There is a general belief that honest individuals if selected as members of parliament or legislative assembly by the people will make a lot of difference to the problems of the areas from where they have been voted to power. This assumption is wrong that this will ensure the removal of problems in ones areas.
We have to first understand the role that a member of parliament or of legislative assembly plays in our system of governance. A member of parliament is merely a member of parliament and member of legislative assembly is merely a member of state assembly.
If we have problem in our areas of water scarcity or electric power not available or if the roads are broken or cleaning of the areas is not taking place, there is unemployment or poverty then we approach the MP or MLA.
What we need to understand is that they have no powers to give solutions to remove these problems. The constitution does not give them any administrative power. The duty of the MP, as per constitution, is to enact laws in the parliament for common benefit. The duty of the MLA, as per constitution, is to enact laws in the state assembly for the common benefit of people.
If the government machinery is not working properly then it is not with in the power of a MP or MLA to change it or improve it. No power is vested in the MP or MLA, either in constitution or in the law, to tackle the problems of his constituency. If a ration shop is not distributing rations fairly or a road is broken then the MLA or MP has no power to take action against the ration shop or the engineer who built that road. The MLA or MP can raise a question in the state assembly and the parliament. Every member, in fact, wants to raise questions on issues in his areas. The result is plethora of request for raising questions in the state assemblies and the parliament, that a lottery system is adopted from the list of questions during question hour.
The bottom line is even if the MP or MLC wants, having good intentions, he cannot make sure that he could raise questions in the Parliament or the state assembly. Fate of your problem is assigned to a lottery, ironic but true.
A member of parliament gets a sum of rupees two crore for to undertake development works in his own constituency. Very strange that he can only approve the works that can be undertaken in the constituency but he has no control over the quality of work that has been executed. This power to execute the work is under officials of various government departments. MP’s and MLA’s have no control over the government departments or on its officials.
Even if an MP finds out that the work carried out of his fund is substandard or poor quality he has no powers to stop payment of the bills raised for the contract. It is heard that a lot of MPs and MLAs accept bribes for sanctioning the work.
The work of a MP or MLA is reduced to enacting laws in the parliament and the state assembly. Unfortunately even in this area their hands are tied. Whenever a bill is tabled in the parliament, to pass it as a law, the party issues whip or direct its MPs and MLAs to either vote for or against the law.
MPs and MLAs are bound with the party and therefore, they have to obey the party directive. It is pity that they do not have the independence of voting for or against a law with their own free will.
It is evident that they cannot take care of our day to day problems and they are incapable of even making laws that are for the benefit of the people. It is ironic that these are the people whom we had voted to represent us. But in the parliament they do what the party wants and not what the people want. If they do not obey the party dictates then they could be punished and loose their berth as MP or MLA.
It boils down to the fact that even if you have chosen an upright individual as your representative for the parliament, then neither he is in a position to take care of your daily problems nor he is able to formulate good laws for you. This is very strange that in our democracy neither people have any voice nor the chosen representative. The power is centered around the Prime Minister, the Chief Ministers, the Ministers. Through the process of elections we select our representatives but for five years of their tenure the powers remains in the hands of few ministers and the government officials. People and their representative have no control over the system.
Can such a democracy look after the interest of the people?
Can we be proud of such a democracy?
Mirchipur of Haryana state witnessed atrocities being committed on the backward classes. In our parliament more than 70 % members are from the notified or backward areas. These MPs have been selected from the reserved constituencies. This is done to make sure that these MPs will protect the rights of the people of notified and backward areas. When atrocities were committed on the backward classes in Mirchipur, we wonder why this matter was not raised in the parliament by these 70% members from the same areas. When we contacted the MPs we were told that it is not possible to raise any question without the consent of the party.
Our democracy is victim of dictatorship of the party politics. We have no dissent with those who subscribe to the suggestion that we must select the right candidate.
There are no two views on this thought. But the selection of right individuals will not bring about a change in the system as we expect. This is also true that if we select the criminal elements then they will pollute the existing system more.
On the other hand when we select right individuals then the system will not improve but the degradation will stop or at least the pace of degradation will reduce considerably.
Today the system has deteriorated to an extent when an honest Minister or MP cannot do anything for its betterment. His colleagues under him or over him would not let him. It is often observed that many an honest officers who understand our problems and view point express their inability to help. They are so bound in the corrupt system that they feel helpless.
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