The Hindu Editorial

Discussion
19th December, 2016
 Questions from a washout

Context Recent winter Parliament Session washout

Opposition stalled the parliament, Why?

How debate must be conducted, whether voting after
debate
PM addressing the jansabha
Opposition and Govt. Kept fighting, what is point? hat
did either side gain?
 Productivity of Winter session
1. Just two bills were passed, one of them a money bill that did not
need the Rajya Sabhas nod.

2. according to the think tank PRS Legislative Research, less than 1

per cent of the 330 questions listed for Question Hour in the
Rajya Sabha were answered orally.

3. The Lok Sabha looked better only in comparison, with 11 per

cent.
 What could have been done?
The government has staked much political capital on key financial
reforms that need cooperation across the aisles. It lost the chance
to pass bills critical to the April 1, 2017, deadline for the rollout
of the Goods and Services Tax.
It also failed to end the session on a note of federal cooperation to
set up the shift to Budget day to February 1 from next year
By forcing adjournments while in opposition, it was successful in
reinforcing the impression of a policy paralysis in the second UPA
government
 conclusion
The floor of the House, with a tempered debate and
questioning as a constructive party of opposition, is a key
venue for that.
Basic self-interest demands that government and
opposition avert the possibility of the Budget session
meeting the same fate as this one.
 Question
In the recent winter session of parliament washout, what
do you think are factor responsible for consistent stalling
of parliament by parties and what we need for optimal
parliament functioning?
 Timeline of Education Policy

Nation National Policy

Revision 2016-
education on Education RTE, 2009
17
policy 1968 1986
 Why need revision?
The state of education, particularly in the critical primary and
pre-primary years, is far from satisfactory.
Since the early 2000s, successive governments kept up momentum
on a sustained investment push into schools in a bid to resolve
what was viewed as a supply-side problem.
this approach hoped to tackle low enrolment rates
Led by government schools, public investment in education helped
raise the gross enrolment ratio from 81.6 per cent of children in
the 6-14 age group in 2000 to 96 per cent or more since 2008
children into school was only the first step, especially when gaping
holes remained in the system.
Barriers to high-quality, equitably-distributed primary
education
High dropout rates, especially for girls
teacher absenteeism
low teaching quality;
outmoded Methodology
insufficient resources to implement contemporary
teaching methods.
 Problem of poor learning outcomes, Why
structural issue pertaining to the design of curricula
ingrained rote learning methods
Will these produce highly-skilled and ready for the digital
age, the global economy and new pathways of
occupational mobility?
weight of an outdated, colonial-era education system
make Indians too sluggish and skill-deprived to cope in a
highly competitive global arena
 Conclusion
While efforts of the present and previous government to boost the
quality of learning in higher and vocational education must be
appreciated,
policymakers ought not to ignore early childhood education and
primary schooling, the phases during which the most important
cognitive development milestones are attained.
The tenth Annual Status of Education Report found that in 2014 the
proportion of Class 3 and Class 5 students in rural areas who could read
a Class 2 textbook was 23.6 and 48.1 per cent, respectively.
Until Activity-Based Learning and teaching at the right level, tools for
real learning and skill-absorption, become the norm, hopes of the
country becoming a great power may well remain a dream.
 Question
Ethics= you have to make a education policy? What factors
you would consider before making a inclusive education
Policy?
 Little Background about Democracy

Direct Representative
State of nature
democracy democracy
 Why not direct democracy?
Jacques Rousseau, wrote that sovereignty lies essentially in the
general will
will does not admit of representation: it is either the same or the
other; there is no intermediate possibility
large and complex societies
citizens cannot afford to put aside the time and energy-
consuming task of earning their daily bread
modern citizens, unlike ancient Athenians, value and guard their
personal spaces, their vocation, their interests, their social life, and
their privacy.
Need intermediate
 Function of Representative(intermediate)
Voters authorize representatives to speak and act on their behalf
the representative does not speak for individuals
her duty is to ensure that the opinions, interests and needs of
constituents are adequately, competently and effectively
represented in forums of decision-making
perform the functions that they have been charged with, notably
to assist in the production of appropriate policies.
accountable to her constituency for all acts of omission and
commission
 What advantages representative have over civil
society?
Civil society in India is inhabited by a large number of
organizations, the media, social associations, neighborhood groups,
all kinds of professional lobbies, non-governmental and non-profit
organizations, philanthropic bodies, social and political movements,
and trade unions
they represent all the members of a territorially delimited
constituency
political representatives are accountable to their constituents via
the route of election
the party representative acquires legitimacy by the fact that she
has been elected by the people whose interests she is charged with
representing and furthering
 Little Background In India
The Motilal Nehru Constitutional Draft recommended adult
suffrage for both men and women as far back as 1928, the very
year women finally got the vote in England.
attach no weight to the objections based on the prevailing
illiteracy of the masses and their lack of political experience
Political experience can only be acquired by an active participation
in political institutions and does not entirely depend on literacy.
The belief, which was reiterated in the Constituent Assembly,
underscored the competence of ordinary women and men to
participate in political deliberations.
 Functions of Parliament
Parliament makes laws
Ensures accountability of the government
Parliament provides a forum and establishes procedures for
reflection on, and critical engagement with, what has been done,
and what needs to be done in the light of popular expectations
Representatives are expected to stand in for their constituents,
even as they keep in mind that they are in Parliament to promote
the public good
job of representatives, the reason for which they have been
elected, the source of their power and privilege, the rationale for
their very existence.
 Decline of Representative democracy
1. waste of time and money
2. clatter and ear-splitting clamor in Parliament
3. widening of the social base of the body has not resulted in
meaningful legislation or responsible legislators
4. shift to law-making by ordinance
5. most Indians find Parliament irrelevant to the needs of the day
6. failure of the body to deliberate on the public good
7. empty benches in the Rajya Sabha on the opening day of the
winter session of Parliament
8. failure to monitor the executive, delegation of power to non-
representative regulatory institutions
 Decline of Representative democracy
7. the rushing through of legislation without discussion
8. increasing concentration of power in the hands of the
executive
9. overriding concern is the wilting of the representative and
deliberative functions of the body
10. Opposition focusses on denigrating the government rather than
engaging with policies
11. government hardly bothers to reply, political theatrics replace
calm, reflective and reasoned debate
12. Prime Minister prefers to speak directly to existing and potential
voters.
 What is paradox in this?
generalized loss of confidence in representative institutions has not
led to disenchantment with democracy
Surveys show that Indians value democracy.
They value democracy because this form of government has
enabled them to realize the primordial desire of each human being
to be treated as an equal
Elections are marked by high voter turnouts, voters exercise
freedom of choice and elect and dismiss governments in often
unpredictable ways.
 Conclusion
If India wishes to hold on to her democratic credentials,
parliamentarians must recognize that the task of
representing the opinions, interests and needs of citizens
is their paramount responsibility.

Her conclusion is incomplete

Question In context of recent winter session washout,

what can be done to make parliament more Effective
and more legitimate. Comment
 For Essay, it may be useful
This is no small matter we are discussing, says Socrates in
Platos Republic, we are discussing how we should live. The deliberative
aspect of Parliament is no small matter, nor is it just another function
of the body. Deliberation, by way of representation of different points of
view, is an indispensable component of how we, as a collective, should
live. For policies generated by the parliamentary process establish a
framework for the transaction of all manners of projects in different
settings
Nehru, in a famous speech he made in the Lok Sabha on March 28,
1957, had said that historians will not pay much attention to the time
expended on speeches, or the number of questions asked and answered
in Parliament. They will be interested in the deeper things that go into
the making of a nation. There is no higher responsibility than to be a
member of this sovereign body responsible for the fate of vast numbers
of human beings. Whether we are worthy of it or not is another matter
 Mid term review of modis agriculture Polices
first two years of this government, and the agri-GDP
growth collapsed to just 0.5 per cent.
Why? Back to back drought in Maharastra
The Modi government launched a new crop insurance
scheme, PMs Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), in February
2016, with a view to de-risk agriculture from the
vagaries of nature.
Kharif 2016 was the first season of this scheme. It would
be good to evaluate its performance with a view to
improve it.
 Modified NAIS (MNAIS) were not serving the farmers
interests well. The sum insured under MNAIS,
particularly for risky crops and districts, was meagre.
was based either on the quantum of crop loans or on the
capping of the sum insured;
the crop damage assessment based on crop cutting
experiments was time-consuming
 Now in PMFBY?
new PMFBY, a technical committee in each district
decides the scale of finance for the sum insured taking
into account all the costs incurred by the farmers.
The premiums are decided on an actuarial basis, without
any capping.
Bids are invited from public and private insurance
companies to decide the premiums. The premiums so
discovered are then subsidized for farmers
 Evaluation, Some positive things
PMFBY insured 35.5 million farmers compared to just
12.1 million in kharif 2013, and 25.4 million in kharif
2015 under NAIS and MNAIS combined.
The area insured also increased from 16.5 million
hectares (mha) in kharif 2013 and 27.2 mha in kharif
2015 to 37.5 mha under PMFBY
But the most spectacular increase has been in the sum
insured, which went up from Rs. 34,749 crores in kharif
2013 to Rs 60,773 crores in kharif 2015, and now to
Rs 1,08,055 crores under PMFBY
 Problems
The first problem encountered with this scheme is that the
actuarial premium, instead of coming down with the increasing
scale of coverage, has gone up, sharply, from 9.8 per cent in
kharif 2015 to 14.9 per cent in kharif 2016
we found that the states which completed the tendering process
early got premium rates ranging from four to eight per cent, but
the states which were late got much higher premium rates,
touching as high as 20 per cent.
But the litmus test of any insurance scheme lies in how quickly it
can assess crop-damages of farmers and how fast it can settle
their claims. Luckily, in kharif 2016, rainfall was normal at the
all-India level.
 More about problems
Areas which faced floods, and farmers lost their crops.
The assessment of the damages had to be done by eye-
inspection.
Drones could have been easily employed, but they were
not.
Under the guidelines, smart phones had to be issued to
field officials , but they were not
 conclusion
Unless a bold policy is matched by effective
implementation, it may not deliver fully.
The government is spending more than Rs 16,000
crores on the PMFBY, but a chalta hai attitude of
some states may spoil the show.
One needs a champion fully committed to the idea of
PMFBY to ensure its effective implementation.
Only then will it truly serve the cause of peasantry.