National Advisory Council (India)

The National Advisory Council (NAC) of India was a body set up by the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to advise the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh. Sonia Gandhi served as its chairperson for much of the tenure of the UPA. Its aim was to assist the Prime Minister in achieving and monitoring missions and goals.

National Advisory Council
Agency overview
Formed4 June 2004
Dissolved25 May 2014
JurisdictionGovernment of India
HeadquartersNew Delhi
Agency executive
WebsiteOfficial site

History

The NAC was set up on 4 June 2004 by prime minister Manmohan Singh, during the tenure of the first UPA government.[1]

Organization (2010–2014)

The NAC - II consisted of a mix of activists, bureaucrats, economists, politicians and industrialists-

The members who served on the NAC and later resigned are

Achievements

The NAC was responsible for the drafting of several key bills passed by both UPA governments, including the Right to Information Act, Right to Education Act, MNREGA, and the Food Security Bill.

Criticisms

The concept of a NAC has been criticised by opposition parties and some scholars as not being in keeping with India's constitution, because of the possibility that it might emerge as an alternative cabinet.[6][7][8][9] However an alternative view was that the existence of the NAC could kill the thread of democracy by facilitating greater pre-legislative/pre-policy consultation.[10] The NAC also finalised draft recommendations for a mandatory pre-legislative consultative process which led to believe that constituted members of parliament are less important than some biased bureaucrats.[11] which will literally kill the idea of democracy.[12] It was heavily criticised for drafting the communal violence bill in 2011.[13] The NAC was also accused of exercising all the prime ministerial powers rather than letting Manmohan Singh to exercising them. The council ceased to exist when the BJP government took office after the 2014 Indian general elections.

References
  1. "Sonia Gandhi returns as Head of National Advisory Council (NAC)". NDTV. 29 March 2009. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  2. "About Us: Planning Commission, Government of India". Planningcommission.nic.in. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  3. "Shri Ashis Mondal, Member NAC". National Advisory Council, Government of India. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  4. Smita Gupta (10 June 2010). "Manmohan acknowledges key role of NAC". The Hindu. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  5. Jayaprakash Narayan (Lok Satta)
  6. Archived 22 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Mathew Idiculla (2 June 2010). "NAC: think tank, super cabinet or unconstitutional?". GovernanceNow.com. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  8. "'Formation Of Nac Unconstitutional; Sonia Super PM'". Financial Express. 19 July 2004. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  9. "Sonia as NAC head is psuedo-Constitutional [sic] power centre: BJP". Indian Express. 30 March 2010. Archived from the original on 8 January 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2016. BJP on Tuesday said that Congress President Sonia Gandhi's appointment as Chairperson of National Advisory Council has created a 'psuedo-Constitutional power centre' which would lead to 'redundancy' of the post of Prime Minister.
  10. "624 Comment". India-seminar.com. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  11. Archived 12 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  12. "Laws for citizens, and by them too". Indian Express. 20 May 2013. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  13. R. Jagannathan, "9 reasons why the Communal Violence Bill is itself communal", Firstpost, 30 May 2011.
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