Enemies keep out!IT WAS passed on a hasty voice vote, with only 31 of the Rajya Sabha’s 244 members present. All were from the ruling party and ten, oddly enough, were cabinet ministers—an exceedingly rare sight on a quiet Friday afternoon, reserved by tradition for private members’ bills. The few opposition MPs at hand had walked out in protest. Their ire was warranted: the government had promised that this particular bill, which the Upper House had already blocked both on the floor and in committee, would not be tabled.
Mr Modi’s government has shown a strange determination to pass the bill. Five times—a first for India—since coming to power in 2014 it has imposed the law as a presidential “ordinance”, a legal sleight of hand left over from the British Raj that allows governments to impose laws by decree as long as they are confirmed by parliament within six months.
The ponderous title of the stealth legislation is the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Act. It revises an already controversial law, passed in 1968, which allowed the Indian state to seize properties owned by its...Continue reading
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