Decline of Parliament
Topic: Parliament: Composition, Powers and Law-making · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 5 "Legislature"
Meaning
Decline of Parliament is the worry that Parliament has lost ground to the cabinet. The signs are fewer sittings, less debate, frequent disruptions and walkouts, missing quorum (too few members present to do business) and bills passed with little scrutiny. Critics say that because the cabinet sets the agenda, Parliament often just approves what it decides.
Example
The 1st Lok Sabha held 677 sittings. The 17th (2019-24) held only 274, the fewest of any full-term Lok Sabha. In the 17th Lok Sabha, 35% of bills were passed with less than an hour of debate and only 16% went to committees.
The other side of the debate: governments fell in the House in 1990, 1997 and 1999, and protests won rollbacks in 1998 and 2002. So what has declined is debate and scrutiny, not Parliament's legal power. Suggested remedies include more sitting days (the NCRWC, 2002, proposed 120 a year for the Lok Sabha and 100 for the Rajya Sabha), compulsory attendance and routine committee scrutiny of bills.
Don't confuse with
- Parliamentary productivity: one narrow measure, the share of scheduled time actually used. Decline of Parliament is the wider concern.