Farm bills in the parliament: impact of farmers protest and the democratisation of legislative process in India

Title

Farm bills in the parliament: impact of farmers protest and the democratisation of legislative process in India

Creator

Georgekutty M.V.; Varghese P.

Description

This research article analyses the impact of the farmers agitation on the legislative process in India. The Indian farmers protest against the 2020 Indian Agriculture Reform Acts, dubbed as Kala Kanoon (black laws), not only voiced dissatisfaction with the contents of the farm bills but also confronted the undemocratic legislative practices. We provide descriptive evidence by discussing five major dimensions of the impact of the protest and the outcome i.e. the repeal of the laws. First, the protest movement and the resultant repeal helped discern a valuable public policy lesson to abandon top-down policy-making. Second, the protest questioned the bureaucratic approach to legislation that excluded the primary stakeholder group from policy-making. Third, it revealed the diminished role of the legislature and the concentration of power in the executive. Fourth, it exposed vulnerabilities in the parliamentary system when the ruling party holds a brute majority. Fifth, the protest emphasized the importance of state autonomy and legislative accountability to hold the executive accountable. We conclude with the summation of the major arguments from the discussion by highlighting the implications of the farmers movement for Indias future legislative processes. 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Source

Theory and Practice of Legislation, Vol-12, No. 2, pp. 206-228.

Date

2024-01-01

Publisher

Taylor and Francis Ltd.

Subject

Centre-State Relations; Democratisation; Farmer's Protest; Indian Parliament; Legislative practice; Majoritarianism; National Populism

Coverage

Georgekutty M.V., Department of International Studies, Political Science and History, Christ University, Delhi, India; Varghese P., Department of International Studies, Political Science and History, Christ University, Delhi, India, United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, Tokyo, Japan

Rights

Restricted Access

Relation

ISSN: 20508840

Format

Online

Language

English

Type

Article

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2024.2351319

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85193030771&doi=10.1080%2f20508840.2024.2351319&partnerID=40&md5=cd3455a712d42931c4bd19b9762f1512