Concern over whether parliamentarians were taking their legislative duties with the seriousness it merited got highlighted once again on Monday after the important question hour?the first procedure in parliamentary functioning when MPs can seek answers from the government by asking questions?collapsed after all members barring three who had listed queries in their names failed to show up in the Lok Sabha.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, who later told reporters she would write to all parties on the issue, was forced to adjourn the House within 25 minutes after she realised that none of the members whose names she called out to raise questions during question hour were present in the House. Conceding that the development was a matter of concern, embarrassed leaders of political parties, especially the spokesperson of the government said the incident did not bore well for legislative practices. A senior UPA minister even questioned the relevance of having question hour if MPs did not want to utilise it, though, he added that this was his personal opinion.
The embarrassing situation became evident on Monday morning immediately after Parliament was convened at 11 am. Seventeen questions, including 15 in a row, could not be taken up during the period in which a total of 20 questions are listed for answers from the ministers on the floor of the House. The Speaker called out names of 34 members, including Varun Gandhi (BJP), Madhu Goud Yakshi, Eknath Gaikawad, Shruti Choudhary, B Jhansi Lakhsmi (all Cong), Anandrao Adsul, Shivaji Adhalrao Patil (Shiv Sena), Prabodh Panda (CPI), Rajiv Ranjan Singh (JD-U) and Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM), none of whom were present in the House.
?The absence of several members is a serious issue,? the LS Speaker said later though she also ruled out doing away with the mechanism. ?Question hour is the essence of democracy,? she told reporters.
Parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal later said it was not the first time that question hour had collapsed, citing over a dozen instances in the past when it had to be abandoned because members who had listed questions in their names skipped Parliament. ?Each question logically costs about Rs one lakh. This is calculated on the basis of parliament?s budgetary allocation, divided by 365which is further divided by eight (working hours)?.
Senior parliamentarians said the incident was ?unfortunate and shameful? and said that efforts should be made to ensure that it did not happen again.