Parliamentary Committees: Examining the Historical Evolution, Significance and Decline in Modern Governance

The functioning of Indian parliamentary committees has clearly deteriorated over the last decades, with their recommendations frequently ignored and their influence on legislation reduced. Therefore, this paper seeks to determine the importance of parliamentary committees in India’s political landscape and reflects how these committees have been relinquished thereby, compromising their effectiveness. In essence, these committees form the backbone of India’s parliamentary democracy and their relevance lies in their fundamental role as mechanisms for accountability and informed decision making. However, this marginalization of Parliamentary Committees poses a severe threat to the state of democracy in India. A number of issues including executive dominance, procedural bottlenecks and political polarization have undermined their significance. Thus, without robust oversight mechanisms in place there is heightened risk of governmental overreach corruption and neglect of citizens’ interest. To preserve the democratic fabric, it is therefore imperative to strengthen the role and functioning of the parliamentary committee system. To achieve this, it is essential to draw insights from the practices that other nations have implemented. India can, for that reason, analyze and identify the working of the committee system in other countries to enhance its own system and implement much needed reforms. Only by revitalizing parliamentary committees can India ensure efficient governance, transparency and protection of interests of the general public in the contemporary political landscape.