Q1. There has been a rising trend of bills evading legislative scrutiny having adverse impact on the representative democracy. Examine the causes behind the trend and measures to be adopted to enrich the representative democracy and the writ of its institutions. (15 marks, 250 words)
Topic- Parliamentary democracy:
Introduction:
The Constitution envisages the legislature as a shining light of representative democracy upholding people’s aspirations. There has been a rising trend of budgets and bills being passed with minimal scrutiny affecting both people and parliamentarians. The Annual Review of State Laws 2023 released by the PRS Legislative Research lays bare this sorry state of affairs.
Body :
- Rising trend of bills evading legislative scrutiny
- Impact on the representative democracy
- Causes behind the trend of bills evading legislative scrutiny
- Measures to increase the quality of representative democracy
Conclusion :
The quality of democracy depends on the quality of its law makers. It is said by Chanakya that “Yatha Rajah Tatha Prajah” – (As is a king, so is his people”) considering the value that law makers bring in sustaining a functional polity. But the sorry state of affairs as mentioned above must be countered lest it may turn into a gargantuan monster resulting in ‘rule by law’ instaed of ‘rule of law’. Hence, over the board reforms as mentioned above is necessary to enrich the representative democracy and the writ of its institutions.
UPSC Syllabus Parliamentary democracy:
Why was this question asked?
Q. Individual parliamentarian’s role as the national law maker is on the decline, which in turn has adversely impacted the quality of debates and their substance. Discuss. (UPSC CSE 2019)
Introduction
The Constitution envisages the legislature as a shining light of representative democracy upholding people’s aspirations. There has been a rising trend of budgets and bills being passed with minimal scrutiny affecting both people and parliamentarians. The Annual Review of State Laws 2023 released by the PRS Legislative Research lays bare this sorry state of affairs.
Body Status :
Rising trend of bills evading legislative scrutiny:
- 40% of the 18.5 lakh crore worth of budget passed by 10 States without discussion in 2023.
- 84 ordinances were promulgated in as many as 20 states in 2023.
- As many as 5 states passed all bills on the day they were introduced or the next day.
- In major states like Bihar, Delhi, Goa, Maharashtra and Odisha, the Public Accounts Committee of the respective state legislatures did not table any reports.
- 60% of the bills introduced in the Lok Sabha were sent for detailed examination of the Standing Committees while it was only 13% for the 17th Lok Sabha.
Impact on the representative democracy:
- Educational value: Budding legislators learn the nuances of parliamentary procedures, law making, debate and raise concerns about the issues of their constituencies while deliberating on the bill. It affects not just the educational value but also the people’s welfare in the long run due to one size fits all approach of many statutes.
- Neutrality: Committees of the legislatures and parliament hold closed door meeting insulated from the party politics that create water tight separation between law makers on the floor of the house. Thus, coolheaded and unbiased deliberation of the bill goes for a toss when bills evade parliamentary scrutiny.
- Awareness: As the media livestreams legislative discussions, common citizens become aware of the state of affairs of the rules and regulations governing them. Guillotining bills and not deliberating on them hinder this awareness generation potential of the law making bodies.
- Presidentialization: It would lead to rule of the Executive instead of law making bodies holding the executive accountable thus leading to Presidentialization of the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers.
- Group theory: Bills evading parliamentary scrutiny gives undue advantage to influential pressure groups of businessmen, caste associations, political allies etc leaving the common man’s concerns at the ‘Mercy of God’.
Causes behind the trend of bills evading legislative scrutiny:
- Delimitation: The number of seats were frozen through the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act based on the 1971 census. The population has grown by leaps and bounds, so is the number of issues to be debated in the Parliament. Few lawmakers cannot discuss each and every issue thereby affecting legislative scrutiny.
- Laymen: Politicians generally are laymen. Law making is the business of an expert like a seasoned bureaucrat. This lack of expertise comes to haunt the effectiveness of legislative debates.
- Constitutional loopholes: The recommendations of the Standing Committees are only recommendatory in nature. They don’t have a binding effect thus reducing the importance of their scrutiny.
- General indifference: People are busy with their own chores. The general indifference is exhibited in the low percentage of voting mainly by urban folks in every election.
- Absenteeism: Apart from the rising absenteeism of lawmakers, the Parliament and State Legislatures themselves have been holding sessions for few and few days in a year. For Rajya Sabha, it has gone below 100 days in a year.
Measures to increase the quality of representative democracy:
- Minimum number of sessions: The average annual sitting days has dipped from 135 in the 1st Lok Sabha to 55 days in the 17th Lok Sabha. The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution recommended a minimum 100 sitting days to improve the deliberation, discussion and debates in the Legislatures and the Parliament.
- Expert Support: A separate expert body should be created to resolve the doubt of the Parliamentarians and to educate them on crucial aspects of law making. This will go a long way in resolving the dearth of knowledge of budding law makers.
- Binding effect: The should be clause in the Constitution that defines standing committee recommendations on which subjects should have a binding effect on the passage of the bills. This will give teeth to their recommendations and deliberations.
- Judicial Activism: In the D.C. Wadhwa Case (1987), The Supreme Court held that repeated promulgation and re-promulgation of ordinances was unconstitutional. Ordinances should be an exception while legislative scrutiny a rule.
- Criminalization of politics: 42% of the Parliamentarians in the present Lok Sabha have criminal charges against them. Those with serious charges with a prima-facie evidence must be disqualified from candidature.
Conclusion
The quality of democracy depends on the quality of its law makers. It is said by Chanakya that “Yatha Rajah Tatha Prajah” – (As is a king, so is his people”) considering the value that law makers bring in sustaining a functional polity. But the sorry state of affairs as mentioned above must be countered lest it may turn into a gargantuan monster resulting in ‘rule by law’ instaed of ‘rule of law’. Hence, over the board reforms as mentioned above is necessary to enrich the representative democracy and the writ of its institutions.
Q2. Fundamental physics has been exploring new dimensions of fundamental particles called quarks. In the light of this statement, briefly explain quarks, types of quarks and its properties. Elucidate the significance of quarks and initiatives undertaken to explore these inquisitive particles. 15 marks (250 words)
Topic- Quantum Physics:
Introduction
Quarks are elementary particles that combine to form fundamental particles called hadrons, the most stable of which form neutrons and protons – the building blocks of atomic nuclei. The properties and the function of these quarks hold decide the fate of evolution and death of stars. They determine whether stars will become white dwarfs, neutron stars or black holes. There are 6 types of quarks also called as flavors.
Body
- Types of quarks
- Properties of quarks
- Significance of quarks
- Initiatives undertaken to explore the quarks
Conclusion
Quarks are just one but an important pillar of delving into the deep ocean of particle physics. Deep knowledge of their characteristics and interactions can help us explore unknown dimensions of reality. International collaborations, knowledge and funds transfer along with robust investment on Research and Development is the way forward in understanding these inquisitive particles.
UPSC Syllabus Quantum Physics:
Why was this question asked?
Q. Discuss the work of ‘Bose-Einstein Statistics’ done by Prof. Satyendranath Bose and show how it revolutionized the field of physics. (UPSC CSE 2018)
Introduction:
Quarks are elementary particles that combine to form fundamental particles called hadrons, the most stable of which form neutrons and protons – the building blocks of atomic nuclei. The properties and the function of these quarks hold decide the fate of evolution and death of stars. They determine whether stars will become white dwarfs, neutron stars or black holes. There are 6 types of quarks also called as flavors.
Body
Types of quarks:
- Up: It is the lightest of all quarks represented by ‘u’ symbol.
- Down: It is the second lightest of all quarks and represented by symbol ‘d’.
- Charm: It is the third most massive quark with a symbol ‘c’.
- Strange: It is the third lightest of all quarks with symbol ‘s’.
- Top: It is also referred to as truth quark and is the most massive of all elementary particles. It is represented by symbol ‘t’.
- Bottom: It is also known as beauty quark and is a product in almost all top quark decays. It is represented by symbol ‘b’.
- All these quarks have anti-quarks with same mass but have opposite electric charge and magnetic moment.
Properties of quarks:
- Due to the strong forces between them, quarks are never found in isolation. They can only be found in large hadrons.
- Quarks have fractional electric charges like 1/3, 2/3 etc unlike whole numbers that characterize protons and electrons.
- A quark of one flavor can transform into a quark of another flavor only through weak interaction.
- According to quantum chromodynamics, each quark and anti-quark carries color, the combination of which determines the attraction or repulsion between different flavors of quarks.
- Quarks are considered to be point like entities with their mass not being more than 10-4 times the size of proton.
Significance of quarks:
- Quarks are often termed as the building blocks of existence. Understanding them is crucial to understanding the evolution of universe.
- Exploring quarks aids in the study of high energy processes like implosion of stars, black hole and gravitational lensing around black holes.
- Understanding quarks is crucial to decipher the structure of proteins that is key to our understanding of the biological processes and healing a disease.
- Discovery of geological processes inside the earth and heavenly bodies will facilitated if we study the quarks as quarks carry color based on their interactions with other quarks. By studying the color variations, deducing the complex geological processes will get an upshot.
Initiatives undertaken to explore the quarks:
- Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at CERN has found evidence for liquid like quark exhibiting perfect fluid like motion.
- Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California was the first to give scientific evidence of quarks as 3 unknown particles emerged when muons were fires at protons.
- Quark gluon plasma state was achieved when two heavy nuclei were smashed with the speed of light at the Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN in 2000.
- Further, India is supplying components worth $140 million and expert help to the Fermilab’s new High Intensity Superconducting Particle Accelerator.
Conclusion
Quarks are just one but an important pillar of delving into the deep ocean of particle physics. Deep knowledge of their characteristics and interactions can help us explore unknown dimensions of reality. International collaborations, knowledge and funds transfer along with robust investment on Research and Development is the way forward in understanding these inquisitive particles.