QUESTION HOUR IN PARLIAMENT: SO WHAT?
Author: DR.P.SAKTHIVEL
Author: DR.P.SAKTHIVEL
Generally, the first hour of a sitting of Lok Sabha is devoted to Questions and that hour is called the Question Hour. It has a special significance in the proceedings of Parliament.Asking of questions is an inherent and unfettered parliamentary right of members. It is during the Question Hour that the members can ask questions on every aspect of administration and Governmental activity. Government policies in national as well as international spheres come into sharp focus as the members try to elicit pertinent information during the Question Hour. The Government is, as it were, put on its trial during the Question Hour and every Minister whose turn it is to answer questions has to stand up and answer for his or his administrations acts of omission and commission. It is through questions in Parliament that the Government remains in touch with the people in as much as members are enabled thereby to ventilate the grievances of the public in matters concerning the administration. Questions enable Ministries to gauge the popular reaction to their policy and administration. Questions bring to the notice of the Ministers many an abuse which otherwise would have gone unnoticed. Sometimes questions may lead to the appointment of a commission, a court of enquiry or even legislation when matters raised are grave enough to agitate the public mind and are of wide public importance(
http://www.parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/intro/p6.htm). Question Hour is the most important of Parliamentary proceedings when a government can be put on the mat by seeking information on anything. It is the hour when a minister's mettle is tested, for the question is better prepared than the minister taking the question, says Constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap.Question hour can be the way of getting the government to focus on substantive issues, says political scientist Imtiaz Ahmad (Nandita Sengupta, TNN 2 Dec. 2009. TOI). 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. It is significant to note that, each question costs the exchequer about Rs.70,000 to Rs.1 Lakh (
www.thehindu.com/2009/12/01). Most of the MPs may not be present in the house during the question hour. And some of the MPs may be quite unaware for the questions are being asked bearing their names. The record of Parliamentary proceedings the Lok Sabha was collapsed during the recently concluded Winter Session of the Parliament (December 2009) due to no reason at all other than the absence of as many as 34 members who are supposed to raise questions during the Question hour, which ultimately forced the Speaker of Lok Sabha to adjourn the house till mid day. These 34 MPs were not of one political party alone but they were drawn from belong to different regional and national parties. Similar trend was also witnessed in the Rajya Sabha also. For instance, on December 2, 2009 5 members were absent who were supposed to raise the questions in the Rajya Sabha. This is a sorry state of affairs in the history of Indian Parliamentary democracy. Leaders of Lok Sabha (the lower house of Indian Parliament) such as Pranab Mukherjee and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal were seen surprised when members belonging to various political parties, including the Congress, were absent after given notices for the questions. The speaker called out names of 28 members, including Varun Gandhi, Madhu Goud Yashi, Eknath Gaikawad, Shruti Choudhry, B Jhansi Lakshmi all belongs to Congress, and Anandrao Adsul, Shivaji Adhalaro Patil (Shiv Sena), Prabodh Panda (CPI), Rajiv Ranjan Singh (JDU) and Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM), but none of them was present. Because of lack of quorum the Speaker, Meera Kumar, was forced to adjourn the house till 12.00hrs. It is significant to note that the Congress party President Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposiotion L.K.Advani were present when the Lok Sabha was adjourned. One positive outcome was the Speaker has taken the issue very seriously and she is planning to write letter to all political parties to ensure that their members are present in the during the Question Hour (Mail Today 1 Dec.2009). Now the time has come to think very seriously about the quality of functioning of Parliament in India. There is no easy answer to the deterioration of Parliament, rues Imtiaz Ahmad, but upgrading the peoples representative quality is inevitable at this juncture. Providing periodical training to elected representatives on the various aspects of Parliament proceedings and how to go about house is also another solution for the current turmoil in Indian Parliamentary democracy.About the Author:
Associate Professor in Political Science
Annamalai University
Annamalai Nagar - 608 002
Tamil Nadu
India
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