They are either too busy debating a 60-year-old cartoon or walking out of the House over dubious deals - the rare show of solidarity when the Parliament completed its 60 years notwithstanding. The common citizens, meanwhile (at least those who had TV), were being subjected to one of the most televangelical moments on Indian TV when actor Aamir Khan was taking the nation through the murky terrain of its chequered record on gender equality or child abuse. There has been outrage, shock and a widespread desire to change things since May 6 when the show first aired.
Social change needs laws. And laws are made by legislators elected by us either to the Parliament or the State Assemblies. However, laws are made according to the promises made by a party or an alliance in their manifesto. Manifestos, as we know them, are largely populist documents which do not always talk about contentious or sensitive issues like child abuse, casteism, honour killing, corruption etc. Yet, such issues influence and affect almost every Indian and therefore must be addressed. That is where Private Bills come in, which are pieces of legislation proposed by MPs who are not ministers in a Parliament. In other words, any MP, whether or not he or she is in the ruling party, can propose a Private Bill. More on that later.
Let's first see the kind of impact Satyamev Jayate has made and why our MPs need to sit up and take note of it. In barely two weeks since the show started to air on our TV sets at 11 am on Sunday mornings, Satyamev Jayate is already being considered India's most revolutionary TV spectacle ever. Its host, also known as 'the thinking actor', has come a long way from the QS-cutie image he developed after his runaway hit Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak almost 25 years ago. Aamir, through the show, has reached out to various government agencies in order to address the contentious social issues he raises in his show.
Aamir knows - and we do too - that any resolution to widespread social malaise like female infanticide or child sex abuse requires a law. Of course there is already a law on female infanticide, albeit inadequate, as we saw in the case of more than a hundred doctors who were never booked for the crime in Rajasthan. The bill on child sex abuse was passed by the Parliament on May 10, something that Aamir didn't know during the show which was aired on May 13 and of course, recorded much before that.
However, there are many such issues that the show might raise in future. There is, for example, no proper legislation to check the heinous practice of so-called 'honour killing' rampant across the nation. Or against corruption, despite a strong social movement against it. Or a more stringent law to check caste violence and discrimination, which despite the great Indian success story, remains a blot on our social fabric.
That is where the Private Members' bill might come handy, if the politicians have the moral courage to take them up. Every Member of Parliament, who is not a minister, is called a Private Member. Private Members' Bills are bills introduced by these MPs. In Lok Sabha, the last two-and-a-half hours of a sitting every Friday is generally allotted for the transaction of private members' business, i.e. private members' bills and private members' resolutions.
Till date, Parliament has passed only 14 private members' bills. Six of these were passed in 1956 alone. In the current term of the Parliament, 264 private members' bills have been introduced in Lok Sabha and 160 in Rajya Sabha. Of these, only 14 have been discussed in Lok Sabha and 11 in Rajya Sabha so far.
Only 14 private members' bills passed so far in India's history while more than a thousand introduced since 1952? That's a profound and unfortunate statement on the willingness of the Indian political class to address real issues. Will they rise above petty factionalism and political ambitions, seize the moment and for once, talk about issues that can make the country a better place?
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