‘MPs behave as spoilt children’

Even as elections to Karnataka State legislative Assembly are over and preparations are now feverishly on for the general elections that could be held anytime between November 2008 and May 2009, this is the time to make an inquiry into the behaviour of Members of Parliament in the current Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and what the public should know about their elected representatives. The record, to say the least, is dismal. Such was the misbehaviour of some of the Opposition MPs at recent sessions, that Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee was forced to refer to the Committee of Privileges cases of `disorderly behaviour’ by 32 MPs. That the Speaker subsequently withdrew his charge on assurance of future good behaviour does not lessen the seriousness of the Speaker’s grievance who had been forced to adjourn the House “with great sorrow and sadness”. What is worse, in his sadness he felt it necessary to tell the misbehaving MPs that they were “all working overtime to finish democracy” in India. It is pathetic to watch MPs behaving like spoilt children.

Special: Karnataka elections

Whatever their grievances, MPsmust know that disrupting parliamentary proceedings isn’t right. Figures for just the budget sessions for the past seven years show that time lost to interruptions has varied from 13 to an unbelievable 74 hours. The number of sittings of the Lok Sabha has come down from a yearly average of 124 in the first decade of 1952-1961 to barely 81 or a decline of 34 per cent in the decade between 1992 and 2001. Only recently, the Vice President had suggested that Parliament sit for a minimum of 130 days. The annual average number of Bills passed has come down from 68 in the first decade to 50 between 1992 and 2001.

According to available statistics last year, Parliament worked for the least number of days in non-election years, in the last eight years. The lack of debate is making a mockery of Parliament. Between June 2004 and December 2007, according to media reports, the Lok Sabha lost an astounding total of 370 hours on account of interruptions and adjournments and in the one-month long monsoon session of 2007, it forfeited 42 hours. What is going on? One supposes citizens elect their MPs to contribute to the making of law, not for breaking it.

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When an MP doesn’t attend a parliamentary session, he is disregarding the citizen’s mandate. What can one possibly say when not more than 60 of the 536 MPs were present when the Lok Sabha voted on the Ministry of Rural Development’s demand for grants? Only a handful of MPs attended the debate on price rise. Is this responsible behaviour? When the Lok Sabha is supposed to debate policy matters, one expects a full House.

This expectation is more honoured in the breach than the observance. Indeed, as the media once reported, most of the government’s expenditure plans and policy initiatives are passed without any debate whatsoever. Shouldn’t one make faulting MPs pay for their non-attendance at sittings? They get paid very well. An amendment in August 2006 increased the salary of MPs from Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 16,000 and the minimum pension and family pension was hiked to Rs. 8,000 p.m. and Rs. 4,000respectively. It was also proposed to double the consitutency allowance from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 20,000 p.m. and daily allowance (when Parliament is in session) from Rs.500to Rs.1,000.

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MPs get Rs. 14,000 for office expenses every month and, as for travelling, he and his spouse or companion is entitled to unlimited, free first class railway fare anywhere in the country. They can also travel anywhere in India again with a spouse or companion 40 times by air, free of cost every timein business class. In Delhi, in a sprawling bungalow which is rented out to an MP for the paltry sum of Rs.2000 p.m. he gets near-free electricity of 50,000 units every year, as also free water. Besides, an MP is entitled to three phone lines and 170,000 free calls every year. How the Government came to fix that number of calls is anybody’s guess. It comes to approximately 475 calls a day. Most medical expenses of MPs are taken care of under the Contributory Health Service Scheme of the Union Government. All of this can be considered acceptable if only the MP gives his full attention to his job.

There are MPs who haven’t opened their mouths for the full term of five years. Speaker Chatterjee once mooted the idea of charging a day’s pay to MPs who disrupted House proceedings. Should not the House also charge MPs who make no contribution whatsoever to the debate, towards the end of each year? Silence may be golden and speech silvern, but in Parliament, speech, especially, a well-argued speech, is more golden. Or what is a parliamentarian for?

In 2007, the Exchequer lost more than Rs.20 crore on account of disruptions in Parliament. According to one estimate, it costs Rs.26,000 per minute, in running just the Lok Sabha. It may be argued, as in the case of an alleged case of favouritism indulged in by Union Road Transport Minister T. R. Baalu, when MPs created a lot of hullabaloo, that such disturbances are necessary to draw the citizens’ attention to alleged Ministerial excesses. But is indulging in rowdyism, the best way to show one’s concerns?

What is even more grim to contemplate is the fact that Parliament can have among its members, some acknowledged criminals! According to one estimate, there are as many as 40 such honourable Members in the present Lok Sabha! The case of RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin is well-known. Last March he was finally sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. He had nearly 35 cases pending against him involving murder, kidnapping, illegal possession of foreign made arms and ammunition, intimidation, theft and violence.

For months, instead of being treated as a criminal, he was deified as a star. The Lalu-Rabri government sided with him. He is now a Minister! As recently as February this year, the CBI special court in Patna sentenced another Rashtriya Janata Dal MP, Pappu Yadav alias Rajesh Ranjan, to life imprisonment for his involvement in the gruesome murder of a CPM legislator, Ajit Sarkar.

Pappu Yadav is in a class by himself. As general elections are nearing, these facts must be brought to the notice not just of the Election Commissioner, but of the public at large. We must get back to the era of the Nath Pais, H. V. Kamatha, Madhu Limayee, Ram Manohar Lohias, Bhupesh Guptas and many others of their calibre to make the next Parliament truly representative of the Country and even more relevantly, all MPs truly conscious of their duties and responsibilities. That would be in the best democratic traditions.

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