15th INDIAN PARLIAMENT: HUGE EXPECTATIONS

15th INDIAN PARLIAMENT: HUGE EXPECTATIONS

           15th Parliament election, this is the first election in India where the two major parties the Congress and the BJP declared their candidates for future Prime Minister- even before the election, verdict delivered once again coalition government at the center.  Congress formed its second coalition government under the Prime Ministership of Manmohan Singh.  Congress won 206 seats and secured 29.67 per cent of votes in this election.  The BJP has won 116 seats and secured 19.29 per cent of votes.  This time a record of 59 women MPs, have been elected to the new Lok Sabha-the highest since independence, and 17 of them are less than 40 years.  Majority, 23 MPS, is from the Congress and 13 from BJP (IANS, May 19,2009).  Uttar Pradesh has sent more number of Women MPs this time.

          One of the note worthy feature, as far as this election, is the average age of Parliamentarians.  For instance, the number of Parliamentarians below 40 years of age is 82, double the corresponding figure in the last Lok Sabha, which was largely seen as dominated by graybeards.  The lowest age MP of the house is: 26 year old Hamaullah Sayed from Lakshadweep.  The senior most MP is Ram Sunder Das, 88 year old, from Hajipur constituency (India Today, May 21, 09).

          Significantly for the first time in the history of Indian Parliament a woman was elected as Speaker of the Lok Sabha.  Like wise the house elected Karia Munda of ST community as Deputy-Speaker of the Lok Sabha.  Against this background one question looms largely in the minds of the people is Will the 15th Parliament function properly? or Will the Parliament restore its name and fame? or Will the secure people’s confidence?  14th Parliament was subject to much debate and discussions, at the national level, for its failure to maintain the honesty and dignity of the house.  The Parliament was not functioned properly because of uproar, chaos and conflicts, which resulted in loss of valuable time of the house.  The following are the some the data about 14th Parliament which tell us the story, how the house transacted its business:

1. The Parliament met 46 days only in the year 2008, the lowest in the history of the institution.
2. Centre government had spent Rs.440 crores in the year to run the Parliament.
3. The Lok Sabha passed eight bills in a span of 17 minutes, without any debate and discussions.
4. Similarly, Rajya Sabha had also passed 3 bills in a span of 20 minutes.
5. As many as 56 MPs, including former PM and prominent leaders, did not ask any question during their five-year term.
6. 67 MPs asked only 10 or less than 10 questions during their entire term in the Parliament.
7. The Parliament dismissed 10 MPs for cash for query scam.
8. The Speaker was not allowed to conduct the business of the house properly.

 ‘The Citizens’ Report on Governance and Development 2008-09”highlights the performance of celebrities.  None of the celebrity members of the Parliament turned up for more than 20 per cent of its 32 sittings in 2007.  The sittings were held over 64 days in two sessions.  Interestingly, of the 80,000 odd questions asked in both the houses, their contribution is not even one per cent.  Bollywood stars did not raise any questions or participated in any debate in the Parliament.  Former RBI governor Bimal Jalan asked just one question: his attendance was 20 per cent, which incidently was the highest among the celebrities (The Hindu, April 12, 2009).

The new house should concentrate on:

1. Devoting most of the time for quality debates and discussions.
2. Controlling of falling attendance in the Parliament.
3. Spending more time for legislative business.
4.  Members should shun their party affiliation while dealing with those issues that are affecting the common man and the nation,
5. And maintaining the integrity of the house.

Let us hope the newly elected members will fulfill common man’s reasonable expectations.