Q.Consider 5 dated newspaper reports (urea/fertilizer price hikes 2002, petroleum price rollback 1998, Assam debate 1983, Harijan atrocities protest 1985). What would happen without legislatures? How did legislature succeed/fail controlling the executive?

Each of these five newspaper reports shows a legislature actually doing its job — questioning, debating, or protesting a government decision in a way that would have been impossible without an elected legislature in the room.

Urea and fertiliser price hikes, 2002. The Finance Minister announced an increase in urea and fertiliser prices as part of the Union budget in February 2002. Within two weeks, under intense opposition pressure in Parliament, the government rolled back the increase. Without a legislature, a decision like this — taken entirely within the executive — would have gone into effect with no institutional forum to question it. With a legislature, opposition members used debate and pressure to force a policy reversal: a clear success for legislative control over the executive.

Petroleum price rollback, 1998. The Lok Sabha saw acrimonious scenes and an opposition walkout over a proposed hike in urea and petroleum prices, forcing the Finance Minister to roll back the increase. Even though the walkout itself cost the House valuable time, it functioned as an effective political technique that made the government back down — again showing the legislature succeeding in checking an executive decision, even through disruptive rather than purely deliberative means.

Assam debate, 1983. Facing communal violence in Assam, the Lok Sabha took the unusual step of unanimously suspending its official business to prioritise debate on the crisis, and the Home Minister made a public statement appealing for cooperation and harmony. Here the legislature succeeded in a different way — not by reversing an executive decision, but by creating space for the executive to be questioned and to respond publicly on an urgent national issue, rather than letting it be handled quietly within the bureaucracy.

Protest against Harijan atrocities, Andhra Pradesh, 1985. Congress members voiced protest in Parliament against atrocities committed on Harijans. This shows the legislature functioning as a representative forum for marginalised groups whose concerns might otherwise go unheard — success here means forcing a national issue into public and parliamentary attention, even though a single protest cannot guarantee the underlying problem is solved.

Without any legislature in these situations, each of these decisions or crises would have remained entirely within the discretion of the executive and the bureaucracy, with no institutional space for citizens' elected representatives to question, protest, or demand a reversal.