Gujarat confidential: Diminishing Advantage

A Secretariat official stated that limiting starred questions to two districts and as many years is in accordance with the Assembly rules and decisions taken by Speakers in the past and was with a rationale to make the written replies less 'bulky'.

The MLAs can ask unstarred questions for the entire state with a limit of the past three years. However, these are not taken up during the Question Hour discussion. (Representational Image)

With its numbers dwindling in the Assembly, the Opposition Congress is in a quandary. The current rules on ‘admissibility’ of a starred question in the Gujarat Assembly allow each MLA to ask questions pertaining to the previous two years for a maximum of two districts.

Often, each of the Congress MLAs used to ask questions related to two districts on a particular subject. This used to give a statewide idea on the topic and a chance to highlight the same during Question Hour when starred questions are taken up for discussion.

However, with only 15 MLAs in the House, the Congress is unable to seek information of all 33 districts in starred questions, depriving it of an edge during the Question Hour to corner the government.

A Secretariat official stated that limiting starred questions to two districts and as many years is in accordance with the Assembly rules and decisions taken by Speakers in the past and was with a rationale to make the written replies less ‘bulky’. The MLAs can ask unstarred questions for the entire state with a limit of the past three years. However, these are not taken up during the Question Hour discussion.

Change of plans

Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah was scheduled to attend the golden jubilee celebrations of Amul at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad Thursday. Even the media invites mentioned Shah’s attendance. However, the minister was missing at the event. Amul MD Jayen Mehta said Shah could not attend the event due to a “prior engagement” that was a last-minute development. The BJP leader was in Chhattisgarh preparing for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls on Thursday. He also presided over a meeting of the BJP Lok Sabha election Management Committee.

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