NITI AYOG: All you need to know

What is NITI Aayog?

First of all the NITI stands for National Institution for Transforming India. It is a non- constitutional body established on January 1, 2015 replacing age-old, planning commission of India. 

NITI Aayog is a think tank (or an advice and planning committee) of Government of India formed mainly to provide both directional and policy inputs. This has been framed by scraping out the ‘Planning commission’, which used to make 5 years plans and distribution of finance for various state and central plans. Being an advisory committee, while designing strategic and long term policies and programmes for the Government of India, NITI Aayog also provides relevant technical advice to the Centre and States. The first meeting of  NITI Aayog was held on February 8, 2015.

Most of us will have a common question ie. Is NITI Aayog a constitutional body?, as mentioned earlier NITI Aayog is neither a constitutional body nor a statutory body, It is Non- constitutional body/non- statutory with structure as explained below.

Quick facts, before moving further: All government bodies are divided into three types. those are, 1.Constitutional body: Any government body or organization which has been created after its mention in constitution and it is most important body among all. example: election commission of India 2.Statutory body: any body which has been formed after an act/law has been passed by the parliament/assembly. example: SEBI(Securities and Exchange Board of India) 3.Non-constitutional: any and non- statuary body which has been formed by the government with an agenda to fulfill and for ease of governing, generally these bodies will be converted into statutory. example: NITI Aayog

Body and Members of NITI Aayog:

Unlike Planning commission NITI Aayog is a body with bottom up approach in advisory method. Whre the planning ideas and suggestions comes from lower most elements of the body. The Headquarter of Aayog is at Delhi with Prime minister being chairperson of the body. The prime minister himself choses other parts of this organization. Those parts include a vice chairman, a chief executive officer, four ex-official members and two part-time members.

Chief ministers of all states/Delhi/Puduchery and Lt. governors of union territories are  permanent members of the commission and this is also governing and regional council of the body.  Temporary members are generally chosen from various leading universities and research institutes of the country. 

For easy understanding the structure is schematically explained below,

NITI Aayog structure

Current body constitutes of,

POST	PERSON
Chairperson	Shri Narendra Modi, Hon'ble Prime Minister
Vice Chairperson	Dr. Rajiv Kumar
CEO	Shri Amitabh Kant
Full-Time Members	(i) Shri V.K. Saraswat (ii) Prof. Ramesh Chand (iii) Dr. V. K. Paul
Ex-officio Members	(i) Shri Raj Nath Singh, Minister of Defence (ii) Shri Amit Shah, Minister of Home Affairs (iii) Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs (iv) Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare;Minister of Rural Development; Minister of Panchayati Raj.
Special Invitees	(i) Shri Nitin Jairam Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways; Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (ii) ShriThaawar Chand Gehlot, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment. (iii) Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways; and Minister of Commerce and Industry (iv) Shri Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and Minister of State(Independent Charge) of Ministry of Planning.
Permanent members	Chief ministers of all states/Delhi/Puduchery and Lt. governors of union territories.

Besides all other structures, There are mainly two types of Hubs in NITI Aayog, those are,

1) Team India Hub: which mainly engages states with center.

2) Knowledge and Innovation Hub: this forms the main think tank of the commission.

The detailed functions of NITI Ayog are given below

Functions of NITI Aayog:

The NITI Aayog is mainly an advisory committee which does not hold any financial decision making /distribution power. As mentioned earlier, unlike Planning commission of India, the NITI Aayog follows bottom up approach for its discussions hence it emphasizes state's involvement in it. "Collaboration of center with states in planning" would be right words to use here.  

The following are main functions of it.

1. Prioritizing shared sectors and strategies with active participation of states. 

2. To foster cooperative federalism through structured support initiatives and mechanisms with the States on a continuous basis, recognizing that strong States make a strong nation.

3. Planning to development of village and lower level to empower it for its active participation in future decisions.

4. To ensure, on areas that are specifically referred to it, that the interests of national security are incorporated in economic strategy and policy.

5. To pay special attention to the sections of our society that may be at risk of not benefiting adequately from economic progress.

6. To make long term plans and involving feedback collection of it, mainly to innovate it, if there is scope to do so.

7.  To provide advice and encourage partnerships between key stakeholders and national and international like-minded Think tanks, as well as educational and policy research institutions.

8. To create a knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurial support system through a collaborative community of national and international experts, practitioners and other partners.

9. It is also frames a platform to resolve inter-sectoral and inter departmental issues to accelerate development and growth of the nation.

10.  To maintain a 'state-of-the-art' Resource Center, be a repository of research on good governance and best practices in sustainable and equitable development as well as help their dissemination to stake-holders.

11. To actively monitor and evaluate the implementation of programmes and initiatives, including the identification of the needed resources so as to strengthen the probability of success and scope of delivery.

12.Mainly it has vision to support and plan the technology upgrading plans of the country.

13. To undertake other activities as may be necessary in order to further the execution of the national development agenda, and the objectives mentioned above.

How NITI Aayog is different from planning commission?

Most of you might have got a question like, if the NITI Aayog replaced the Planning commission what are the major difference between them?

Planning Commission follows top down model while NITI Aayog follows bottom up approach.

Unlike Planning Commission it is only a advisory committee and it does not make any financial division and most importantly five years plan scheme being cut down from PC (last five years plan was from 2012-17)

Quick facts, before moving further: Planning Commission: Planning commision famously known as 'Yojana Aayog' was a commision mainly formed, concentrating on developement of the country in various sectors. It was established on 15th March 1950 by Prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru. This commission is being mainly known for one of its functioning  that is 'Five year Plan'. The '12th five years plan(2012 - 2017)' was last of it.  It was scrapped in 2014 by  NDA government to form NITI Aayog. It was considerably quite successful body with emphasis on social reforms.                                                                                                     To read more about it click HERE

If you have any query/ feedback/ suggestions, please feel free to comment down below.

WHAT IS EMERGENCY(National Emergency)? its types and effects: All you need to know

Emergency is a state, which is proclaimed in the country when it will become difficult for national or state administration/government to handle any particular situation. so far it has been proclaimed thrice in the country. The provisions and consequences of emergency are mentioned in article 352 to 360 of Indian constitution. These provisions empowers government to handle any crucial situations effectively. During the emergency period, the administration will be converted into unitary system from federal structure of it without any formal amendment to constitution.

This kind of transformation of the political system from federal during normal times to unitary during Emergency is a unique feature of the Indian Constitution. In this context, Dr B R Ambedkar observed in that:

"All federal systems including American are placed in a tight mold of federalism. No matter what the circumstances, it cannot change its form and shape. It can never be unitary. On the other hand, the Constitution of India can be both unitary as well as federal according to the requirements of time and circumstances without any formal amendments. In normal times, it is framed to work as a federal system. But in times of Emergency, it is so designed as to make it work as though it was a unitary system."

The emergencies are announced  mainly based on three criteria. In general words these are called three types of emergency. Those are as enlisted below,

Sl. No.	Emergency	Name	Article
1	Emergency due to external war or armed rebellion	National emergency	352
2	Emergency due to failure of constitutional conduct in states	state emergency, presidents rule	356
3	The emergency called due to financial instability	financial emergency	360

info-graphics of emergency

Let’s discuss all of them in detail one after other by answering some commonly asked questions,

National emergency:

  The national emergency can be declared in whole or any part of country on grounds of internal disturbance or armed rebellion and during war or so-called external aggression as mentioned in article 352.

The national emergency can be mainly divided into two types, those are,

1) Internal emergency: caused by aggression of internal opposing or radical forces

2) External emergency: caused by external aggression or war.

  President with written recommendation from cabinet (not prime minister alone) announces this type of emergency.
After proclamation, it has to be approved by both the houses of parliament within a month of proclamation.
 Once the its is approved, the emergency will withstand for six months and can be extended with further approval.
 The proclamation can revoked by president at any time without any recommendation or approval.
As an effect of this many changes will be done in governance as mentioned in article 352, those are mainly,

     1.     Suspension of fundamental rights: the fundamental rights and freedoms are suspended  except those mentioned in article 20 and 21.

      Article number 20 and 21 comes under fundamental rights of Indian constitution, 

Quick facts, before moving further

ARTICLE 20:  Protection in respect of conviction for offenses: (1) No person shall be convicted of any offense except for violation of a law in force at the time of the commission of the Act charged as an offense, nor be subjected to a penalty greater than that which might have been inflicted under the law in force at the time of the commission of the offense. (2) No person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offense more than once. (3) No person accused of any offense shall be compelled to be a witness against himself. ARTICLE 21: Protection of life and personal liberty: No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.

2. Empowering of president to rule: as mentioned above during emergencies the federal of governing will be converted into unitary system. By this the state’s executive, financial and legislative decisions are taken by President.

and

3. The life of LokaSabha can be extended beyond it normal term (ie. 5years): By considering the inability to conduct elections and need for the moment the term of Lokasabha can be extended if needed.

For example, the term of the Fifth Lok Sabha (1971–1977) was extended two times by one year at a time.

  Declarations Made So Far: So far, the national emergency has been declared thrice. Those are as follows,

Sl.No.	year	type	cause
1	1962-68	external aggression/war	Indo-sino border conflict at northeast India
2	1971	external aggression/war	India -Pakistan (Bangladesh liberation war) war was called
3	1975-77	internal disturbance	there was a huge internal disturbance caused after Indira Gandhi’s suit on political malpractice.

1975’s national emergency is called as mumps or black days of Indian politics, which lead to so many injustice. this emergency was solely decided by Ms. Gandhi without consulting her cabinet.
To read more about it click HERE

Precedent’s rule/state emergency:

The characteristics of the state emergency/president’s rule are quite similar to national emergency but it is proclaimed in state level. The president’s rule is implacable in any state when there is failure in constitutional machinery in the state (as mentioned in article 356). The failures are generally failure to form majority during government formation or failure to maintain state’s legislature/execution/financial items per the constitutional provisions by the state government. Hence, it is also called as “constitutional emergency”

Similar to national emergency after the president’s rule proclamation it has to be approved by both the houses of parliament but unlike national emergency the approval has to be done within two months. The revocation can be done at any time by president without any formal approval. Once the president’s rule is imposed it withstands for 6 months. It can be extended with the approval of both the houses of parliament and satisfying following conditions

1) The Nation emergency is in operation.

And

2) The election commission must certify the inability of it to conduct MLA elections (assembly elections) in that particular state.

Consequently, the governance of state with respect to state’s legislature/execution/financial are done with the help of GOVERNER.

To see the list of instances at which the presidents’ rule has been imposed CLICK HERE. 

Financial Emergency:

The article 360 gives power to president in proclaiming the financial emergency. The financial emergency is imposed when there in economic instability in the nation or in any part of it. The instability could be caused mostly by crisis caused by credit of the country or sudden boom or depression in the economical curves.

Like the other emergencies the financial emergency also needs approval from both the houses of the parliament and the period given for approval is 2 months. Once it is approved by both the houses Financial Emergency can continue indefinitely until it is revoked.

This implies two things:

1. there is no maximum period prescribed for its operation; and

2. repeated parliamentary approval is not required for its continuation.

and moreover it only needs simple majority(ie. vote more than 50%).

like other emergencies financial emergency also does not require any approval while revoking it.

Effects of Financial Emergency;
There are so many minor and major effects on financial emergency. considerable among are the financial authority of cent re extends to all the states, allowing it to decide state's financial matters. Any decision such as reduction of salaries of persons serving to state or central govt. can be taken.
and many other.

Till now no Financial Emergency has been declared so far, though there was a

financial crisis in 1991.

Quick Fact: What if Lokasabha gets dissolved without giving approval? Even though its a very rare possibility, there is a provision mentioned in the constitution for this. If the Lokasabha will get dissolved without giving its approval for the proclaimed emergency, (it may be any of the above mentioned types) the emergency will hold valid for 30 days from its date of announcement.

If you have any query/suggestion/feedback please comment down below.

National emergency 1975: you must know about this darkest period in Indian politics

India has so far seen so many acts of greed in its governance, post independence. In that, proclamation of National emergency in 1975 was also one among them. Which might astonish you by enlightening, how one can declare state of emergency nationwide to secure her own seat in the parliament. Yes, I am talking about our veteran-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Who is also known for her incredible leadership skills by leading the nation during 1971’s Indo-Pak war.

In this article let us try to understand, what had caused those 21 dark months in history from 1975 to 1977 and what were the consequences of it.

Background and cause:

Rise of Indira as Prime minister; Being a daughter of one of the fore fathers of Indian Politics (ie. Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru) Indira Gandhi was selected as prime minister after death of Shri Lal Bahudur Shastri.

In 1971 it was Prime Minister Gandhi’s second term's election; she had won the election from Rae Bareilly constituency of Uttar Pradesh against Raj Narain and formed government with majority. Later Narain at Allahabad High court alleging electoral malpractice challenged the election of Ms. Gandhi. The case stood against Mrs.Gandhi and she had lost the case. Because of which her election had been considered “NULL and VOID” and Indira Gandhi was barred from contesting in any of the elections for next six years. Congress was given with 20 days to select new prime minister to replace her position. This was kind of triggering point which had caused all chaos.

What was the situation like?

After losing the case, Prime minister appealed in Supreme Court for reconsideration of the case. Supreme Court gave stand by to it and allowed Mrs. Gandhi to assume the office. By the time of this, major leaders from opposition like Murarji desai, Jayprakash Narayan, Raj Narain and even Atal Bihari Vajapai were protesting against the government. They were mentioning Indira is governing the country as a dictator and more or the less it was appearing so.

Considering intensity of opposition Indira Gandhi suggested then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to proclaim the emergency without consulting her cabinet. After which under article 352, President Ali Ahmed officially issued the state of emergency on 25 June of 1975. Until which, the cabinet ministers were never allowed to discuss about it. In fact, they were informed a day after and just hours before announcement of emergency on All India Radio.

Because of emergency, the fundamental rights were curbed and civil liberties were suspended. The plans to eliminate major oppositions were framed by Sanjay Gandhi (second son of Indira Gandhi) and as per it, on the early hours 26^th of June major leaders were arrested. By using Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) the opposition was eliminated and it was time to rule to the core of brutality. Within a month, whole nation was covered with darkness. Press were censored (in fact blocked for approximately 2 days soon after implementation of emergency), arrested men were beaten in jail, and random men were caught to sterilize. As a result of it, the economic status of the country went down.

Quick facts, before moving further

Sterilization of poor: The sterilization project for population growth control (in turn economical strengthening ) is one of the significant step taken by Govt. in 1976 by Sanjay Gandhi. The project was initially focusing on sterilization men with more 3 children. Later, as rules were tightened it became more of maintaining count in the govt records. Thousands of poor men ranging from 15-80 years age were brutally pulled by police to sterilize without any prior notice. Just imagine the situation no freedom speech, no rights, innocence, poverty to the core and more over that fear of getting forcefully sterilized as a stray dog.

 Mean while she had also brought so many major changes in the constitution (39^th 42^nd and 43^rd amendments) in favor of her and this had forced Supreme Court to give verdict in same manner which was as desired by “the lady”. People also had started calling the new constitution as “constitution of Indira”.

Indira’s justification for emergency and amendments: 

As there is always the other side of coin, Prime Minister Indira also had justification for the tragedy, which she had created. She claimed that the situation was uncontrollable and was a threat to national security. She also told that she wanted to bring up the economical state of the nation by implementing “the twenty point plan”. 

By the way, there were so many named leaders too who had supported this emergency proclamation stating it was just a period of maintenance of discipline.

Post emergency period:

On 21 April 1977, the emergency was revoked and fresh elections were held in.

Moraji Desai became first ever non-congress prime minister of India and Janata party has started its journey. After which the government took many more corrective steps to bring back the constitution as it was, like by passing 44^th amendment act, replacing MISA and by bringing other administrative changes.

Mainly Shah Commission was appointed to investigate faults and misuse of emergency provision. After investigation it found misusing of authority in proclamation of emergency. The home ministry passed an order to arrest Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi and subsequently canceling her legislature. This arrest kinda gave her opportunity to gain sympathy of citizen. After which she supposedly started giving apologizing speeches.

 As the Janata party's government was new to the game and as the party was baby born out of coalition of so many small parties it was quite inefficient. Grabbing all the opportunities at right time Ms. Gandhi formed the government in subsequent elections and got back the office as Prime Minister. 

PIL: litigation to bring social reform.

Full form of PIL is Public Interest Litigation. It is also known in various other names as Social Action Litigation (SAL), Social Interest Litigation (SIL) and Class Action Litigation (CAL).

Background: 

The PIL was introduced initially in Unites states in 1960s to ensure justice equality among its citizens as in giving socially backward and culturally/religiously minor groups an equal chance to find justice in courts.

Supreme Court of India has introduced PIL in early 80s. The PIL made its first move in India after Kapila Hingorani had filed petition on behalf of Bihar prisoners, where prisoner’s hearings had been delayed by years and so many of them were serving extra time in there. The petition contained cases of many prisoners who had appealed for fast hearing of their cases. Justice P. N. Bhagwati and Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer are first judges to allow hearing of PIL in Supreme Court.

As the above case suggests Kapila Hingorani did not have any personal interest in filing this case and fundamental rights of a group of people were violated. As featured in this case the PIL is the case filed directly at supreme or high court with some public interest, when and where fundamental rights of mass of people were disturbed. Generally, that mass of people are poor/socially backward/culturally or religiously minors.

Details about PIL has been discussed below by answering few common questions

What is PIL?

PIL(Public Interest Litigation) is a case filed by any individual/NGO/any group with some public interest directly to supreme or high court. This is filed generally during fundamental right/freedom violations, made by any governmental or non-governmental organizations. This can also be filed by keeping environmental safety in mind.

The Supreme Court has defined the PIL as “a legal process initiated in a court of law for the enforcement of public interest or general interest in which the public or a class of the community have pecuniary interest or some interest by which their legal rights or liabilities are affected.”

As there is no direct mention of PIL in any of the legal statute its call of chief justice (or all justices the court) to consider any case as PIL and conduct hearing it as one.

The main agenda of PIL are facilitating justice to poor/socially backward sections and to realize values of fundamental rights. Since after its introduction it has ended so many injustices and brought social reforms accordingly.  Vishaka vs State of Rajasthan case, M. C. Mehta vs Union of India case, case filed against 2G scam and ADHAR privacy are some notable and famous cases filed under PIL.

Who can apply ?

Any person/group with adequate public interest can file petition to supreme or high court directly. The person/group, who is applying the case, strictly should not have any personal interest (or profit in mind). Such simpleton cases are not entertained too. If the case is found so the petitioner might also have to pay penalty.

After considering counts of silly cases filed overtimes and misuse of PIL for publicity and other avidity Supreme Court has made 10 categories of petitions, which are allowed to file. Those are as listed below.

1.  Bonded labor matters.
2.  Neglected children can be represented.
3.  Non-payment of minimum wages to workers and exploitation of casual workers and complaints of violation of Labor Laws (except in individual cases)
4.  Petitions from jails complaining of harassment done by jailers, for pre-mature release and seeking release after having completed 14 years in jail, death in jail, transfer, release on personal bond, speedy trial as a fundamental right.
5.  Petitions against police force for refusing to register a case, harassment by police and death in police custody.
6.  Petitions against atrocities on women, in particular harassment of bride, bride-burning, rape, murder, kidnapping, etc.
7.  Petitions complaining of harassment or torture of villagers by co-villagers or by police from persons belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes and economically backward classes
8.  Petitions pertaining to environmental pollution, disturbance of ecological balance, drugs, food adulteration, maintenance of heritage and culture, antiques, forest and wild life and other matters of public importance.
9.  Petitions from riot-victims.
10.  Family pension.

The cases falling under the following categories will not be entertained as PIL:

1. Landlord and tenant issues.

2. Service matter and those pertaining to pension and gratuity.

3. Complaints against Central/ State Government departments and Local bodies except above mentioned items (1 to 10).

4. Admission to medical and various other educational institutions.

5. Petitions for early hearing of cases pending in High Courts and subordinate/local Courts.

As all coins will have two sides, PIL too has its own set of merits and demerits. Some of them are listed down below,

Merits:

•        As PIL is mainly acting as tool of empowering under privileged citizens of the country, it is considered as a weapon of social reform.
•          PIL gives chance to raise questions wherever the things are not right.
•       Environmental protection by checking on harmful projects.

Demerits:

The major demerit of PIL is misusing it as a tool of getting fame, publicity, money and attention. Most of the times the PIL are used for blackmailing as the PIL can be filed comparatively at low cost, hence frivolous cases can be filed and misused easily.

Comment down your opinions and queries if you have any.