New Delhi, 14 December 2004
MPs Violating Oath
TREATING PARLIAMENT
CALLOUSLY
By Poonam I Kaushish
“Order, Order, Order. I said sit down. Do you have no
respect for the Chair? You should be ashamed of yourself. If you don’t behave I
will name you”. Admonishments that are heard daily that they cease to shock. In
fact, they have become meaningless. No, we are not talking about errant school
children being rebuked by their teacher. Nor a Judge trying to control a
defiant lawyer. We are talking about our Parliament, India’s high temple of democracy.
So what if the Speaker even laments that the whole country is watching. Our
Hon’ble MPs have no sense of shame. Worse, they don’t care a damn.
Alas, the short ongoing winter session has touched a new
low, breaking every record. How callously Parliament is now treated can be
gauged from the fact that this is the shortest ever winter session with just 17
sittings. Against a normal session of well over a month. Especially when some
43 important Bills are due to be debated. Near impossible. Scandalously, MPs
routinely absent themselves from the Houses, preferring cups of tea, coffee and
gup shup in the Central Hall. The
“sanctum sanctorum” of today’s rajniti. To network, make and unmake reputations
and strike deals. Refusing even to heed the pleas of their party whips to
return to the chamber and help make the quorum. Politricking is the name of
their game.
Even the Question Hour, which is the sacred hyphen that
links Government to Parliament is treated most casually. Remember, it provides
for the accountability of the Executive to the Legislature. Wherein the
Government through its Ministers is required to answer questions. It is the
most powerful weapon available to the Opposition to keep the Government on a
tight leash -- and serves as a barometer of governmental performance at the
macro level and a minister’s effectiveness at the micro level. In fact, India’s first
Prime Minister Nehru made it a point to be present invariably. Not only on the
day when questions were listed against his name.
Today, the obverse holds true. This important hour is now
treated with contempt by both the Treasury and the Opposition. Ministers come
without doing homework, to be reprimanded at times by the presiding officers.
Invariably their facetious reply is: “Information is being collected.” On
occasions, they even give a wrong reply to a right question. The less said
about their goof-ups in answering supplementaries, the better. Worse, time is
wasted in frivolous interruptions with the result that hardly three or four
questions are adequately replied. Clearly, politically motivated bashing has
become the raging cult. And agreed agenda a luxury.
If this spells disaster, one is at a loss of words at what
follows during the Zero Hour. The Lok Sabha was witness the other day to an
unprecedented spectacle when the Opposition demanded from the Prime Minister a
statement on the mutual charges of corruption hurled against each other by the
Railway Minister Lalu Yadav and Chemicals and Fertiliser Minister Ram Vilas
Paswan. An embarrassed Parliamentary Affairs Minister lamely pleaded that the
charges did not merit a reply as these had been made outside Parliament.
Furious RJD MPs retaliated by asking Leader of the Opposition Advani to explain
the charges of “abuse” by his former daughter-in-law Gauri. Predictably, all
hell broke loose and the Speaker was forced to adjourn the House.
The only silver lining at present is the patient and
determined effort of Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to salvage the Lok Sabha from
the abyss of increasing irrelevance. He has decided to be “stern” and not
“tolerate indiscipline any more” to restore Parliament to its long lost glory,
drowned in the cacophony of petty foggers, one-upmanship and conmanship. That
he will brook no nonsense is evident by his warning that no MP will be allowed
to cross the Lakshman Rekha and rush
into the well of the House. What is more, MPs who defy him have their ravings
and rantings expunged from the record.
Somnathda, as he is affectionately called, should not
hesitate to use his “Brahmastra” --- the rule that provides for automatic
suspension of MPs who move into the well of the House. No MP worth his salt
would want to get suspended. He should enforce the rule and not allow errant
MPs to get away as during the past decade. Every minute lost means lakhs of
rupees of public money going down the drain.
The last Budget Session cost the nation over Rs 17 crores. Of its total
time of 185 hours about 90 hours were lost in pandemonium and adjournments. In
the Rajya Sabha, of 150 hours over 60 hours met the same fate. This figure was
barely 5 per cent for the 11th Lok Sabha less than 10 years ago. It
costs the tax payer between 20 and 25 lakh per hour.
The new Speaker deserves credit for allowing live telecast
of the Zero Hour to enable the public to gauge the true worth or should one
say, antics of their representatives. Delhi Doordarshan has planned to start a
separate Parliament channel, which will telecast Parliamentary proceedings live
from 14 December. Importantly, he also intends opening the meetings of
Parliament’s Standing Committees to the Press. This will go a long way in
making the decision- making process not only transparent but also more
accountable. Ministers are now required to report to the House within six
months action taken on various proposals. He also wants the law changed to
provide for a body to fix the pay and perks of MPs, instead of leaving it to
their whims, fancies and inflated egos.
However, these by themselves will not be enough to
discipline our recalcitrant MPs and get them down to good, honest work. The
figures speak for themselves. Over the years, Parliament has whittled down the
number of days on which it meets every year. In 1952, the Lok Sabha met for 123
days. In 1953 it rose to 138. For the last 15 years it has fallen below 100.
The last time the House sat for more than 100 days in a year was in 1988. Since
then, the average has slumped to 80. In sharp contrast, the House of Commons in
England
is in session for close to 170 days in a year and the US Congress close to 150
days.
Also, while a good day in Parliament counts for five to six
hours of work, the average duration per sitting for the House of the Common is
9 hours for the last 25 years. On the quorum front too there is a vast
difference. In the US the
figure is 50 per cent while in India
it is a measly 10 per cent. Even then the MPs absent themselves. When the Lok
Sabha passed the Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets Bill in
2002, only 38 MPs (less than the 55 required for a quorum )out of 542 were
present in the House.
Tragically, instead of putting their heads together to
rectify the ills that plague the country our MPs are more interested in
protecting themselves. Ironic, isn’t it, that for many of our law-breakers
turned law-makers, security has turned into an obsession. Today, Parliament has
become an impregnable fortress. Silly, not for the terrorists but for the aam aadmi who elects his representative.
The flashing lights and shrieking sirens atop expensive chauffeur-driven cars
and obtrusive security personnel highlight their power, wealth and
self-importance. Ever at war with the general public which greets this with
cynicism and increasing despair.
Imagine over Rs 108 crore worth of security paraphernalia
has been installed to protect our netagan
(sic). This includes radio frequency identity tags, road blockers, boom
barriers from US, close circuit TVs, tyre killers and active ballards. Gadgets
to guard against a nuclear, biological and chemical attack. Never mind that not
a few criminals adorn the Parliamentary benches. Even as two law makers are
behind bars in Bihar on charges of murder and
kidnapping. What to say of five allegedly tainted Ministers who strut around
unconcerned dispensing favours.
All seem to have forgotten that Parliament’s primary task is
to legislate. The Government is answerable to the people. Rajya Sabha MP Fali
Nariman has mooted a “no work, no pay” principle. One that is worth adopting A
MP who disrupts the proceedings of either House should be barred from drawing
his daily stipend and his salary should be deducted for non-productive work. In
an extreme case the right to recall should be invoked. Not only that. The MPs
should be enjoined to spend a minimum amount of time in the House, just as
other office goers. To enforce this, they should perhaps be required to sign
their attendance at least twice a day, if not hourly.
Thus, as the Fourteenth Lok Sabha drifts along, it is time
for our aaj ke MPs to spare a thought
for the country’s future, instead of indulging in petty politics and violating
their oath. If the sacred temple of democracy crumbles the consequences will be
disastrous. It is imperative that our jan
sevaks cooperate with the Speaker to rectify the flaws that have crept into
the system, and put Parliament back on the rails Parliament as the bulwark of
democracy should not be treated casually – or callously. – INFA
(Copyright India News and Feature Alliance)
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