Indian Parliament: A Critical Study of Its Evolution, Composition and Working

The organization and working of the national legislature, commonly known as the ‘Parliament’ has been a subject of momentous study and research at the hand of social and political scientists as well as jurists and statesmen. The ‘Parliament’ is regarded as ‘nation in miniature’. It reflects the will of the sovereign people. The institution of Parliament makes the universally celebrated statement a reality that ‘the voice of people is the voice of God’. However, a thoroughly empirical study of this subject informs a scholar to treat it as ‘a city colonized by specific interests’. The infiltration of undesirable elements into it smacks of the degeneration of this noble institution and so a serious student of modern democracies like Lord James Bryce bemoans at its ‘decline’, while Michael Crutis frankly asserts that its ‘golden era is over’. And yet the real value of this institution stands out and its remedial measures are put forth by the lovers of representative democracy to mend it. In this monograph an attempt has been made to study the case of Indian Parliament in the light of its evolution, organization and working in a critical manner with the help of original and secondary sources so as to highlight its pivotal position in the constitutional system of the country and the need for eradicating the baleful situation in which it has now been caught up owing to the absence of effective statutory arrangements as well as healthy conventions.