Democracy whiplash

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For helping to pony up a running cost of roughly INR 13 million per day, the average taxpayer of India would understandably hope that the halls of the country's Parliament would resound with eloquent debate. But in fact, the time spent on discussing serious issues is declining. Studies have variously put the time spent debating, for example, budget-related issues at an average of about 23 percent of the total during the 1970s, compared to just 10 percent today. Where has that time gone? With the forcing of adjournments and the disruption of proceedings being the preferred method of today's MPs to express dissent, precious little time is left for reason and debate. In March, the drama surrounding two pieces of proposed legislation – both of which would have far-reaching ramifications – make it evident that the democratic process still has far to go. And as process goes (or stutters) in the world's largest democracy, so too in countries around the region and world.

The Women's Reservation Bill, which has sought to reserve a third of the seats in the Indian Parliament for women, had been hanging fire since 1996. A lack of political consensus across parties, and a lack of numbers on the part of successive governments, has allowed the bill to languish for close to a decade and a half. However, under the stewardship of a tenacious Sonia Gandhi, and support from both the right and the left, the bill was introduced and passed in the Rajya Sabha. If it now makes it through the Lok Sabha when it is tabled (most likely at the end of the budget session in May), 181 of the 544 seats in that body and 1370 out of the 4109 seats in the 28 state assemblies would be reserved for women, on a rotating basis. Those are large numbers from anyone's perspective.

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Himal Southasian
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