The National Advisory Council (NAC) of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

was a unconstitutional body set up by the first

United Progressive Alliance United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is a centre-left political alliance of predominantly left-leaning political parties in India. It was formed after the 2004 general election with support from left-leaning political parties when no single party ...

(UPA) government to advise the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh. Sonia Gandhi served as its

chairperson The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

for much of the tenure of the UPA. It assists the Institute in achieving and monitoring its mission and goals.

History

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

Organization (2010–2014)

The NAC - II consisted of a mix of activists, bureaucrats, economists, politicians and industrialists. * Sonia Gandhi - Chairperson * Mihir Shah - Member, Planning Commission * Narendra Jadhav - former bureaucrat & Member, Planning Commission * Ashis Mondal - Director of Action for Social Advancement (ASA), Bhopal * Prof. Pramod Tandon - Vice Chancellor, North Eastern Hill University * Deep Joshi - social activist *

Farah Naqvi Farah Naqvi is an Indian writer, consultant and activist. A post-graduate from Columbia University, she works on gender and minority rights from both a justice and development perspective. She was a member of the National Advisory Council. She i ...

- social activist * Dr. N. C. Saxena - former bureaucrat * Anu Aga - businessperson * A. K. Shiva Kumar - economist * Mirai Chatterjee - Coordinator, SEWA, Ahmedabad The members who served on the NAC and later resigned are * Aruna Roy - former bureaucrat * Prof. M.S. Swaminathan - agricultural scientist and MP * Dr. Ram Dayal Munda - MP * Jean Dreze - development economist *

Harsh Mander Harsh Mander (born 17 April 1955) is an Indian author, columnist, researcher, teacher, and social activist who started the Karwan-e-Mohabbat campaign in solidarity with the victims of communal or religiously motivated violence. He is the Dire ...

- author, columnist, researcher, teacher, and social activist *

Madhav Gadgil Madhav Dhananjaya Gadgil (born 24 May 1942) is an Indian ecologist, academic, writer, columnist and the founder of the ''Centre for Ecological Sciences'', a research forum under the aegis of the Indian Institute of Science. He is a former memb ...

- ecologist * Jaya prakash Narayan (Lok Satta)- former bureaucrat

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, Employee Guarantee Act, and the

Food Security Bill The National Food Security Act 2013, also known as Right to Food Act, is an Indian Act of Parliament which aims to provide subsidized food grains to approximately two thirds of the country's 1.2 billion people. It was signed into law on 12 Sep ...

Criticisms

The concept of a NAC has been criticised by opposition parties and some scholars as not being in keeping with India's

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

, because of the possibility that it might emerge as an alternative cabinet. However an alternative view was that the existence of the NAC could kill the thread of democracy

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which people, the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choo ...

by facilitating greater pre-legislative/pre-policy consultation. 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. which will literally kill the idea of democracy. It was heavily criticised for drafting the communal violence bill in 2011.R. Jagannathan
"9 reasons why the Communal Violence Bill is itself communal"
''Firstpost'', 30 May 2011. The council ceased to exist when the

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mo ...

government took office after the 2014 Indian general elections.

References

External links

Editorial
in the ''

Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest se ...

'' on NAC.
statement
by George Fernandez, leader of the opposition on the formation of NAC. {{authority control Councils of India Members of National Advisory Council, India Advisory Defunct government departments and agencies of India 2014 disestablishments in India 2004 establishments in Delhi