Important role of vigilant Opposition in democracy

By Educrat IAS Academy | | 0 comment | 27 July, 2022 | 0

Basic Concept of a democracy

A democratic executive must satisfy two conditions – (1) It must be a stable executive and (2) it must be a responsible executive.
It is not possible to ensure a stable executive and a responsible executive in equal degree in a particular system. Therefore, the constitutional makers have to adopt either of the two features. Former is ensured in the Presidential System and later is ensured in the Parliamentary system.
Therefore, the constituent assembly India adopted the parliamentary system because the fathers of the Indian constitution preferred “more responsibility to more stability as per the Indian need.

In the recent past, the draconian provisions of various legislations, especially the Prevention of Money Laundering Act,have been invoked by the ruling regime against Opposition members.
India has preferred responsible executives to stable executives. However, there are attempts to weaken the opposition in India. which is not in the interest of parliamentary democracy.
There are cases when a party member shows disloyaltyto his party through violation of the whip. They simultaneously decline to resignfrom his/her seat and to fight an immediate by-election.
The Anti-defection law has failed to serve its purpose. It was inserted in the 10th Schedulethrough the 52nd Connotational AmendmentAct. Further, the Supreme Court upheld its constitutional validity long ago.

Political parties, the judiciary and civil society must take steps to ensure that democracy does not fail.
Some political thinkers’ advocates for the ‘theory of recall,’ so that a member whose personal behaviour falls below standards expected of his constituents goes back and seeks the approval of the voters.
The judiciary must be aware of the ground realities and not allow such politically motivated investigations. Judges should readily grant anticipatory bail or regular bail in politically motivated matters. The Supreme Court can re-write the anti-defection law by invoking powers under Article 142 of the Constitution.
In a democratic set up, criticism from the opposition parties must be tolerated because it is the essence of democracy.
During the Constituent Assembly debates, Ram Narayan Singh said, “A government which does not like opposition and always wants to be in power is not a patriotic but a traitor government.”