Ordinance route breaches trust of people, says Prez

New Delhi, January 25

After cautioning the government against taking the ordinance route, President Pranab Mukherjee today did some plain speaking, saying enacting laws without discussions “breaches the trust” reposed by people and is not good for democracy.

In his address on the eve of 66th Republic Day, Mukherjee spoke about the importance of legislature and said after three decades, people had voted a single party to majority for having a stable government.

“The voter has played her part; it is now up to those who have been elected to honour this trust. It was a vote for clean, efficient, effective, gender-sensitive, transparent, accountable and citizen-friendly governance,” he said.

Dwelling upon the role of legislature, the President said it was a “platform where progressive legislations using civilised dialogue” which must create delivery mechanism for realising the aspirations of people and also reconciling the differences among all stakeholders before enacting laws.

“Enacting laws without discussion impacts the law-making role of the Parliament. It breaches the trust reposed in it by the people. This is neither good for the democracy nor for the policies relating to those laws,” he said.

Amid campaign on issues like conversion, the President deplored the "competition in hysteria" and said religion cannot be made a cause of conflict.

Asserting that Constitution is the holy book of democracy, he said Indian civilisation had always celebrated pluralism, advocated tolerance and promoted good will between diverse communities. — PTI