•P. VAIDYANATHAN IYER: What does one do when politicians and ministers look at regulatory bodies as their own turf?

Independent regulators and autonomous bodies were created and have been enacted by Parliament to be independent of the political and administrative executive. If an independent regulator is not to report to a minister or secretary, who is it reporting to? What is the oversight mechanism that is envisaged in the concept of an independent regulator? People haven’t realised that Parliament has a legislative role of enacting law, and more importantly, the role of overseeing the executive. A parliamentary committee model is in place to question a regulator about its actions. However, as the regulatory oversight mechanism is not working, people will do what they have to do. As the regulator is not accountable to anybody, it can get away by saying it is only accountable to Parliament, which — being an MP — I frankly don’t think is a great place to be reporting in to.

•RISHI RAJ: You talked about cartelisation, about companies raising prices at one go. Car companies have been raising and cutting prices together. Last year telecom companies did the same with tariffs. We see the same thing happening in steel and cement sectors. Should the government intervene every time?

In my opinion, the government should not intervene. It’s not an issue for the PM or FM to be talking about. If we are a free market economy and if the industry sees a shortage, they will do what investors do — exploit it. That is the very nature of a free economy and free market. There is an institutional intervention mechanism that has been built into system — the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) or Competition Commission. The institutional role of the MRTPC role is to ensure that there is no market behaviour akin to a monopoly. . . I have all along contended that the regulatory framework is falling behind the increased sophistication of market players.

... contd.