Citizen and Parliament

One of the civil society activists, Mr Arvind Kejriwal, said the other day that Anna Hazare was “putting himself above Parliament” and that there was nothing wrong in the adoption of such a stand. Elaborating, Mr Kejriwal said: “Every citizen is above Parliament . . . Citizens are more important than Parliament”, adding, “the citizen has every right to tell Parliament (that it) has not done the job”, meaning here the passing of the Lokpal Bill.

On the other hand, the UPA Government has charged citizens with trying to usurp the legislative powers of Parliament. Thus, on August 21, the Finance Minister said “the way the civil society movement is continuing in the country, it gives the impression that the leaders have become legislators”. He added:It is for Parliament to decide. And what Anna Hazare is doing is akin to challenging the constitutional authority of Parliament which is not acceptable”.

PM's stand

A few days earlier, the Prime Minister himself defended the action taken against Anna Hazare by arguing in Parliament that the Gandhian leader's bid to impose the civil society's version of the Lokpal Bill on the government was contrary to every constitutional principle. As he said, “I am not aware of any constitutional philosophy or principle that allows anyone to question the sole prerogative of Parliament to make a law”. He explained: ““It is not whether a Lokpal Bill is necessary or desirable. All of us in this House are agreed that a Bill must be passed as early as possible. The question is, who drafts the law and who makes the law? I submit that the time-honoured practice is that the Executive drafts a bill and places it before Parliament, and that Parliament debates and adopts the Bill with amendments if necessary”.

In the last week of August, Dr Singh wrote to Anna Hazare: “I have maintained that your and our object is identical, viz. to reduce significantly, if not eliminate, the scourge of corruption from this country. At worst, our paths and methodologies may differ. The Government is committed to passing a constitutionally valid and the best possible Lokpal legislation with inputs from civil society with the broadest possible consensus. We are ready to talk to anybody. However, we will have to keep in mind parliamentary supremacy and constitutional obligations in matters of legislation. As a Government, we respect and are responsible to the will of the Indian people as represented by Parliament”.

Preamble

When Mr Kejriwal says that every citizen is “above” Parliament, is he challenging the view that Parliament is supreme as far as making laws is concerned? There should be no confusion here because, as the Preamble of the Constitution lays down clearly, it is “the people of India” who have adopted, enacted and given themselves the Constitution, and the people of India are the citizens of the republic. Parliament is a part of the constitutional structure of the republic, and its members are answerable to the “people”.

Admittedly, Parliament has been entrusted with the job of giving shape to, and passing, legislation, but during every moment of its existence it is answerable to the people/citizens of the republic, who have given themselves the institution. Even when elections are nowhere on the horizon, Parliament must abide by the will of the people, its responsiveness in this respect being a direct measure of its maturity as an effective constituent of the Indian Republic.

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