(A detailed version of this chapter in notes #301.039 on http://facebook.com/mehtarahulc )
Download this chapter 39 : www.righttorecall.info/301.pdf
39.1 The problem with law-making
There are two basic problems with law-making as of now
1. MPs, MLAs etc do not make laws we citizens want. E.g. MPs refused to enact MRCM law-draft that we commons should get land rent from GoI plots like IIMA plot, airport plots etc. Likewise, MPs have refused to enact Right to Recall SCjs, HCjs, PM, CM etc laws.
2. MPs make laws that citizens dont want. E.g. when MNCs bribed MPs, MPs enacted patent laws which increased the prices of medicine by several times.
Why do MPs, MLAs behave like this? Because of corruption and no other reason. The MPs and MLAs get bribes for not passing some laws and they get bribes to pass some laws. The citizens have no option but to tolerate them as citizens can expel them, cant change the laws etc.
39.2 The solution to first problem
TCP, Right to Recall PM and Right to Recall MPs solve the first problem. If MPs are hell bent on not enacting a law, then using TCP, citizens can force PM\MPs to enact that law. And using Right to recall PM, MPs the citizens can expel PM, MPs who are not co-operating. So the problem that MPs are not enacting laws like MRCM, RTR etc is solved by TCP.
39.3 The solution to second problem
Very often, we see that MNCs etc will bribe MPs and get laws passed, which go against interest and wishes of the citizens. Eg in 2005, corrupt MPs of all parties got bribes from pharmaceutical MNC-owners and passed Patent laws, which drastically increased the medicine prices, and it was against the wish of the citizens.
So what Gazette drafts do I propose to reduce this problem?
In Parliament, a law-draft seldom passes without approval of PM. Almost all corrupt laws are passed only with full co-operation of PM. As of now, PM doesn’t care as citizens’ wishes as we citizens don’t have procedures to expel/replace PM. But once RTR-PM draft gets printed in the Gazette, PM will deter PM from passing corrupt laws. And Right to Recall MP will also deter MP from passing a corrupt law. Further, one of the law-draft I have proposed enables citizens to conduct Truth Serum Tests on MPs\PM in public and even impose fines, imprison and execute MPs\PM. This will create a spine chilling deterrence in MPs\PM from passing laws for bribes. Further, lets us that MPs and PM still dare to pass a corrupt law-draft because of MNCs’ bribes or other reasons. Then Right to Recall Supreme Court judges and Right to Recall High Court judges will increase the chances that SCjs and HCjs will strike it down such a law-draft immediately, because they may worry that citizens would expel them otherwise.
TCP itself reduces the possibility that MPs and MLAs will ever enact a law-draft for bribes. How? Because lets say a company gives bribes of Rs 1 crore to each MPs totaling expenses of Rs 800 crores to enact a law. Then next day, citizens can repeal that law-draft using TCP and the company lost all its Rs 800 crore for practically nothing in return.
Given all these safeguards, chances that MPs will enact laws for bribes are now near zero. Nevertheless, following procedure further reduces the chances:
1. Using TCP, I propose to enact a procedure by which citizen can register effective YES/NO in the Parliament by paying Rs 3 fee at Talati’s office.
2. Using TCP, I propose to enact Jury System over Law Making.
39.4 RRP proposal to enable citizens to register citizens’ YES/NO in Parliament
Following is the Gazette Notification I propose :
1. A citizen can inward text of a Bill in Loksabha Speaker’s office and obtain inward number.
2. Any citizen can go to the Talati (Patwari), show his ID, pay Rs. 3 fee and register his YES/NO on any of the suggested bills. The clerk will give receipt for his YES/NO. The citizen can change his YES/NO any day. The YES/NO will be published on the Speaker’s website. (Please note that there is no confidentiality).
3. An MP can register his YES/NO before the Speaker. If the MP does not register YES/NO, it would be counted as NO.
4. The MP’s vote will count for those, all those, but ONLY those who have NOT registered their YES/NO on that bill. Example: Suppose an area 50000 voters where say 15000 (30%) voted YES, 5000 (10%) votes NO and 30000 (60%) did not cast their vote on the proposal. In that case, the Speaker will consider MP’s weight as (100% – 30% – 10%) = 60%. Now say that the MP votes YES. Then that area’s YES-fraction will be 30% + 60% = 90% and NO-fraction will be 10%. If the MP votes NO, then that area’s YES fraction be 30% and NO-fraction will be 60% + 10% = 70%.
5. The Loksabha Speaker will add the YES and NO fractions of each Constituency
6. If the sum of all YES-fractions is over 50% within 60 days, then the Loksabha Speaker will send the bill to the Rajyasabha Speaker. If the proposal does not gather 50% support within 60 days after issue of inward number, the Loksabha Speaker will declare the proposal as failed.
7. The Rajyasabha Speaker will let Rajyasabha MPs register their YES/NO starting the day bill gets inward number. If an MP does not register his vote, it will be taken as a NO.
8. The Speaker of Rajyasabha will calculate the YES-fraction and NO-fraction of the bill as follow :
a. say a state has K MPs
b. say that state has T voters of which Y voted YES and N voted no, and (T – Y – N) did not register their YES or NO
c. then each MPs’ of that state’s vote will be (T – Y – N)/K.
9. If passed, it shall have the same weight as Bill passed by the Parliament
The above mentioned procedure will enable citizens to enact the law-draft they want.
39.5 Draft to implement the above law
Gazette Notification -1 : Citizens’ registering YES/NO
# Procedure for
Procedure / instruction
1 – The word citizen would mean a registered voter
2 Collector
(or his clerk) The Collector (his clerk) will accept a proposal for enacting a law-draft from any citizen for a fee of Rs 20 per page and issue a serial number to the proposal.
3 Talati , Patwari (or his clerks)
For next 90 days, the Talati/clerks will allow the citizens to register their YES/NO on the Bill. The clerk will take following things from the citizen : a)Rs 3/- fee b)citizen’s ID c)Bill’s serial number d)his YES or NO preference. The clerk will then make the entries in the computer and will give a computer generated receipt to the citizen.
4 Talati, Patwari
The Talati, for a fee of Rs 3, will allow the citizen to change his YES/NO.
5 Talati, Patwari
The Talati will post the names, serial numbers etc of the citizens who have registered their YES/NO on the internet.
6 Loksabha Speaker
The Cabinet Secretary will publish Constituency wise YES/NO counts of each Constituency for each of proposals every Monday and on the 90th day after proposal was submitted.
7 Speakers of Loksabha, Rajyasabha
The Speakers will allow MPs to register total or partial YES/NO. If an MP does NOT register YES/NO, the Speakers will count his vote as total NO.
8 Loksabha
Speaker The Speaker will calculate the YES-fraction and NO-fraction every Loksabha constituency as follows :
T = Total No. of voters in that constituency.
Y = No. of voters who voted YES
N = Number of voters who voted NO
M = No. of voters who did not vote on the Bill = T – Y – N
Citizens’ YES-fraction = Y/T
Citizens’ NO-fraction = N/T
Now as per the Constitution, it is necessary that MP’s vote represents citizens’ YES/NO. In other words, if Y/T citizens have registered YES and N/T citizens have registered NO, then as per the Constitution, it is necessary, that MP’s vote’s YES-fraction is above Y/T as well as NO-fraction is above N/T. Then for THAT constituency,
if MP votes YES, then YES-fraction will be (Y+M)/T
and NO-fraction will be N/T
if MP votes NO, then YES-fraction will be Y/T
and NO-fraction will be (N+M)/T.
if MP abstains, then YES-fraction will be Y/T
and NO-fraction will be N/T.
9 Loksabha Speaker
The Speaker will add YES-fractions and NO-fractions of all the Loksabha constituency to obtain the total YES fraction of the State.
10 Loksabha Speaker
1. The Speaker will declare bill as “failed if NO-fraction exceeds YES-fraction.
2. if YES-fraction is larger than NO-fraction then the Speaker will send the bill to the Rajyasabha Speaker
11 Rajyasabha Speaker
Within 30 days after a bill has been presented, a member of Rajyasabha can register his YES/NO on the bill before the Speaker. If a member does NOT register his YES/NO, the Speaker will take it as a NO.
12 Rajyasabha Speaker
Speaker will use following formula to calculate the YES fraction and NO fraction
Y = Number of voters in India who voted YES
N = Number of voters in India who voted NO
T = Total number of citizen-voters in India
U = Number of citizens who didn’t vote = T – Y – N
MY = Number of Rajyasabha members who voted YES
MN = Number of Rajyasabha members who voted NO
(or did not register their vote)
MT = Total number of Members
In that case,
YES fraction = Y/T + MY/MT*U/T
NO fraction = N/T + MN/MT*U/T
13 Rajyasabha
Speaker If the YES fraction exceeds NO fraction, Speaker will declare the bill as passed, else he will declare the bill as failed.
39.6 RRP demand , promise to enact Jury System over Laws made by MPs
Due to bribery, and no other reasons, the MPs have been enacting laws like SEZ act, 498A, DVA etc. How do I propose to stop this mess? The second proposal enables citizens to cancel any unconstitutional law-draft that MPs have made. But that will be after they have passed this law. How can citizens stop wrong laws to begin with? Well, the following law-draft will reduce this possibility :
1. After the law-draft is passed by Parliament, the PM shall send the copy of law-draft in English and State’s official languages to each Tahsildar of India
2. Each Tahsildar will summon 30 citizen voters each from the voter list as Jurors.
3. Each of the 30 citizens can suggest one speaker. Ten of these 30 suggested speakers will be chosen at random. The 10 suggested speakers or their representative will give 1 hr speech on the law-draft passed.
4. The MP who drafted and proposed the law-draft can send one or more representatives who shall have the total speech time of 3 hours.
5. Each Juror can ask speak for 30 minutes in which he may make a speech or ask questions to any of the persons who has given the speeches on the law-draft passed.
6. Each day, the proceedings will start at 10.30 AM and will go on till 6.30 PM with 2.00 PM to 2.30 PM as lunch break. So proceedings will last for no more than 6 days.
7. At the end of 3rd day, the Jurors will specify their YES/NO on the laws passed.
8. If over 16 out of 30 Jurors say NO or “no option”, the Tahsildar will mark the law-draft as rejected.
9. If majority of the Tahsil Juries in India reject the law, the PM will declare the law-draft as rejected.
There are 6000 wards and Tahsils in India. So some 6000 * 30 = 180,000 citizens YES/NO will taken on the law-draft passed. Given that time is just 3 days, this is a fairly large sample which is difficult to bribe out. Hence, this sample will be an effective check on the Parliament. Each Juror will get say Rs 100 and so cost is Rs 1.8 crore plus other costs (such as salary of Tahsildar who will conduct the hearings etc). The total cost will be about Rs 5 crore per law-draft Parliament passes. The Parliament passes some 100 laws a year. So total cost will be Rs 500 cr per year of so. This is tiny compared to damage one wrong law-draft can cause. Using such mechanism, it becomes easier for citizens to ensure that SEZ, 498A, DVA etc like laws do not come up
39.7 What can you do to improve law-making procedures
Please read chap-13 of this book http://rahulmehta.com/301.htm . It has several steps where-in you can spend 6 hours a week and help to bring TCP draft in Gazette in India. The steps involve distributing pamphlets, informing citizens on motives of leaders such Congress MPs, BJP MPs, The Anna etc who oppose TCP draft, by giving newspaper ads, contesting elections. Once TCP gets printed in Gazette, using TCP, it will become easy for activists to get citizens’ opinion law-drafts mentioned in this chapter, namely enabling citizens to register YES/NO on the floor of the Parliament and also Jury System over laws passed MPs and MLAs. That will reduces the strength of MPs to print laws which citizens do not want and also reduce the strength of MPs to print law-drafts which citizens do not want.