DILUTING BILLS- OPPOSITION AND PUBLIC OPINION PREJUDICED TO BE IGNORED ? Parliament is bulldozing amendments to Bills in double quick time. After the Tripple Talak and RTI amendments, it is now the turn of the Consumer Protection Act.l. This was another excellent public interest oriented legislation like the RTI brought after wide public deliberation and discussions, strictly vetted by Parliament before implementation, and working well for the public before vested interests started sabotaging it during implementation! There were now intelligent suggestions and clarifications to the Bill sought in the Lok Sabha by Shashi Tharoor of Congress and Rajiv Pratap Rudi of the BJP. The rebuttal by the concerned minister were that several points raised by members would be considered when drafting the rules and High and Supreme Courts were available to consumers disatisfied with the consumer courts. This sounds ridiculous to me since the very reason of existance of Consumer Courts was freedom from cumbersome and expensive other courts! Here time limit for a case was generally specified as 3 months and there was no need for lawyers compulsarily. The government also says jails in the national capital region have ganglords incarcerated operating through WhataApp, so instead of ensuring criminals in jail do not get mobiles smuggled in, they blame the WahtsApp service! The public is fed up and suffering due stray dog and cattle menace, most MLAs urge CM Dr Sawant to come out with a comprehensive mechanism to control this menace, but nothing specific decided! When a pot hole repair machine is mentioned, the concerned minister reportedly says if such machine if acquired, will have maintenance problems! Now the BJP has passed a Medical Bill in the Lok Sabha and the doctors are on strike before the Rajya Sabha rubber stamps it! The people are assured by the Home Minister who is forcefully pushing these Bills, that these draconian provisions being introduced will not be misused. The UNAO rape case handling under the watch of Yogi Adityanath, widely reported leaves us little hope. The victim girl is on ventilator after two years of harassment and family almost wiped out! We have the Zomato shocking case where the client ordering food reportedly thinks it is his right to reject a Muslim delivery boy and demand only a Hindu person delivery since it is Shravan and feels his religion demands it and all must bow! Luckily Zomato stood firm, backed by all sensible Indians denouncing this extreme bigotry and arrogance! There will probably not be a word from the BJP/RSS big brass, since Yogi is their poster boy and Hindutva their ultimate aim?
