Not at present

On Wednesday, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee regretted the poor coverage of Parliament by the media. An MP had sought to raise the issue of newsprint prices, and Chatterjee wondered, 8220;I don8217;t find any mention of yesterday8217;s debate on defence in the newspapers. So, what is the use of getting newsprint.8221; A day later, a headcount during an important debate in the House was a record of astounding absences. As a report in this newspaper showed, during a vote on a demand for grants by the rural development ministry, just about 10 per cent of Lok Sabha MPs were present. And the speaker was once again driven to his unique brand of irritation. When the rural development minister addressed a concern earlier raised by an MP not present in the House, the speaker intervened: why bother?

To be certain, the attendance was not exceptionally poor. This is the way especially with discussions slotted for the late afternoon, and demands for grants by individual ministries are not usually spectacular attractions. But in an election year, with the government8217;s showpiece being the rural infrastructure programme, Bharat Nirman, one could have expected the treasury benches to be less empty. By way of example, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh had just one RJD colleague for company. There are 22 more RJD members in Lok Sabha. Other ruling coalition and opposition parties had roughly similar attendance percentages.

Somnath Chatterjee8217;s term as speaker has been marked by a studied resolve to turn Lok Sabha into a venue and institution for big conversations, and to open public access to these debates. The Lok Sabha channel was to give visibility to the House, and to, in turn, use the public gaze as a disciplinary mechanism. Clearly, this is not enough. Perhaps other mechanisms need to be considered, like, say, instituting a prime minister8217;s question hour. Parliament8217;s debate is not valuable just for its words and participants. It is an important tool in our democracy to keep the executive accountable, and to bring into the two Houses issues from the street. If MPs do not seem interested, the fact remains that the solution too has to come from them.