Parliament is supposed to be a union of exemplary orators, with a grass-roots touch. Unfortunately, one is rarely inspired by the quality of India’s parliamentary debates nowadays. Parliamentary debates, which once focussed on national and critical issues, are now more about local problems, viewed from a parochial angle. With niggardly attendance by our Members of Parliament (MPs), poor quality of debates and pandemonium marking the proceedings, there is seemingly little value that a parliamentary representative can add to the policy discourse.
Low productivity
Consider the utilisation record. Each minute of running Parliament in sessions costs ₹2.5 lakh, which is utilised poorly. Between the 1950s and the 1960s, the Lok Sabha used to meet for an average of 120 days in a year. In comparison, in the last decade, it has met for an average of 70 days a year. Its productivity in the 2016 winter session was 14%, while that of the Rajya Sabha was 20%.
In comparison, the British House of Commons has met for an average of 150 days a year over the last 15 years, while the U.S. House of Representatives has met for 140 days in the same period. Most Parliaments are in session throughout the year. While our Parliament lacks the power to convene itself, it should have a minimum mandated number of days to meet — with the National Commission to review the working of the Constitution recommending 120 and 100 days for the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, respectively. Odisha has already shown the way, mandating a minimum of 60 days for the State Assembly to sit. Without Parliament meeting often, it will be derelict in its duty to hold the executive to account.
Passing Bills
Meanwhile, political power continues to be a male bastion. The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha have not seen women MPs cross the 12% mark.
In 2012, India ranked 20th from the bottom in terms of representation of women in Parliament. While the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments enabled the reservation of 33% of seats in local government, political representation by women candidates continues to be subdued, with no significant rise in the number of women MLAs in recent Assembly elections; women constitute less than 10% of the Assemblies in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry. This needs to be changed dramatically, beginning with the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill (108th amendment) reserving 33% of all seats in Parliament and State legislatures for women.
Now, parliamentary legislation is often criticised for being hastily drafted and being rushed through Parliament in an ad hoc and haphazard manner. In 2008, for instance, 16 Bills were passed with less than 20 minutes of debate. The non-passage of private member Bills doesn’t help either. Only the second half of every Friday, during a parliamentary session, is devoted to debating private member Bills. To date, only 14 private member bills have been passed.
We need a systematic approach to legislative engineering and prioritisation — the parliamentary committee, an unfashionable institution, long out of vogue, can assume institutional importance in this process. For a backbencher MP, such committees offer a place to raise issues in the general public interest and conduct advocacy amidst legislative engineering. As highlighted by the Law Ministry, we require a constitution committee. Instead of constitutional amendments being presented to Parliament like ordinary pieces of legislation in the form of Bills, often at short notice, it would be desirable to have the committee conduct an appropriate priori scrutiny before the actual drafting of the proposal for constitutional reform.
On debates and research
Even the individual voting record of MPs remains unknown. With no record maintained of the voting record associated with each MP, it is difficult to distinguish their individual progressive or conservative nature, let alone their leadership abilities. Currently, the Anti-Defection Act punishes MPs who deviate from their parties’ stated position, with the risk of losing their seats.
The Anti-Defection Act needs to be recast, and used only in the most exceptional circumstances, while allowing MPs free rein on their self-expression. The U.K., for example, has the concept of a free vote allowing MPs to vote as they wish on particular legislative items.
In this context, most MPs have limited or no research staff, leaving them bereft of expert in-house advice — budgetary expenses allocated for their secretarial staff and constituency expenditure leave little for conducting primary research. Parliament’s Library and Reference, Research, Documentation and Information Service (LARRDIS) currently has a sanctioned strength of 231 staffers but employs 176, about 8% of the total strength of the Lok Sabha secretariat. In comparison, the Congressional Research Service, a part of the Library of the U.S. Congress, employs 600 people, of whom 400 are policy analysts, attorneys and sectoral experts, while the Congressional Budget Office has an additional 200 people. Other parliaments offer funds to hire research teams for MPs. Investing in Parliament’s intellectual capital is necessary and additional budgetary support should be provided to LARRDIS while assisting MPs in employing research staff.
We also need an institutionalised process to raise the quality and rigour associated with the budget scrutiny process. India needs a parliamentary budget office, akin to the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, which can be an independent and impartial institution devoted to conducting a technical and objective analysis of any Bill with spending or revenue raising requirements. Other countries have led the way with such entities established in Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, the Philippines, Ghana and Thailand.
India’s citizens need a more robust legislative system that offers public representatives — our MPs, Ministers and the Prime Minister — a greater sense of authority. However, one must stand wary against rank populism infecting our body politic. Parliament should be a space for policy and not for politics. We need to undertake reforms to ensure that it is recast as such.
Feroze Varun Gandhi is a Member of Parliament, representing the Sultanpur constituency for the BJP
