This refers to the report, “Aruna writes to Sonia on PM's MGNREGA call” (May 30), and the editorial, “Disband the NAC for good” (May 31).
The reason cited by activist Aruna Roy for quitting the National Advisory Council is that the Prime Minister rejected the panel’s recommendations on the payment of minimum wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The NAC is an extra-constitutional body which acts as a ‘super cabinet’ to that of the Union Cabinet. Chaired by the Congress president, it consists of activists, retired bureaucrats and industrialists who enjoy power without accountability in violation of the constitutional scheme of parliamentary democracy.
But it is also worth remembering that when Anna Hazare had proposed the Jan lokpal Bill, he was told that law-making is the sole prerogative of parliamentarians. Yet, when the NAC came up with
MGNREGA or even the National Food Security Bill, there was no hue and cry by the Cabinet and the parliamentarians.