{"id":3750,"date":"2021-03-05T07:23:47","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T01:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/?p=3750"},"modified":"2021-03-05T07:23:49","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T01:53:49","slug":"parliamentary-democracy-suffers-from-the-karna-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/examined\/202103\/parliamentary-democracy-suffers-from-the-karna-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"Parliamentary Democracy suffers from the Karna Syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I agree with Shruti Rajagopalan’s argument that the 52nd amendment, more popularly known as the anti-defection law was a bad idea<\/a>. The amendment turns legislatures into glorified electoral colleges. I do not agree though that this is the source of the problem. Jay Panda, a national vice president of the BJP has written multiple articles where he argues for reforms in parliamentary rules that will reduce the agenda-setting power of the Speaker (and by proxy, the government). For example, take this piece<\/a> written in 2014, this one<\/a> from 2015 or the one<\/a> from 2016. The underlying theme in all of Panda’s articles is that our Parliament continues to be hobbled by the rules the British government set for the Central Legislative Assembly, and reforming those rules would go a long way to make our legislature more effective and help it hold the government accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These reforms are worth trying, and I don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good, but I am sceptical that these go deep enough. The problem is inherent in parliamentary democracy, which suffers from the Karna Syndrome, the inability to perform its job when it is most needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parliamentary system violates the principle of separation of powers between the legislature and the executive. Because the legislators elect the chief executive and the executive is essentially a standing committee of the legislature, it skews incentives all around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n