In the last one week, almost one-fourth of the requests from MPs at the Parliament’s reference section pertained to terror. The global meltdown ranked a notch lower.The Parliament’s reference service is supposed to equip MPs with research and other material needed for debates in the House.On December 10, when the Lok Sabha debated the Mumbai terror attacks, of the total 52 members who sought reference material, as many as 13 pertained to terror. Some names in the list: L K Advani, Sumitra Mahajan, B K Tripathy, Ramjilal Suman, Chandrakant Khaire, Sanjay Raut and Yerran Naidu.While requests for backgrounders on Bills being discussed are routine, the MPs’ interest in terror, according to the Parliament research and reference team, “has been unprecedented”. “This can only be compared with the interest showed by the MPs after Pokharan II or 9/11,” said a member of the Parliament Library and Reference, Research, Documentation and Information Service (LARRDIS), involved in preparing the ready-reckoners for the MPs.“The new interest among MPs on terror is encouraging, but I fail to understand why it doesn’t translate into attendance during the debates. Also, there should be more than just press clippings by way of reference material,” said SP’s Ramjilal Suman.BSP’s Mitrasen Yadav added that the MPs “who cannot afford to have research back-up would like to have more value addition done to what is already being done by the Parliament authorities”.The LARRDIS team puts together press clippings, Government of India reports, Parliament questions, and articles specifically requested by the MPs. For the recent terror debate, however, it put out a bunch of press clippings “due to paucity of time.”JD(U)’s Ejaz Ali, who has put in a request for a backgrounder on Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare, said: “We have been reading about Karkare, whose death, I believe, was a conspiracy. I hope to get some authentic stuff before I raise the issue in the Lok Sabha.”On an average, the LARRDIS receives around 65 requests from MPs in a day, with economic and financial matters topping the list, closely followed by political issues. Legal and constitutional matters, issues related to science and technology, and Defence rank a distant third and fourth respectively.
