With pleasant speech, who gives and guards with powerful liberal hand,
He sees the world obedient all to his command. -
The world will praise and submit itself to the mind of the king who is able to give with affability, and to protect all who come to him.
A sleepless promptitude, knowledge, decision strong:
These three for aye to rulers of the land belong.
These three things, viz., vigilance, learning, and bravery, should never be wanting in the ruler of a country.
From Thirukkural -
Note: I will talk mainly about the Topic in the review and will delve into the 14th Lok Sabha as an addendum
LOK SABHA – An Introduction
Lok Sabha (House of People/Commons), based on the British mode of governance is the lower house of governance. This is the place where laws are made and bills are passed. Currently a maximum of 552 members can sit in the house. (Upto 530 from the states, 20 from UTs and 2 Anglo Indians nominated by the President of India, if they are not well represented)
In the current Lok Sabha 543 members are elected by the largest democracy in the world. Lok Sabha is the place where laws are passed and everything regarding governance takes place. The minimum Age for entry is 25 years and the youngest one is Mr.Deora from Mumbai who is 27 years old.
In Lok Sabha, the speaker of the House runs the business and the deputy speaker assists him. Normally, the majority of the members choose the speaker. The house has the prime minister, appointed by the president with a majority support and a set of ministers for various duties. The house also has an opposition leader.
The Speaker of the house sets the rules of the proceedings. Various requests are received from the MPs and minister and are approved by the Speaker of the house. The order of business is printed and circulated in advance, to the members.
An important function of the house is “Question Hour”. Various MPs ask questions on important issues and are noted by the Government. The minister and government replies to various questions related to constituencies and functionalities of the Government
After the Question hour, various legislative and finance related businesses(budgetary) are held. All the bills are passed through 3 stages known as readings. After the passing of the bill (Government bill or Private Member Bill), it is passed onto the Rajya Sabha and finally for the President of India’s approval.
Lok Sabha also conducts
Half an hour discussions
Motions and Resolutions
Discussions of Public Interest matters
Debates
Lok Sabha also has voting system in place for various bill passing. It is automatic or manual voting. Some are passed via vocal consensus and some are recorded voting.
All the debates in the Lok Sabha are recorded and published. The Speaker has rights to remove any notes or remarks made by a member, as deemed necessary.
Before an election, the LS is dissolved with the consensus from the President.
14th Lok Sabha
In a major reversal, the 14th Lok Sabha results springs in a surprise to many. I am sure most of us who read this review are some of the gifted few in the country and are mainly the crème of the society. Thus, many of us may think it is a dramatic surprise and BJP should have won the election. Well, should it be the case? It is a very much debatable topic. I am not planning to side with any side but want to weigh in both sides.
India has more than a billion people. We have 700 million people who are the downtrodden. They want to have a nice and stable livelihood (They want upto 100 rupees a day!). That’s it.. This is the core reason why many of the downtrodden voted in masses, against BJP. IS India Shining? For me yes. It is. I am not one of those 700 million. Touch wood, I am well off and can afford many things to make lives easier. Is this the same with all Indians? No it is not so.
About India’s economic growth, are we in an instant lottery mode that we see benefits immediately after you invest? No. Like big trees, it takes years to reap the benefits. In all likelihood, the owners of the tree at the time of happiness claim the benefits for the same. With due acknowledgement to the efforts by the NDA government, it is Dr Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram who laid the foundation the economic reforms. Thanks to the IT growth, it was during 1996-2003 that India had the largest inflow of Foreign reserves. Without money, you cannot possibly invest in any initiatives. NDA did a good job in investments. So would any Government (however corrupt they are). You can fool some people some times. Few people all the time. Not all at all the time.
We should not be hypocritical in stating that people did badly by voting NDA out. We will become sycophants of a brand name. Just because Chandrababu Naidu did good to the upper crest means he is a good statesman. Governance is not for a selective few. We have many CMs and Ministers who serve only select sect. Take any well known politician. We are educated and should remove any kind of prejudice to stop from becoming a sycophant. NDA government did not do anything for down trodden. They lost touch. The Urban people alone do not make India. The educated cribbers who do not vote, don’t make India. Everyone in India has equal right to vote and elect who so ever is right.
What will you expect from a slum dweller who earns 20 rupees a day, when you ask him how does it feel to see India Shining. His life will shine if you give him a 500 rupee note, at least for a day or two. That’s what matters to him.
Just like educated and well off are happy that they can afford anything; seeing the sensex zooming, miilionaire becoming billionaire, affording everything they could; can think that India is shining, the downtrodden have every right to think the Government did very bad in helping them out.
It is not the issue of foreign-born-lady ruling the country, It is not the communalism, It is not the Temple/Mandir, It is not IIM Fees that is going to uplift these people. It is the stable income, basic infrastructure and happiness in their daily lives that makes difference.
We can say everything we want, but the people have spoken. India has voted. The People have given the verdict. Just like they did all the time. Just because India as a whole voted for our favorite party once does not give the right to say people are Intelligent and they are fools if they did the contrary.
Long Live Democracy and all the best to the new government.
Jai Hind
A shameful (because I couldn’t vote!)
KALIL
For forms of government let fools contest; Whate'er is best administer'd is best. – Alexander Pope
Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.-Richard M. Nixon
