Political Diary

New Delhi, 12 March 2011

The Question Hour

PARLIAMENT’S ZEROSUM GAME

By Poonam I Kaushish

“Parliamentary tradition is almost dead and its sanctity destroyed….The Question Hour is almost dead.” No guesses, words uttered by an angry Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar over the frequent disruptions in the House Thursday last. Welcome to the kathor saachai of our jan sevaks who have defiled India’s sanctum sanctorum to zero. Where nothing is sacred. What’s new?

Day in and day out, year in and year out the story is the same. Speaker after Speaker has rued and then admonished our MPs but is like water off a duck’s back. Whereby, in their “collective wisdom” all spew sheer contempt for Parliament. One can accept temporary exercise of lung power; even ignore dharnas, walk-outs and boycotts as part of an MP’s stock in trade. But what is unforgivable is the sacrilege of the sacred 60-minute Question Hour.

Most scandalously, in the ongoing Budget session, of the 12 hours slated for Question Hour, nearly 8 have been lost due in tamasha leading to adjournments. This time of the total 320 questions listed to be answered orally, only 40 have been answered in the Lok Sabha and 36 in Rajya Sabha. Most unforgivable was that MPs in both Houses were absent after given notices for the questions. Leading to the respective Houses being adjourned.

All conveniently forgetting that this crucial hour is the hyphen which links Government to Parliament. It provides for daily and continuing accountability of Government to Parliament. Whereby, the Government is, as it were, put on its trial through its Ministers who are forced to answer questions.

Any MP in both Houses can put a question to the Prime Ministers or any other Minister and demand an honest answer. It is thus the most powerful weapon available to the Opposition to keep the Government on a tight leash. It is based on the fundamental rights of information enshrined in the Constitution --- via question. Mercifully, the rules of the House ensure that the Government does not avoid questions and conveniently escape.

Perhaps, this Hour more than any other time serves as a barometer of governmental efficiency and performance at the macro level, and a Minister’s effectiveness at the micro level on a daily basis. Wherein, he is required to answer queries relating to his Ministry’s acts of omission and commission. In this milieu, the competence and mettle of a Minister is tested. 

It is also reflective of whether various Ministers are in command of their respective departments, competent, agile and receptive to what it takes to leave their mark on governance. The reason why the Question Hour is by and large not suspended unlike any another business, except adjournment or no-confidence motions which supercedes all business.

Alas, over the years with political compulsions dominating political discourse, Ministers have been gripped by the chalta hai attitude. Bringing things to such a pass that times out of number, Ministers come without doing homework, to be reprimanded, at times, by the Presiding officers. Invariably their stock in trade reply is: Information is being collected”. Worse, they show their ignorance by giving a wrong reply to a wrong question. The less said about their goof-ups over the supplementaries the better.

So what if the Ministry works hard for over three weeks to prepare replies to the oral and written questions. What use are the days spent over preparing a list of 20 to 50 probable supplementaries a Ministry may be asked, if the person who has to answer doesn’t even bother to read through the prepared answers. Never mind the entire effort that goes into it. It is another matter that it is a more “lucrative” to pose a question than get a reply to it. Predictably, the unsatisfactory and incomplete reply leads to compulsive criticism, side-comments, loss of temper and trading of charges.

Think. Each question hour cost Rs.14 lakh to the Government and with about 20 questions being listed each day during Parliament Question Hour and about 10-12 of them being taken up for answering, each question costs the exchequer about Rs.70,000 to Rs.1 Lakh

The less said the better of the cash-for-question scam uncovered in 2005 whereby 11 Right Honourables were caught with their hands in the till and expelled. Asserted a senior Minister, “Right through the '80s, it was known that petro-chemical and pharma companies were using MPs to raise questions in the House. There were big corporate lobbies at work and they continue till today.  The amount for a question ranges from a measly Rs 15,000 to Rs 1 lakh.

Adding insult to injury, with many industrialists becoming Rajya Sabha MPs, questions have become the via media to nix rivals and get to know the Government’s mind on various policies on the anvil. Resulting in crony capitalism. Thus making mockery of established conventions and procedures.

In fact, not many are aware of the genesis of the Question Hour, which came into insistence in British Parliament’s Indian Council Act of 1892, which allowed a member to elicit information by asking questions in the Legislative Council. This was refined in 1919 by the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms, wherein for the first time the first hour of every morning was earmarked for questions only.

Indeed, Parliament has changed greatly since the Nehru era. The first Prime Minister’s respect for parliamentary institutions was as deep-rooted as his faith in the democratic process. Parliament symbolized for him the power of the people and he was always zealous in guarding its dignity. Unlike many among the powers-that-be today, as well as during the past four decades.

Indeed, if this is the state of India’s high temple of democracy, things are worse in the State Assemblies. Forget lung power, abuses, walking into the well of the Houses, today its’ all about fist-cuffs, muscle-power, throwing paper-weights, tables, uprooting Speaker’s mike et al. Be it Orrisa, Bihar, Maharashtra or Madhya Pradesh etc.

Most scandalously, the UP State Assembly secretariat recently was busy literally grappling to find an answer to this question: How to run the question hour. Reason: The MLAs’ had not asked enough questions. As the Secretariat had received only three starred questions! The next day saw only five questions. Thus, to tide over the crisis and save face, officials sent all five questions under “short notice” to the State Government to furnish their replies

The tragedy of it all is that Parliament has been devalued and dragged through the mud. Whereby, no matter how much we tom-tom our successful democratic Parliamentary model, it could be rotten from within.

Undoubtedly, the time has come to think very seriously about Parliament’s functioning. Specially its content, quality and above all commitment of our jan sevaks for upholding the tenets of Parliamentary democracy. They are elected to do a job: legislate, hold the Executive accountable and above all serve the aam aadmi who reposed faith in them.

True, there is no easy answer for the continuing deterioration of Parliament, but the current turmoil in Indian Parliamentary democracy has to be ended. Else future generations will not forgive us. Time to remember what Lord Denning said, “The House of Commons starts its proceedings with a prayer. The chaplain looks at the assembled members with their varied intelligence and then prays for the country”! ---- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)