During the framing of India’s Constitution, multiple models of governance were proposed for the newly independent nation. The framers of the Constitution finally selected the model of “parliamentary democracy”. As the term suggests, there are two equally important constituent elements of this model — Parliament and democracy.
Over the years, the meaning of “democracy” — and what it means to be democratic — has been contested and debated. But what has perhaps been discussed in less detail has been the importance of a thriving Parliament towards the sustaining and flourishing of democracy.
In an ideal situation, Parliament is the source of legitimacy for a democracy’s laws; it is important to note, however, that this legitimacy is not drawn only from the fact that parliamentarians have been elected. Parliament has, in addition, a number of processes designed to ensure that the people’s elected representatives are allowed to deliberate and discuss, and seek, receive, and impart information about proposed laws, before the final vote and enactment.
The legitimacy of laws, therefore, is not simply a function of the fact that they have been passed in Parliament, but also a function of the quality of deliberation that has gone into their passage. It is trite to say that reality rarely approximates the ideal.
From the time of Independence, successive Indian governments have sought to undermine the functioning and authority of Parliament, and shift power to the executive instead.
From the beginning, India’s prime ministers took the ordinance making route to bypass Parliament in case of contentious laws; the number of parliamentary sessions has steadily declined over the years; in the 1960s, frequent floor-crossing further shook the legitimacy of Parliament, leading to the passage of stringent anti-defection laws, which have arguably demonstrated the truth of the old adage of “operation successful, patient dead”.
This long tradition has continued and accelerated over recent years, to the point where it is not too much of an exaggeration to say that, at present, Parliament is a moribund institution (admittedly, the position of state legislative assemblies is substantially worse).
We have seen less and less time being given to deliberation over the substantive content of bills, with highly complex proposed laws being passed in a matter of minutes (or less). We have seen a steep decline in the referral of bills to parliamentary committees, which are crucial sources of data- and research-gathering, something that is essential for Members of Parliament (MPs) to make an informed decision about the bills they are voting on.
And, perhaps most egregiously, we have seen subversions of the voting processes within Parliament, with division being refused and controversial bills (such as the farm laws) being passed on the basis of a voice vote — something that allows individual MPs to evade their constituents’ scrutiny by putting their name to their vote.
When a Parliament ceases to function, a parliamentary democracy turns, in effect, into an electoral autocracy. In an electoral autocracy, periodic elections are treated not as the beginning of the governance process, but as the end of it.
An election accords a blank slate to a small group of people — ie, the leaders of the ruling party — to effectively rule by decree, free of any continuing requirement of accountability. The question then arises — if we do not want an electoral autocracy, what is to be done?
Long-term, of course, there is no solution other than a public and social movement that goes back to the basics, and places a functioning Parliament at the centre of its demands for change.
That, however, is a process that can take many decades. More short-term, let us remember that the Constitution envisages three wings of State — the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary, with the role of each being, among other things, to check the excesses of the others.
In a situation in which the executive’s actions are making Parliament redundant, it falls to the third wing — the judiciary — to intervene, not out of any desire for activism or personal glory, but simply as a requirement to police the boundaries of what makes democratic outcomes legitimate.
In recent times, scholars such as Jahnavi Sindhu and Vikram Narayan, and Dhananjay Dhonchak, have suggested a remedy; when it is demonstrated clearly that Parliament has been treated as a rubberstamp for law-making — where, for example, laws have been passed without division voting (despite it having been asked for), where there has been no deliberation before passage, or where the government claims that its reasons for passing a law are “X”, but entirely fails, or refuses, to provide any evidence for the existence of “X” — the courts should treat any or all of this as strong reasons for finding the law to be unconstitutional.
This “process-based” unconstitutionality, thus, is the only way in which both the governments and parliamentarians can be held accountable for the undermining of Parliament; and the knowledge that they will be held accountable can act as a spur to improve the quality of law-making currently an offer. It remains to be seen whether — and how — the judiciary will take this up.
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- Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition, a collective of the United States, United Kingdom and Norway governments, came up with a $1 billion fund.
- LEAF is supported by transnational corporations (TNCs) like Unilever plc, Amazon.com, Inc, Nestle, Airbnb, Inc as well as Emergent, a US-based non-profit.
- The world lost more than 10 million hectares of primary tropical forest cover last year, an area roughly the size of Switzerland.
- Ending tropical and subtropical forest loss by 2030 is a crucial part of meeting global climate, biodiversity and sustainable development goals. Protecting tropical forests offers one of the biggest opportunities for climate action in the coming decade.
- Tropical forests are massive carbon sinks and by investing in their protection, public and private players are likely to stock up on their carbon credits.
- The LEAF coalition initiative is a step towards concretising the aims and objectives of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism.
- REDD+ was created by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It monetised the value of carbon locked up in the tropical forests of most developing countries, thereby propelling these countries to help mitigate climate change.
- It is a unique initiative as it seeks to help developing countries in battling the double-edged sword of development versus ecological commitment.
- The initiative comes at a crucial time. The tropics have lost close to 12.2 million hectares (mha) of tree cover last year according to global estimates released by Global Forest Watch.
- Of this, a loss of 4.2 mha occurred within humid tropical primary forests alone. It should come as no surprise that most of these lost forests were located in the developing countries of Latin America, Africa and South Asia.
- Brazil has fared dismally on the parameter of ‘annual primary forest loss’ among all countries. It has lost 1.7 mha of primary forests that are rich storehouse of carbon. India’s estimated loss in 2020 stands at 20.8 kilo hectares.
- Between 2002-2020, Brazil’s total area of humid primary forest reduced by 7.7 per cent while India’s reduced by 3.4 per cent.
- Although the loss in India is not as drastic as in Brazil, its position is nevertheless precarious. For India, this loss is equivalent to 951 metric tonnes worth carbon dioxide emissions released in the atmosphere.
- It is important to draw comparisons between Brazil and India as both countries have adopted a rather lackadaisical attitude towards deforestation-induced climate change. The Brazilian government hardly did anything to control the massive fires that gutted the Amazon rainforest in 2019.
- It is mostly around May that forest fires peak in India. However, this year India, witnessed massive forest fires in early March in states like Odisha, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram among others.
- The European Union’s Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service claimed that 0.2 metric tonnes of carbon was emitted in the Uttarakhand forest fires.
- Implementation of the LEAF Coalition plan will help pump in fresh rigour among developing countries like India, that are reluctant to recognise the contributions of their forest dwelling populations in mitigating climate change.
- With the deadline for proposal submission fast approaching, India needs to act swiftly on a revised strategy.
- Although India has pledged to carry out its REDD+ commitments, it is impossible to do so without seeking knowledge from its forest dwelling population.
Context:-
At the recently concluded Leaders’ Summit on Climate in April 2021, Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition, a collective of the United States, United Kingdom and Norway governments, came up with a $1 billion fund plan that shall be offered to countries committed to arrest the decline of their tropical forests by 2030.
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]What is LEAF Coalition?
Why LEAF Coalition?
Brazil & India
According to the UN-REDD programme, after the energy sector, deforestation accounts for massive carbon emissions — close to 11 per cent — in the atmosphere. Rapid urbanisation and commercialisation of forest produce are the main causes behind rampant deforestation across tropical forests.
Tribes, Forests and Government
Disregarding climate change as a valid excuse for the fires, Indian government officials were quick to lay the blame for deforestation on activities of forest dwellers and even labelled them “mischievous elements” and “unwanted elements”.
Policy makers around the world have emphasised the role of indigenous tribes and local communities in checking deforestation. These communities depend on forests for their survival as well as livelihood. Hence, they understand the need to protect forests. However, by posing legitimate environmental concerns as obstacles to real development, governments of developing countries swiftly avoid protection of forests and rights of forest dwellers.
For instance, the Government of India has not been forthcoming in recognising the socio-economic, civil, political or even cultural rights of forest dwellers. According to data from the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs in December, 2020 over 55 per cent of this population has still not been granted either individual or community ownership of their lands.
To make matters worse, the government has undertaken systematic and sustained measures to render the landmark Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 ineffective in its implementation. The Act had sought to legitimise claims of forest dwellers on occupied forest land.
Various government decisions have seriously undermined the position of indigenous people within India. These include proposing amendments to the obsolete Indian Forest Act, 1927 that give forest officials the power to take away forest dwellers’ rights and to even use firearms with impunity.
There is also the Supreme Court’s order of February, 2019 directing state governments to evict illegal encroachers of forest land or millions of forest dwellers inhabiting forests since generations as a measure to conserve wildlife. Finally, there is the lack of data on novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) deaths among the forest dwelling population;
Tardy administration, insufficient supervision, apathetic attitude and a lack of political intent defeat the cause of forest dwelling populations in India, thereby directly affecting efforts at arresting deforestation.
Way Forward
Tuntiak Katan, a global indigenous leader from Ecuador and general coordinator of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, aptly indicated the next steps at the Climate Summit:
“The first step is recognition of land rights. The second step is the recognition of the contributions of local communities and indigenous communities, meaning the contributions of indigenous peoples.We also need recognition of traditional knowledge practices in order to fight climate change”
Perhaps India can begin by taking the first step.