Retracted: Lifting the lid on lobbying in India: Reasoning, rationality, and reality

• Published date: 01 May 2021
• Author: Pankaj KP Shreyaskar,Pramod Pathak
• Date: 01 May 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2423

ACADEMIC PAPER

Lifting the lid on lobbying in India: Reasoning, rationality,

and reality

Pankaj KP Shreyaskar | Pramod Pathak

Department of Management Studies, Indian

Institute of Technology (Indian School of

Mines), Dhanbad, Jharkhand, 826004, India

Correspondence

Pankaj K. P. Shreyaskar, D-215,

GaurSportsWood, Sector 79, Noida, 201307,

India.

Email: shreyaskarps@gmail.com

Contrary to the general belief, lobbying existed since time immemorial and has not

erupted suddenly during modern days. The enactment of lobbying in India is often

treated an activity engulfed with morally dubious act, but on detailed investigation,

the denunciation for lobbying can be challenged in the form of a well-rounded inter-

pretation of various related legislations. However, any such legislation exclusively

addressing the issues and concerns on lobbying, at present is not in vogue but lobby-

ing has not remained pristine ever. The article scrutinizes the relevant legal provisions

to trace the presence of favourable elements for lobbying in India, which may be

capitalised in future to legitimise it. Besides, the paper also presents the reality check

regarding Pre Legislative Consultation Policy (PCLP) in the last decade, paving way

forward towards legitimising information framework of Lobbying in India.

1|INTRODUCTION

Lobbying is a complex phenomenon, generally used to refer to activi-

ties related to influencing policy-making, particularly to influence a

legislator's vote to meet personal interests.

1

Different countries have

taken distinct approaches to understand and address lobbying.

2

How-

ever, conceptually lobbying has remained difficult to address, due to

the difficulty in identifying those interactions with legislators that con-

stitute lobbying and those that are merely regarded as forms of advo-

cacy.

3

However, a large part of the debate stems from the negative

perception of lobbying, which arises primarily due to the lack of clarity

in the type of policy that is derived from such activities.

4

The importance and influence of Lobbyists, Pressure Groups and

stakeholders' interest in decision making has always interested the

researchers of United States, United Kingdom, and European Union

(Coen, 2007; Key, 1964; Terry, 2005) who have studied various

aspects of lobbying. While few encapsulated the measurement of

influence, good advancements have been made in mapping the access

to EU policy process and developing a rationale for utilization of polit-

ical channels.

Examining activities associated to lobbying and business political

activity is inherently problematic owingto the fact that these are most

often not accounted andit evades the scrutiny and transparency. Lob-

bying has alwaysbeen controversial. From thetime the term was born-

Ulysses Grantintroduced the concept with a curse(Silberfeld, 2006)-to

the present day, lobbying has been notorious for “back-room”deals

with “special interes ts”. Yet it is essential forthe proper functioning of

contemporary democracy. The right to voice our concerns and inter-

ests, and therebyinfluence public policy,is fundamental to democracy.

There is adequate circumstantial evidence to infer that “lobbying”

is a taboo word in the Indian public sphere. On an impersonal note,

the scant literature available around this forsaken reality clearly articu-

lates the position that we, as a democratic society, need to cast out

this undesirable phenomenon from our public life. One must not for-

get that western democracies, both Europe and America, have dedi-

cated an entire century of research and legal interventions on the

same subject, which to us seems to be quite futile.

5

Nonetheless, the study of Lobbying and Special Interest Group

phenomenon in Indian context has not been quite visible in academic

literature. However, Business and Politics in India by Stanley A.

Kochanek, Economic Liberalisation and its Political Effects on Democracy

by Aseema Sinha, Pressure groups and democracy in India by L P Mis-

quitta, Influencing India: Lobbying in the World's Largest Democracy by

Sugato Hazarika (2011), Political Parties, Business Groups, and Corrup-

tion in Developing Countries by Vineeta Yadav are some of the projects

that have presented the discourse on the subject in Indian context.

The major difference regarding advancements of literature on

Lobbying and Special Interest Groups in India and countries like

United States, United Kingdom, and the EU can be attributed to the

different legal status to the Lobbying in these countries. Despite its

Received: 21 May 2020 Accepted: 21 August 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2423

J Public Affairs. 2021;21:e2423. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1of8

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2423