Civics Ch-3 Why Do We Need a Parliament?

 

Why Do We Need a Parliament? 

Representative democracy

 *The basic  idea  in  the  representative democracy is  that   the citizen  is  the most important person .

*Citizens of the country elect their representatives to form the government and to rule the country on their behalf.

*It is also called indirect democracy.

Arguments in favour of democracy –

1. Democracy is a more accountable form of government.

2. Democracy improves the quality of decision-making- Wisdom of masses

3. Democracy provides a Peaceful method to resolve conflicts.

4. It enhances the dignity of citizens.

5. Democracy allows us to correct its own mistakes.

6. Democracy ensures the liberty equality and justice.

 

Arguments against representative democracy

1. Instable form of government.

2. Delays in decision making

3. No scope for Morality

4. Elected leaders don’t know the best interest of people. It leads to bad decision.

5 . High rate of Corruption

6. Ordinary people don’t what is  good for them   they should not decide anything.

7. Democracies are not successful in reducing economic inequalities.

8. Representative Democracy  does not  reflect the whole society.

9. After elections MPs and leaders are not accountable to the public.

10.The majority does not focus on minorities it creates feeling of separation in the country.

Parliamentary system

*A system of government where Parliament is supreme and the Council of Ministers are collectively responsible to the Parliament.

*The head of the state has nominal powers.

 

Meaning of Parliament

*Parliament refers to the union legislature.

*It makes and changes the law of the country.

*It controls and guides the union executive (government)

Parliament includes

 *The President and the two houses

*Lok Sabha(house of people )

*Rajya Sabha (council of state)

Composition of lok Sabha

*There are 543 constituencies and 543 members are elected

 *Two members are nominated . Maximum strength can be 550 member .*It is also called the House of the people or lower house.

*The term of lower house is five years from its first meeting  (6 months )

 

Qualification of members

 

*He/ she must be the citizen of India

*He must not be less then 25 years of age .

*He must be sound with mind .

*He should not be government servant.

Speaker of Lok Sabha

*The members of lok sabha elect the speaker of house

*He presides the meeting of lok sabha, decides the agenda of the meeting

*He controls the house He maintains the discipline and can punish MPs

*He decides weather the bill is money bill or not .

Ruling party

*Is the party or coalition which gets more than half of the seats in the lok sabha .

*It runs the government .it is responsible for the development. Current ruling party is BJP(NDA)

 

The Prime Minister

*is the leader of the  ruling party in Lok Sabha

*The Prime Minister selects ministers  to implement his decision.

*These  ministers  then  take  charge  of  different  areas  of  govt.  functioning  like  health, education etc.

Opposition party

*Refers to the non ruling party or coalition that has secured the highest number of seats in lok sabha

*This status is given to party when party secures at least 10% of the seats

*Opposition party plays crucial role in representative democracy as

 * it acts as a pressure group and hold the government accountable to the public

* It mobilizes the government

*It keep check on the working of the ruling party

*it criticizes the government for its failures and wrong policies.

 

Coalition Government:

 *It refers to the alliance formed by political parties after elections when no party has been able to get adequate seats to form a clear majority.

Question hour & Zero hour

*Question hour is the first hour of Lok Sabha session where the members ask questions to the government.

*Zero hour is the session that is held after question hour .

*A member has to give ten days notice for the question to be asked in the question hour. During zero hour member may ask raise any kind of question without any prior notice.

Rajya Sabha

*Rajya Sabha is the upper house of the parliament. it is also called council of state.

*The  Rajya  Sabha  functions  primarily  as  the  representative  of  the  states  of  India  in  the Parliament.

*The  Rajya  Sabha  can  also  initiate  legislation  and  a  bill  is  required  to  pass  through  the Rajya  Sabha  in  order  to  become  a  law.  It, therefore, has an important role of  reviewing and altering the laws initiated by  the Lok Sabha.

 

Composition

*The maximum strength of rajya sabha can be 250 members

*Its present 233 members are elected by state assemblies (MLA,MLC)

*12 members are nominated by the President at present there are

*233+12 = 245 members in Rajya sabha .

 

Qualification for the Rajya Sabha members

*He / She must be the citizen of India.

*Must not be less then 30 years of age

Term ‘

*Rajya Sabha is a permanent house .

 *It cannot be dissolved.

*One third of its member retire after every 6 years

*Every member has 6 years term.

Presiding officer

*Vice president of India is the ex officio chairman of rajya sabha .

 

Women representation in the parliament

 

*Representative Democracy does not reflect the whole society

as after seventy years of independence one –third reservation of women is  still  pending and only   14percent women are members of Parliament but half of the population is women.

*In current 17 Lok Sabha only 14% (78) MPs are women which is highest since independence

Reservation of Dalits and woman

 

It is important because

*Representative  democracy   cannot  produce  a  perfect  reflection of  society .

*Interests and experiences are  separate of different communities so it  is  important  to ensure  that  ,communities  that  have  been  historically  marginalized  are  given  adequate representation.

*With  this  in  mind,  some  seats  are  reserved  in  the  Parliament  for  SCs  and  STs.  

*This  has  been done  so  that  the  MPs  elected  from  these constituencies  will  be  familiar  with  and  can  represent Dalit and  Adivasi interests in Parliament.

*This is the maximum capacity of lok sabha is 550 out of it 24.03% seats are reserved for SC(84)and ST(47)

 

 

 

TYPES OF BILLS **

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