The Legislator Protection Ordinance – it’s a clear advantage Ruling Party on the issue
By: Amit Bhushan Date:28th Sept 2013
First about the mass media:
It’s easy to spot dumb or money-friendly Mass Media people (Tele or Print) in India. One can just point a finger towards anyone of the known names or faces and the chances of his being correct far exceed that of being wrong. This is because of the kind of ‘analytical assessment’ they come up with, that quite a few of them could be advised that they should concentrate on plain ‘field reporting’ of facts rather than making analytical judgment, especially so in public. The media houses after all are focusing to raise huge Private equity these days, and therefore need to have some brand value or credibility. The persons should do a self assessment to assess if they bring out their analysis because of their being either money-friendly or because they need to maintain relationships; else if they have been simply dumb especially about the issue in focus.
Now presenting social media assessment of the topic:
Let’s look at the turn of events leading to push for the above ordinance meant to protect existing Legislators. The Government of India was seized up with the matter almost as soon as the Supreme Court judgment was pronounced and all our My Baaps in Legislature were of singular opinion that the Court has intervened in their domain. Since the judgment was not innocuous and posed a ‘clear and present danger’ to the survival of professional career of some of them including some of their heavy weights, so they figured out that it should be dumped. Once decision was reached, the babus were assigned responsibility to come up with an acceptable legislation and politicians of almost all political parties were united in this stand.
Once such a bill was formulated, it was discussed at ‘all party forum’ where different parties shared their opinions and the legislation was presented to Parliament after incorporation of the views. Accordingly it was expected to sail through smoothly with majority support without much discussion since the bureaucracy still has a reputation in keeping masters happy. However, some Johnny woke up lately in Parliament managed to shake off his slumber only to point that such piece of legislation could be unconstitutional in its existing form and could be struck down by courts. The legislation was referred to the standing committee which was tasked with job to identify and fix any unconstitutional portions in a suitable manner.
Subsequent to the closure of the Law making session, the government realized that the time was running out for a few Legislators, so it rushed with the Ordinance meant to guard interest of all Legislators. Since the matter started to raise the decibel levels in media and also amongst the common people of the country, some of the parties decided they only need to extend ‘constructive or qualified support to the Law’ and dump Ordinance route on wholesale basis. The principle opposition decided to take advantage of the situation by making a public show of their disapproval for the ‘Content of the Ordinance’ threatening the passage of the Law since significant effect on any Legislator will break the unity amongst them and different parties will have different things to ‘construct’ on such a law which would delay or entirely cripple the effort for making this Law.
The Ruling dispensation knows that political parties or person yield much more easily when they fear something like a Supreme Court judgment with ruinous potential on their career. So it gives the Rulers a very strong bargaining chip since the Rulers control the investigation as well as the Lawyers who put up the counterarguments (since most cases are involving government) against the political persons. So the parties ruling at the center as well as some of the important states can afford to breathe a bit more easily over such Judgment or the new Law of the Land. The Aam Admi is also clearly against such a Legislation which negates Supreme Court judgment and gives unfair advantage to existing Legislators.
Armed with this realization, the super My Baaps of the ruling dispensation were not at all pleased with the politicking by opposition over such a Law and decided to dump the Law itself. At least the turn of events supports such a possibility which has been total missed by ‘analysis professional in mass media, in fact almost all of them’. It may cause a few Ruling Party members some trouble, but it puts much more pressure on the challengers to get rid of their skeletons in the cupboard while causing a few of smaller parties in the so called Third Front to rethink about their survival first and politicking later.
The mass media is swollen with analytics about how the Prime Minister and the government has been embarrassed and question the survival as well as continuance of the Prime Minister. Some anchors are too consumed with the ‘display of anger’ by a young scion apparently against the government and his own party leaders while the Opposition leaders are consumed with issue of humiliation of PM while he is abroad and why he should excuse himself from the government and preferable hand over the reins to them.
PS: The timing of the article may lead to conjecture that it is from some Johnny woke up lately, however Writers excuse is that he is not a media professional.
By: Amit Bhushan Date:28th Sept 2013
First about the mass media:
It’s easy to spot dumb or money-friendly Mass Media people (Tele or Print) in India. One can just point a finger towards anyone of the known names or faces and the chances of his being correct far exceed that of being wrong. This is because of the kind of ‘analytical assessment’ they come up with, that quite a few of them could be advised that they should concentrate on plain ‘field reporting’ of facts rather than making analytical judgment, especially so in public. The media houses after all are focusing to raise huge Private equity these days, and therefore need to have some brand value or credibility. The persons should do a self assessment to assess if they bring out their analysis because of their being either money-friendly or because they need to maintain relationships; else if they have been simply dumb especially about the issue in focus.
Now presenting social media assessment of the topic:
Let’s look at the turn of events leading to push for the above ordinance meant to protect existing Legislators. The Government of India was seized up with the matter almost as soon as the Supreme Court judgment was pronounced and all our My Baaps in Legislature were of singular opinion that the Court has intervened in their domain. Since the judgment was not innocuous and posed a ‘clear and present danger’ to the survival of professional career of some of them including some of their heavy weights, so they figured out that it should be dumped. Once decision was reached, the babus were assigned responsibility to come up with an acceptable legislation and politicians of almost all political parties were united in this stand.
Once such a bill was formulated, it was discussed at ‘all party forum’ where different parties shared their opinions and the legislation was presented to Parliament after incorporation of the views. Accordingly it was expected to sail through smoothly with majority support without much discussion since the bureaucracy still has a reputation in keeping masters happy. However, some Johnny woke up lately in Parliament managed to shake off his slumber only to point that such piece of legislation could be unconstitutional in its existing form and could be struck down by courts. The legislation was referred to the standing committee which was tasked with job to identify and fix any unconstitutional portions in a suitable manner.
Subsequent to the closure of the Law making session, the government realized that the time was running out for a few Legislators, so it rushed with the Ordinance meant to guard interest of all Legislators. Since the matter started to raise the decibel levels in media and also amongst the common people of the country, some of the parties decided they only need to extend ‘constructive or qualified support to the Law’ and dump Ordinance route on wholesale basis. The principle opposition decided to take advantage of the situation by making a public show of their disapproval for the ‘Content of the Ordinance’ threatening the passage of the Law since significant effect on any Legislator will break the unity amongst them and different parties will have different things to ‘construct’ on such a law which would delay or entirely cripple the effort for making this Law.
The Ruling dispensation knows that political parties or person yield much more easily when they fear something like a Supreme Court judgment with ruinous potential on their career. So it gives the Rulers a very strong bargaining chip since the Rulers control the investigation as well as the Lawyers who put up the counterarguments (since most cases are involving government) against the political persons. So the parties ruling at the center as well as some of the important states can afford to breathe a bit more easily over such Judgment or the new Law of the Land. The Aam Admi is also clearly against such a Legislation which negates Supreme Court judgment and gives unfair advantage to existing Legislators.
Armed with this realization, the super My Baaps of the ruling dispensation were not at all pleased with the politicking by opposition over such a Law and decided to dump the Law itself. At least the turn of events supports such a possibility which has been total missed by ‘analysis professional in mass media, in fact almost all of them’. It may cause a few Ruling Party members some trouble, but it puts much more pressure on the challengers to get rid of their skeletons in the cupboard while causing a few of smaller parties in the so called Third Front to rethink about their survival first and politicking later.
The mass media is swollen with analytics about how the Prime Minister and the government has been embarrassed and question the survival as well as continuance of the Prime Minister. Some anchors are too consumed with the ‘display of anger’ by a young scion apparently against the government and his own party leaders while the Opposition leaders are consumed with issue of humiliation of PM while he is abroad and why he should excuse himself from the government and preferable hand over the reins to them.
PS: The timing of the article may lead to conjecture that it is from some Johnny woke up lately, however Writers excuse is that he is not a media professional.