced by multiple companies, are growing exponentially. There is a huge potential for AIR to create good content and reach larger audiences by producing world-class cricket commentary.

Here are three suggestions:

(i) Dedicated channels for each language are the way forward. Having the Hindi and English commentators doing the commentary as a pair is the surest way to kill good radio commentary.

(ii) The selection procedure of commentators for AIR is an opaque process. To create a pool of top-notch commentators, it is essential to have an impartial and professional judging process.

(iii) From the AIR panel of commentators, it is essential to select those who have a thorough understanding of cricket, and the style/vocabulary, to engage the listener. There is little use slotting cricket commentators on the principle that “every person on the panel has to be given a chance”, irrespective of their rating by the Audience Research Unit of AIR. This is a lacuna which needs to be rectified immediately.

Perhaps the Minister of Railways, who is also the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, who is also the Minister of Information and Broadcasting (that deals with the subject of this column), will do all it takes to ensure that “someone still loves you, Radio ga ga”.

P.S. Harsha Bhogle, the voice of Indian cricket, who started his career as a freelance sports journalist and radio commentator told me, “All India Radio opened the door for me, but you could not be a full-time professional on AIR. I wanted to make it a profession. My biggest learning when I started doing BBC/ABC was that we could be as good.” It is time to appoint Harsha the captain of a new team whose task it should be to make Indian radio cricket commentary world-class.

[This article was also published in The Indian Express| Friday, November 22, 2024]

Posted 22nd November 2024 by Derek O'Brien

Big Poll Promises From Maharashtra To Michigan – But Where Are The Jobs?

by Derek O'Brien

Eight thousand miles away, across an ocean, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have desperately tried to woo youth and women before election day. Also in November, in the country of Kamala Devi Harris’s maternal ancestors, political parties are reaching out to 6 crore women voters and 2.5 crore youth in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Raise your hand if you are a woman or between the ages of 18 and 30. They want your vote.

Campaigns of political parties in these two states are focused, from ‘Mati, Beti, Roti’ and ‘Ladki Bahin Yojana’, to ‘Maiya Samman scheme’ and a youth unemployment benefit scheme. The 8.5 crore voters in the youth and women demographic can clearly be the inflexion point.

But for all the pre-poll promises to youth and women, these statistics tell a story.

  • About 75 lakh youth enter the labour force every year in India
  • Youth unemployment rate has been at a high 10% for the last two years
  • One in three youth are neither in education, employment, nor training. Women account for a staggering 95% of this group
  • The urban female unemployment rate for 2023 averaged at nearly 9%. For young urban females, it was 20%
  • In 2022, the unemployment rate was six times higher for individuals with secondary or higher education, and nine times higher for graduates, than those who could not read or write
  • In 2023-24, the unemployment rate for graduates was at 13%, and postgraduates at 12%
  • Unemployment rate among educated females is among the worst in the country, with 20% of graduates and 22.5% of post-graduates unemployed
  • The Economic Survey reveals that half of all individuals are not ready to be employed upon graduating from college
  • Only four out of ten youth in the workforce possess formal skills
  • The female labour force participation rate is at 32%, compared to 58% for men. In urban areas, it is 28% for women compared to 60% for men
  • The Union government introduced a new internship scheme in October 2024 to reduce the unemployment rate in the country. A top company needs to train 4,000 people a year to achieve the target set by the Union government. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that a private firm will need to spend ₹ 20 crore every year to train youngsters. How many companies will?

Even after training, there is no guarantee that the trainees will be retained or find a job in the formal workforce. This is especially worrying since this scheme comes at a time when there have been job cuts by major companies across the globe.

Three Constructive Suggestions

Experts have suggested that a better way to roll out the scheme would have been by engaging Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) instead of big firms. Interns often gain more practical experience in smaller firms, and these businesses, in turn, benefit from an extra set of hands. Additionally, the likelihood of retaining interns and converting them into medium- to long-term employees would be significantly higher, creating a more sustainable model for both interns and MSMEs. This would also encourage and ease the transition of an own account establishment (establishment operated without any hired employees) to a hired worker establishment (establishment operated with at least one hired employee), which would benefit the economy more.

To tackle urban unemployment, the Union government should accept what many states have done, and the parliamentary standing committee on labour had suggested in its 25th report: create an employment guarantee programme for urban areas with special emphasis on women. States like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Telangana, and West Bengal already run similar schemes.

An urban unemployment guarantee programme will be a step in line with the Right to Livelihood, which has been read into the Right to Life through judicial interpretation. Moreover, it will be a step towards turning the Right to Work (Article 41), currently a directive principle, into a fundamental right.

Joyce Banda, former President of one of the world’s poorest countries, Malawi, put it well, “The seeds of success in every nation on earth are best planted in women and children”.

[This article was also published in NDTV | Monday, November 4, 2024]

Posted 4th November 2024 by Derek O'Brien

When Parliament isn’t in session, standing committees are where the action is

by Derek O'Brien

135 down to 55! The average number of days Parliament sits annually has gone down from 135 days in the first Lok Sabha to 55 days in the 17th Lok Sabha (2019-24). So what happens during the remaining 300 days? Standing Committees, which consider and report on Demand for Grants, Bills, annual reports, and discuss national basic long-term policy documents of the concerned department/ministries, are where most of the action takes place when Parliament is not in session. Unfortunately, these committees have been undermined by governments not open to deliberation and debate.

After much delay, the 24 Departmentally Related Standing Committees (DRSC) were recently reconstituted and their chairpersons appointed. Each DRSC consists of 31 members from across parties, 21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha. In the last few weeks, these committees have started holding their first meetings. (Just to clarify, the intense deliberations on the Waqf Bill are taking place in a Joint Parliamentary Committee — not to be confused with a DRSC.) As we go to press, there are conflicting opinions on whether regulatory bodies like SEBI can come under the scrutiny of the Public Accounts Committee.

Despite all the activity, Standing Committees are not performing as they are mandated to. Take the Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment: It oversees three vital ministries — Minority Affairs, Tribal Affairs, and Social Justice and Empowerment. Yet, in 2023, some MPs attended only one or two of its 16 meetings. Only two out of 24 committees are chaired by women. The Standing Committee on Women Empowerment, an administrative committee to recommend measures to improve the status of women, has not yet been constituted for the 18th Lok Sabha. The Departmentally Related Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth, and Sports hasn’t had a woman chairperson in the last two decades.

In the 15th Lok Sabha, seven out of 10 bills were sent to committees for scrutiny. Fast forward to the 17th Lok Sabha, and that number dropped to just one out of five. Bills are now wrapped up in an average of only nine sittings, with the three Criminal Law Bills discussed together in just 12 sittings. For committees to be taken seriously, their reports need to be regularly tabled and discussed in Parliament. The Committee on Papers Laid on The Table has repeatedly flagged ongoing delays in tabling reports. In 2018, the Committee on External Affairs had its findings on the Doklam issue stalled for months due to opposition from MPs of the ruling dispensation.

When asked if committee recommendations should be made binding on the government, former Lok Sabha Speaker and legendary Parliamentarian Somnath Chatterjee replied, “No, they should not. But I would like the government to give good reasons for not accepting a recommendation.” Your columnist thinks it is time for an overhaul. Here are five specific suggestions.

One: According to the rules, the government is required to respond to committee recommendations within six months. This should be brought down to 60 days, as practised in the British House of Commons.

Two: MPs serve in committees for just a year, leading to constant reshuffling and lack of expertise. Take a cue from the US Congress’ permanent Standing Committees or Kerala’s Legislative Assembly, with a 30-month tenure. A longer tenure will work better.

Three: A Parliamentary Committee on National Economy should be formed to annually examine the state of the economy. Short-duration discussions should be initiated in both Houses of Parliament to discuss the reports. This should be followed by a response from the Minister. Public borrowing, as it affects future governments, should also be reviewed by this committee.

Four: In a federal democracy, the responsibility of the Parliament while passing Constitution Amendment Bills is immense. Therefore, a Constitution Committee should be established for prior scrutiny to check if these are ultra vires to the Constitution, and strengthen the credibility of constitutional amendments.

Five: Pre-budget scrutiny and proper examination of Demand for Grants (DFGs) must not be sidelined because of elections. Following the constitution of Lok Sabhas in 2014, 2019, and 2024, DFGs were not sent to Standing Committees. The precedent set in the 11th Lok Sabha (1996) should be followed. The Union Budget was presented on July 22. The House adjourned on August 2 and was reconvened on August 26, for committees to review the Demand for Grants.

P.S. Some observers suggest that proceedings of committee meetings should be telecast live on Sansad TV, just as Parliamentary proceedings are. Not a good idea. Why? That is a subject for another column.

[This article was also published in The Indian Express | Friday, October 25, 2024]

Posted 25th October 2024 by Derek O'Brien

Happy birthday, Mr Amitabh Bachchan: What you may not know about India’s biggest star

by Derek O'Brien

Happy birthday Mr Amitabh Bachchan. Today, on his 82nd birthday, here are fifteen nuggets about the greatest Indian now on the planet.

One: His first job was as an executive at Bird and Company in Kolkata for a monthly salary of Rs 500. During his time in the city, he acted in a few English plays performed by amateur theatre groups, including one directed by your columnist’s father, Neil O’Brien. He made his audio (voiceover) debut in Mrinal Sen’s film Bhuvan Shome. He also provided the opening narrative voice for Satyajit Ray’s classic Shatranj Ke Khilari.

Two: Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri were married on June 3, 1973. The ceremony took place on the terrace of Skylark, a building in Malabar Hill belonging to S Pandit of Philips India. The only gifts that were exchanged were the wedding rings. The guest list included Sanjay Gandhi, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, K A Abbas, and Farida Jalal, among others. The first time Mr Bachchan and his spouse acted together was in the film Bansi Birju.

Three: His six favourite actors are Al Pacino, Dilip Kumar, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Sivaji Ganesan, and Uttam Kumar.’

Four: Here is what two of the greatest Indian directors had to say about him: “Hindi film directors have used hardly 10 per cent of his potential capacity as an actor” — Hrishikesh Mukherjee. “An actor like Amitabh Bachchan can be exceptionally good” — Satyajit Ray.

Five: There are some numbers which have become as iconic as his films. #786 was the porter’s badge number he wore in Coolie, and was also his identification number cum good luck charm in Deewar. #MYB3047 was his motorcycle nameplate in Sholay. #N23 was the number of his speedboat in The Great Gambler.

Six: Many of his films have been inspired by real-life persons and events. The liberation of Goa from the Portuguese in 1961 served as the backdrop for his films Saat Hindustani and Pukar. The film Kaala Patthar was based on the 1975 Chasnala mining tragedy where 572 miners died when a water tank burst. Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava was India’s most notorious confidence trickster in the 1970s. His exploits inspired the film Mr Natwarlal.

Seven: He has played double roles in numerous films. Don, Kasme Vaade, Satte Pe Satta, Toofan, Sooryavansham, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Bemisal, Desh Premee, Aakhree Raasta, The Great Gambler, among others. Mahaan was one film where he played a triple role (the father and his two sons)!

Eight: The production crew had a novel idea for the song ‘Sara Zamana’ for Yaarana. Instead of hiring extras, get ordinary people to come and be spectators. Over 12,000 people were in attendance at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata during the shoot. Almost three times that number were waiting outside hoping to get a glimpse of the magic. This was not the only time Mr Bachchan filled stadiums. He has also performed at the Wembley Stadium in London, and Giants Stadium in New Jersey, to packed crowds during his world tour in 1990.

Nine: Five actors have also directed Mr Bachchan. Actor Sunil Dutt, who was Sheriff of Bombay, and a Member of Parliament, starred in and directed Reshma Aur Shera. Manoj Kumar acted and directed Roti Kapda Aur Makaan. Shashi Kapoor, Mr Bachchan’s co-star in numerous films, directed the lavish Indo-Russian production Ajooba. Comedian Deven Verma acted and directed Besharam. The prolific film and television actor Tinnu Anand directed three films featuring Mr Bachchan, Kaalia, Shahenshah, and Main Azaad Hoon.

Ten: The French producer Alain Chamas tried to sign him for the film Crossings opposite Jon Voight and Richard Dreyfuss. But when the logistics of the dates were explained to him, the producer was both amazed and exasperated. Alain famously remarked, “This man is not just a star. Amitabh Bachchan is an industry.”

Eleven: He has the distinction of being the first Indian film star to appear in a comic, courtesy Diamond Publishers.

Twelve: Mr Bachchan has also featured many times in Amul’s topical advertising campaign. Here are a few examples. The pun “Roti Kapda Aur Makhan” needs little explaining. “Utterly Butterly De De” was followed by the line “Jumma Se Jumma Le Le”. And the iconic dialogue from Shahenshah inspired “Rich Taste Se Hum Sabke Baap Lagte Hain, Naam Hai Amultabh Makkhan”.

Thirteen: A little-known, heartwarming story. In 1979, Mr Bachchan received a call from a doctor in Mumbai’s Nanavati Hospital, who told him about a young girl in a coma. She kept mumbling the name “Anthony”. The doctor realised that this was the name of Mr Bachchan’s character from the film Amar Akbar Anthony. When the girl came out of the coma, the doctor contacted Mr Bachchan. He personally came to the hospital and the girl had her first mouthful of food only after he fed her.

Fourteen: Six of Mr Bachchan’s favourite directors are Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Mehboob Khan, Raj Kapoor, and Satyajit Ray.

Fifteen: Three of his favourite poets are Rabindranath Tagore, William Shakespeare, and his late father Harivansh Rai Bachchan.

P.S. During my time as a quizmaster and publisher, one of the first books we published was the Amitabh Bachchan Book of Lists. It has been more than three decades since Joy Bhattacharya, Anirudha Bhattacharjee, and Amitava Chatterjee sat around my dining table at home to research this treasure trove of trivia.

[This article was also published in The Indian Express | Friday, October 11, 2024]

Posted 11th October 2024 by Derek O'Brien

An excess of cess

by Derek O'Brien

“Chief Minister Narendra Modi today accused the Centre of adopting a policy of coercive federalism and thus pushing states to a subordinate position by monopolising all powers of financial allocations, reducing even the constitutional rights of states,” (IE, January 16, 2012).

Your columnist distinctly remembers the then finance minister, the affable Arun Jaitley, inviting about half a dozen fellow MPs to his room in Parliament for a hearty lunch sometime in 2015. Our gracious host wanted to celebrate the good news: The 14th Finance Commission had recommended increasing the devolution of the divisible tax pool to states from 32 per cent to 42 per cent. We all saw this as a big win for federalism. But Jaitley’s boss, the former chief minister of Gujarat, had other ideas. A dirty, four-letter word that damages federalism: Cess.

As any undergraduate in commerce will tell you, cess is not a part of the divisible pool; that is, the money collected is not shared with state governments. A cess is a specific tax imposed by the Union government to raise funds for a designated purpose. The Union government currently levies a GST compensation cess, a cess on health and education, road and infrastructure, agriculture and development, Swachh Bharat, exports, and crude oil, among others.

Consider this. In 2012, cess formed 7 per cent of the Union government’s total tax revenues. In 2015, this rose to 9 per cent. In 2023, cess contributed to 16 per cent of the total tax revenue. From 2019-23, the Union government has collected a whopping Rs 13 lakh crore as cess. This excludes GST compensation cess. In the last five years, it has collected Rs 84,000 crore as cess on crude oil.

The share of cess as part of the Union government’s gross tax revenue has tripled, up from 6 per cent in 2011 to 18 per cent in 2021. This rise in cess and surcharge has inversely led to a reduction in the divisible pool of taxes. The divisible pool has shrunk from 89 per cent of gross tax revenue in 2011 to 79 per cent in 2021. This, despite the 10 per cent increase in tax devolution to states as recommended by the 14th Finance Commission.

A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report exposed that in 2018-19, the Union government withheld Rs 1 lakh crore of the Rs 2.75 lakh crore collected through various cesses in the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI). Rs 10,000 crore of the Road and Infrastructure Cess collected during the year was “neither transferred to the related Reserve Fund nor utilised for the purpose for which the cess was collected”. More alarmingly, Rs 1.24 lakh crore collected as cess on crude oil in the past one decade “had not been transferred to the designated Reserve Fund (Oil Industry Development Board) and was retained in CFI”. The report further stated that “non-creation/non-operation of Reserve Funds makes it difficult to ensure that cesses and levies have been utilised for the specific purposes intended by the Parliament”.

The key reason for the imposition of cess and surcharge is for the Union government to increase its revenue. One major criticism has been its inability to increase revenue substantially, despite increasing cess. Revenue receipts have increased only marginally in the last 10 years — from 8.8 per cent of GDP in 2014 to 9.6 per cent of GDP in 2024. Less than one percent.

A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report exposed that in 2018-19, the Union government withheld Rs 1 lakh crore of the Rs 2.75 lakh crore collected through various cesses in the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI). Rs 10,000 crore of the Road and Infrastructure Cess collected during the year was “neither transferred to the related Reserve Fund nor utilised for the purpose for which the cess was collected”. More alarmingly, Rs 1.24 lakh crore collected as cess on crude oil in the past one decade “had not been transferred to the designated Reserve Fund (Oil Industry Development Board) and was retained in CFI”. The report further stated that “non-creation/non-operation of Reserve Funds makes it difficult to ensure that cesses and levies have been utilised for the specific purposes intended by the Parliament”.

The key reason for the imposition of cess and surcharge is for the Union government to increase its revenue. One major criticism has been its inability to increase revenue substantially, despite increasing cess. Revenue receipts have increased only marginally in the last 10 years — from 8.8 per cent of GDP in 2014 to 9.6 per cent of GDP in 2024. Less than one percent.

[This article was also published in The Indian Express | Friday, September 27, 2024]

Posted 27th September 2024 by Derek O'Brien

One Nation One Election (ONOE) Is Oh Noe!

by Derek O'Brien

Some people on Twitter say it like no other. “It’s rather amusing that One Nation, One Election abbreviates to ONOE – oh noe!”.

After the Union Cabinet cleared the One Nation One Election (ONOE) proposal, legacy television channels, dutifully, complied with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) playbook. Distract from the real issues: unemployment, inflation, anti-federal policies, Manipur, a plummeting rupee, fuel prices not being cut despite a decline in global crude oil prices, and more.

Just Like The Women’s Reservation Bill

This is very similar to when the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed last year. The news stayed on primetime, tucking away the government’s ineffectual handling of the Manipur crisis. These con jobs have a pattern. The Women’s Reservation Bill can only come into effect after the Census and delimitation exercise have been completed. So, the earliest that it can happen is 2034. The ONOE is another ‘Weapon of Mass Distraction’!

As my colleague in Rajya Sabha and eminent jurist P. Chidambaram pointed out, “ONOE would require at least five constitutional amendments”. The High Level Committee (HLC) on ONOE, headed by a former President, recommended 18 amendments to the Constitution and other statutes of Union Territories having Legislative Assemblies. This would require a Constitution Amendment Bill to be passed in Parliament, with a special majority (a majority of the total membership of the House and a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of the House present and voting). Daydreaming is a popular hobby.

Under Article 368(2) of the Constitution of India, ratification by not less than half of the states will be required to carry out amendments to Article 324A to facilitate simultaneous elections of Panchayats and Municipalities. Similarly, in order to have a Single Electoral Roll, an amendment to Article 325 is required. To implement this amendment, ratification by not less than half of the States would be required.

Here are six reasons why ONOE is antithetical to federalism:

  • In March 1994, the S.R. Bommai v. Union of India case, a landmark in safeguarding Indian federalism, strengthened the autonomy of states within the Indian polity. Thirty years later, in March 2024, the HLC submitted its report on simultaneous elections. However, the committee’s composition failed to reflect the federal nature of the Constitution, as it did not include a single Chief Minister or representative of states.
  • The Terms of Reference (ToR) of the HLC are, in themselves, conclusive proof of the government’s blatant disregard for federalism. The second ToR tasks the committee with the dubious mandate to “examine and recommend if amendments to the Constitution would require ratification by states”. Any constitutional amendment to implement simultaneous polls would directly impact the tenure of state assemblies and governments. Even the Law Commission in 2018 had suggested that while such amendments might not fall strictly under the proviso to Article 368(2), the government should still seek ratification from at least half of the states as a matter of abundant caution.
  • A study conducted by IDFC Institute showed that there is a 77% possibility of voters voting for the same party at centre and states if simultaneous elections take place. The study analysed voting behaviour for four rounds of Lok Sabha elections (1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014) in states where the assembly elections coincided with the Lok Sabha elections.
  • The BJP government, predictably, seeks to homogenise electoral opinion across all facets of political and personal life. As the 1960s, particularly 1962, demonstrated, simultaneous elections can sway voting behaviour and sideline regional aspirations and state-level issues. In the 1962 General Elections, the party that won at the Union swept the simultaneous State Assembly polls in Madras, Gujarat, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Assam.
  • The Election Commission has struggled with the logistical complexities of conducting multi-phase elections. The 2019 Jharkhand Assembly Elections were held in five phases and the 2021 West Bengal Assembly Elections were held in eight phases. Lok Sabha elections across three states were held in seven phases, and even then, it took 11 days just to release the voter turnout data for Phase 1. And you are talking about conducting simultaneous polls!
  • Why were the Maharashtra elections not announced along with elections in Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir? Here’s why. The Maharashtra government announced the Ladki Bahin scheme in the budget this June. The first tranche reached the bank accounts of women in August and second tranche will reach beneficiaries mid-October.

More questions. The Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, in a detailed letter to the HLC in January 2024, asked how many state assemblies’ terms would need to be curtailed or extended before implementation of ONOE? And once implemented, what would happen if a state assembly or the Lok Sabha is dissolved before its five-year term? So, fresh elections will be held for the remainder of the term. This in itself is contrary to the very idea of ONOE. Oh Noe!

[This article was also published in NDTV | Friday, September 20, 2024]

Posted 20th September 2024 by Derek O'Brien