Former Advocate General Ravivarma Kumar described the functioning of the Legislature during the last 10 years in the country as the ‘’dark age of Indian Parliament’’ under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Delivering the keynote address at a seminar on ‘’Anxieties of Democracy in Contemporary India’’ here on Friday, March 1, Prof. Ravivarma Kumar said that the country had not seen a Prime Minister in the last 75 years so disdainful to the Legislature, taking no questions or answering the Opposition to the point of being irreverent towards the democratic system.
The two-day seminar – being held at Kalamandir — has been organised by the Union of Progressive Organisations, Mysuru to commemorate socialist and Gandhian Pa.Mallesh who passed away in January 2023.
Ravivarma Kumar said the Legislature, the Executive, and the Judiciary comprised the three pillars of Indian democracy and all the three were being weakened under the present government.
Without mentioning the name of Narendra Modi, Ravivarma Kumar said the Prime Minister maintained silence on various issues and when Manipur was burning, no questions were allowed to be raised and those who spoke were either expelled from the Parliament or suspended.
He said the Executive comprising the Council of Ministers are shadow figures and it was a one-man show – from inauguration of infrastructure projects to flagging of trains. The head of the Executive is the President but she has been humiliated in not being invited for major events including the inauguration of the new Parliament building or the consecration of Sri Ram temple at Ayodhya, said Ravivarma Kumar, adding that the Executive has been destroyed.
Delving in to the origins of the Indian Civil Services and the bureaucratic framework is part of the Executive Ravivarma Kumar said efforts have been made in the last few years to shake the structure and weaken it.
Since 2018, the present government has introduced the system of direct recruitment of officials to the post of Joint Secretary or above all of them are from the private sector devoid of the grounding on issues that affect a majority of the people or key sectors like agriculture.
‘’It is these joint secretaries who are the agents of capitalists and industrialists at the helm of affairs in the government and are denying farmers their due or impeding their march to Delhi,’’ Ravivarma Kumar added. Referring to the Judiciary he said the present Collegium system had its limitations and rued the ‘’absence of accountability and transparency in the system’’.
Ravivarma Kumar said the erosion of civil liberties was evident as organisations that advocated the cause of equality and human rights were suppressed with the Enforcement Directorate harassing them to the point some of the institutions had to close down their operations.
Civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad questioned whether the government that has ruled for the last 10 years was representative at all and said that questions arise whether the country was an electoral democracy, an autocracy or moving towards theocracy.
The procedural checks and balances of an elected democracy that includes the Legislature, Executive, and Judiciary was being undermined, said Ms. Setalvad.
‘’The ideological underpinnings of this regime is the ideology of Hedgewar and Golwalkar which believes that constitutional republic has no place in society. These forces that rule us today at the Union Government are ruled by an ideology that believes in overthrow of the constitution,’’ said Ms. Setalvad.
Savitha Mallesh, daughter of late Pa. Mallesh and others were present for the seminar which will have a slew of topics with speakers from across the country.
