Mukherjee cautions against enacting laws without discussion, says it is a breach of people's trust

In what was again seen as a caution to the government of the day not to take the ordinance route unless absolutely necessary to pass laws and policy, President Pranab Mukherjee said Sunday that there can be no governance without a functioning legislature.

Emphatically stating that the legislature reflects the will of the people, Mukherjee said Parliament is the platform where progressive legislation using civilized dialogue must create delivery mechanisms for realizing the aspirations of the people.

He said Parliament calls for reconciling the differences amongst stakeholders and building a consensus for the law to be enacted.

"Enacting laws without discussion impacts the law-making role of the Parliament. It breaches the trust reposed in it by the people. This is neither good for the democracy nor for the policies relating to those laws.

It may be recalled that the NDA government issued a series of ordinances at the conclusion of the Winter Session of Parliament, inviting criticism from the opposition as well as caution from the president.

The government went on record to say that it had to take the ordinance route to pass key legislation because of the repeated obstructionist tactics of the opposition.

The President, who is the custodian of the Indian Constitution, had then said that the "Cardinal principle of Parliamentary Democracy is that the majority has the mandate to rule while opposition has the right to oppose, expose, and if the numbers permit, to depose. But, under no circumstances should there be disruption of the proceedings. A noisy minority cannot be allowed to gag a patient majority."

About a week ago, Mukherjee had asked ruling and opposition parties to put their heads together and find out workable solutions to avoid resort to frequent issuing of ordinances.

In comments that came against the backdrop of a raging debate on a spate of ordinances promulgated by the NDA Government, he acknowledged that the Constitution provided for promulgation of ordinance in an extraordinary situation, but said this route cannot and should not be taken for normal legislation.

Addressing faculty and students of central universities and research institutions through video conferencing, he referred to situations when the ruling party may not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha, but felt a joint session of Parliament to make up for numbers to enact laws "is not practical".

"It is the responsibility of entire political establishment to put their heads together and work out a workable solution. The opposition can oppose, expose and possibly depose, if they have the numbers. But always keep in mind, it is the collective responsibility of the elected members of the House whether directly elected to the Lok Sabha or through states in Rajya Sabha ... I ask the political establishment to engage in a dialogue and resolve their differences," he said.