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A Laid - Back Fifteenth Lok Sabha

By ugesh sarkar, Section Top Stories
Posted on Wed Dec 23, 2009 at 11:46:24 PM EST

Again on November 30, question hour had to be adjourned after a mere 25 minutes because 17 MPs who had scheduled questions for the day did not turn up.

An analysis of the fifteenth Lok Sabha proceedings now proves that laid- back MPs are draining the exchequer of crores of rupees by not performing their parliamentary duties.

Every single hour the Lok Sabha sits, the government shells out Rs 15 lakh. In the just- concluded winter session, nearly 48 per cent of MPs failed to attend a single debate.

Research done by PRS Legislative Research, a unit of the Centre for Policy Research, reveals that 206 MPs gave the government an easy time in the House.

They include 113 members of the Lok Sabha who did not ask any question during the budget and winter sessions of Parliament.

Another 93 members who asked fewer than 10 questions.

As many as 64 members of the Lok Sabha are ministers in the Manmohan Singh cabinet. As per convention, Union ministers, the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker and the leader of the Opposition do not put up questions in the House.

If these 67 members are excluded, then half the Lok Sabha -- which has a strength of 544 MPs -- did not contribute to question hour during the two sessions.

By staying quiet when they should have been posing tough questions to the ministers, the MPs may have let the government off the hook on a number of contentious issues like price rise, the Telangana statehood issue, internal security and the climate change agreement.

The analysis of the findings by PRS Legislative Research said, " Forty- eight per cent of the members in the Lok Sabha did not participate in any debate. Of those we spoke, 25 per cent restricted themselves to one or two debates. Only three per cent participated in more than 10 debates." Political parties are aware of the problem, but their leaders are at their wit's end on how to deal with it. " The involvement of the MPs in parliamentary work is decreasing nowadays. This is after repeated directions by our leaders, including L. K. Advani," said BJP chief whip Ramesh Bais.

Source: Mail Today A Laid - Back Fifteenth Lok Sabha

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If the performance of MPs in grilling the government leaves much to be desired, so does their attendance. Only 15 MPs had full attendance during the budget and winter sessions and 45 MPs attended more than 95 per cent of the House sittings.

At least 25 MPs missed half the sittings.

Telugu star Vijaya Shanthi, who took active part in the Telangana agitation, has the dubious distinction of attending House proceedings on the least number of days -- 17 per cent in the two sessions.

The actor's poor attendance stands out in sharp contrast to CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta who did not miss a single day of Parliament. The Congress's Eknath Mahadeo Gaikwad, JD- U's Rajiv Ranjan ( Lalan) Singh and CPM's M. B. Rajesh also had 100 per cent attendance.

Among the 45 MPs who recorded 95 per cent attendance are Sandeep Dikshit of the Congress, P. Lingam of the CPI and Goraknath Pandey of the BSP. MPs like Tamil film star and DMK member J. K. Ritheesh and former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu of the BJP had less than 40 per cent attendance.

Dasgupta said his sense of duty drove him to attend the House each day. " I am elected to Parliament to discharge my duty as an MP. The post should not be taken as a jewel around one's neck. MPs should involve themselves more in their parliamentary duties," said the septuagenarian MP from West Bengal.

Rajesh said that as a first timer, he wanted to study parliamentary practices.

" I attended the House as a student who never cuts his classes. I considered it as my primary duty. It helped me to raise many pertinent issues during debates, question hour and zero hour. I think an MP should not skip Parliament without a valid reason," he said.

The inclination to stay comfortably quiet in the Lok Sabha at a time of great political churning was seen among members across party lines. Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, for instance, has not asked any question in 15th Lok Sabha.

The same goes for Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav. Andhra politician Jaganmohan Reddy and BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha have also not fielded any queries.

On the issue of grilling the government, these members were beaten by a set of MPs who were never short of questions.

Sharad Pawar's daughter and Baramati MP Supriya Sule asked 186 questions and Congress's J. P. Agarwal asked 189 questions.

Some senior MPs cite " technicalities" in putting questions. " It's mere luck. Only a few questions are taken for aural and written answers. MPs ask supplementary questions if their questions are not picked," five- time Congress MP P. C. Chacko said.

< I I Have Key To Hung House, Says Soren, JHARKHAND POLL Congress Improves, BJP Declines

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