That Which Shall Not be Named: Questioning the Taboo of Lobbying in the Indian Polity

Abstract

Lobby groups exert strong influence on the formulation of public policies across all major democratic political systems. The more pluralist democracies, which are open to several competing interests, witness higher degree of interest groups functioning. Such ubiquity, however, is coupled with an increasing crisis in terms of declining public legitimacy, transparency and accountability. As a global practice, legal regulation is employed as the fundamental approach to bring the requisite transparency and legitimacy to the lobbying process. India, as a transitional political economy, witnesses substantive deterioration in its public sphere and legislative activity. Lobbying comes across as a taboo in debates around the workings of the Indian polity. The paper proposes recognition and regulation of lobbying as the next generation reform to revive the declining standards of policy debates.