How do some MPs get to ask more questions: TMC MP Dinesh Trivedi

Flags ‘inconsistencies’ in system of asking questions, wants ballot digitised.

Trinamool Congress, TMC, dinesh trivedi, BJP, sumitra mahajan, lok sabha, indian express news

The starred questions are answered by ministers concerned during Question Hour and unstarred questions lead to only written answers. Express Photo

Flagging lacunae in the existing system for asking questions, Trinamool Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi has called upon Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to digitise balloting and give more opportunities to House members whose questions have not been picked up earlier.

“It is difficult to understand that the system is truly random when certain members’ questions get picked consistently among the first five starred questions,” Trivedi has said regarding the present mode of manually selecting starred questions through the ballot. The starred questions are answered by ministers concerned during Question Hour and unstarred questions lead to only written answers.

In a letter to Mahajan, he said: “According to some statistical analysis of 457 MPs conducted based on publicly available data on the Lok Sabha website, the MPs with the most Starred Questions throughout the 16th Lok Sabha, as of 3rd March, are: Dharmendra Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Supriya Sule (NCP), Nishikant Dubey (BJP), Asaduddin Owaisi (MIM) and Rajiv Satav (Congress).”

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Trivedi maintained that in case of other members, the average count of starred questions listed against the names of MPs was 9.9 starred questions and 120 non-starred questions. However, in the case of Dharmendra Yadav, it was 43 starred and 389 unstarred questions; Supriya Sule 39 starred and 446 unstarred; Nishikant Dubey 37 starred and 306 non-starred; Asaduddin Owaisi 32 starred and 379 unstarred; and Rajiv Satav 32 starred and 405 unstarred.

“Together, these top 5 account for 4.7 per cent of the total starred questions asked when they are just 1 per cent of the total MPs who ask questions, while there are many MPs who do submit the maximum allowed questions every day,” Trivedi said.

“In fact, 7.5 per cent of MPs ask 50 per cent of starred questions,” he said, adding, “If a random system can come up with such skewed numbers which defy the theory of probability, it means either some members are extremely lucky or the system is not scientifically designed to give equal opportunity.”

“All these inconsistencies”, in his view, “leave many hardworking MPs with two options: either submit hundreds of questions in an attempt to game the system, or give up spending time and effort on questions ”.

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He proposed two solutions to make the system fair and encourage more MPs to participate: digitisation of the ballot to reduce the role of human intervention and working out the algorithm in such a way that an MP whose question has not been picked earlier gets preference.

Trivedi made it clear that he had no “intention of casting aspersions on anyone”, but was keen on removing inconsistencies in the system.

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