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 11^th 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)