Laws and lawgivers

Anna Hazare,when asked on Sunday about what he planned to do if Parliament rejected the Lokpal bill in the form drafted by the “joint” drafting committee which contains both his nominees and those of the government,reportedly gave an answer that will have set at rest some of the fears engendered by what had appeared to be the fundamentally anti-democratic nature of the agitation that he had sparked off. “We will have to accept it,” the activist said,“we believe in democracy.” These reports have,however,now been denied by those around him,and they say Hazare is committed to the August 15 deadline for passage of the Lokpal bill,or else. This returns him to the strategy outlined when he broke his fast more than a week ago: he had said that he would not accept any hurdles in the way of the passage of his preferred draft. He had spoken,on that occasion,of reviving his agitation and marching to Parliament if his aims for the bill were frustrated by the cabinet or in committee.

This is unfortunate. Much of the anger that expressed itself in the days of Hazare’s fast reflected a genuine anxiety that Parliament appears insufficiently deliberative. These are concerns that the political class must deal with,and that we as an active citizenry should always highlight. But,as citizens,we must also be mindful of the democratic process,and the representative nature of the legislature that is supposed to frame our laws. It should equally be kept in mind that the process of law-making is a complex procedure and any proposed legislation is put through a series of deliberative appraisals before it is even put up for vote in Parliament.

There continue to be areas of principle on which those who care about the nature of democratic decision-making disagree with Hazare’s stance and methods; he himself has called his agitation the “terrorism of principles”. But there should be an acceptance of the supremacy of Parliament when it comes to lawmaking,as a demonstration of a common basic commitment to the structure of a functioning democracy.