A few days before the one day sitting of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) Session, which was held on September 15, 2011, the Leader of the Opposition from the Congress, Tokheho Yepthomi had observed that the present NLA was one of the poorest in terms of its performances. Whether this is true or not, only will the records speak for itself and if at all our legislature has been reduced to that of a rubber stamp at the hands of the political executive. However the fact is that many people (outside the political establishment and the bureaucracy) including this newspaper have concern over the manner in which the executive rides roughshod over legislature. Nagaland and its political system is very much a parliamentary democracy where the Chief Minister and the ruling government are accountable to the house of the people, which in our case is the Legislative Assembly. As such it is very unfortunate that Nagaland must be having one of the least numbers of legislative sittings. Our government has become executive centric, which is not a good thing to happen. All powers must not be vested in the executive. This is detrimental to democracy. The legislature must perform its due role as one of the organ of the government. Along with the judiciary, the three wings of the government must function as checks and balances so that no one organ is able to usurp power absolutely. While the American system of checks and balances may not be applicable in its entirety, nevertheless, the executive (here in this case the Chief Minister and Ministers) should use whatever discretionary power it has with wisdom and foresight. For instance, the American President can make appointments or sign important treaty. However, this is subject to ratification by the Legislature (here the US Congress/Senate). In our case, there are no checks on the executive power of our CM or Ministers and they wield enormous power. They can make appointments, transfer officials, decide on plan outlay, take important policy decisions etc without much ado. Such powers should not be misused.
Just take one instance where it is clearly mentioned that not a penny of public money can be spend without the approval of the Assembly (in our case). While no doubt the money that is to be spent is voted upon even in our case, however this is more of pushing it through without proper deliberation and discussion. Here the government alone cannot be blamed. The Opposition is as much to be blamed if it succumbs to the wishes of the government. As a matter of fact the one day session of the NLA convened on September 15 was clearly with the sole intention to fulfill the constitutional obligation. And this has been our parliamentary practice even during the Congress rule where our legislative sessions do not go beyond one week. The comment of the Assembly Speaker as carried in a local newspaper that “Everyone is happy that we’ll have only one day session” is indicative of the larger malaise of governance in our State. Just get the bills passed, get approval of the budgetary allocation and that is the end of our parliamentary democracy. Nothing else matters after that—give a damn the checks and balances or the CAG report or to our committee system. Given that our house of the people—the NLA has been relegated to the far flung corner of our democratic experience it was not at all surprising that the mere one day Session of the Legislative Assembly held on 15th September 2011 was adjourned sine-die at 11:25 am after what was officially reported as “completion of the business”. Indeed a quickie session—must be a record of sorts.
Just take one instance where it is clearly mentioned that not a penny of public money can be spend without the approval of the Assembly (in our case). While no doubt the money that is to be spent is voted upon even in our case, however this is more of pushing it through without proper deliberation and discussion. Here the government alone cannot be blamed. The Opposition is as much to be blamed if it succumbs to the wishes of the government. As a matter of fact the one day session of the NLA convened on September 15 was clearly with the sole intention to fulfill the constitutional obligation. And this has been our parliamentary practice even during the Congress rule where our legislative sessions do not go beyond one week. The comment of the Assembly Speaker as carried in a local newspaper that “Everyone is happy that we’ll have only one day session” is indicative of the larger malaise of governance in our State. Just get the bills passed, get approval of the budgetary allocation and that is the end of our parliamentary democracy. Nothing else matters after that—give a damn the checks and balances or the CAG report or to our committee system. Given that our house of the people—the NLA has been relegated to the far flung corner of our democratic experience it was not at all surprising that the mere one day Session of the Legislative Assembly held on 15th September 2011 was adjourned sine-die at 11:25 am after what was officially reported as “completion of the business”. Indeed a quickie session—must be a record of sorts.
