Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Should ministers skip Parliament?' that was published in Newsband

Should ministers skip Parliament?

In 2016, Parliament had 70 sittings against just 48 this year. Contrast this to the first Lok Sabha averaged 135 sittings a year. Parliament is as much about legislating as debating and asking questions that hold governments to account. The lack of enthusiasm also implicitly reveals that government has no pressing legislative agenda either.

How committed our parliamentarians are gets exposed by their presence or attendance in the Parliament. Congress had thwarted winter session in 2008 or at pretext of states poll. Congress faced disgrace in one election after another owing to the ruling of highest court (civilians) and also due to its blemish administration. NDA should not step in the shoes of Congress if it wants to escape the fury of public. Even though India is poorer than US from monetary angle, it is a fact that we have one of the leading democratic set up in the world, which has inspired many other nations to adopt parliamentary system of Government. It is necessary that the ruling party go about with their job of governing the nation by taking the opposition parties into confidence since autocratic functioning has no place in liberal set up.

Talking of poor attendance of ministers in the Parliament, one can question as to whether responsible professionals in key positions, say doctors/engineers, bunk their normal duties and canvass for some association polls? When there is no accountability on neta-high-class, can we expect discipline, decency, decorum anywhere else in the country?

State elections are very important in India as execution of central policies rests with states and also Rajya Sabha seats are linked to states. But that should not be an excuse for MPs at national level to skip parliament session. One should also not forget all these precedents have been set by only one party, who ruled most of 65 years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is undoubtedly a pro reform and risk taker as well. But one wonders whether parliament achieves anything except use of lung power.