The PMs and Advanis energetic exchange makes the argument for a PMs Question Time....
Written by The Indian Express
3 min read
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The pointlessness of opposition walkouts was made clear on Wednesday,when the disruptions and adjournments of the morning,which in no way advanced the discussion on oil prices,the putative reason for the oppositions protest,gave way eventually. What eventually became something of a debate in the Lok Sabha between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and BJP leader L.K. Advani should serve as a lesson in two respects.
First,it shows that the Lok Sabha is still more than capable of serving its intended purpose,as a venue for the discussion of pressing issues,where the executive is held to account. It adds to the body of evidence that an innovation along the lines of the United Kingdoms introduction in 1961 of Prime Ministers Questions is worth considering. A mechanism that adds to the accountability of government and the effectiveness of Parliament and that increases the incentive to stay and debate,instead of walking out is well worth investigating.
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The second point is that the relationship between the executive and the Lok Sabha on questions of foreign agreements continues to be the subject of very live debate. Advani,in the course of the no-confidence motion that followed the Lefts withdrawal of support to UPA-I,had made much of the theory that the government needed to ensure that foreign treaties it signed had the confidence of the House,a variant of the ratification that,for example,American governments must go through. This week he argued that Parliament should be kept informed also of the various actual steps that could hypothetically constitute an approach towards any such agreement. Precedent is murky: while prime ministers traditionally brief the House on their foreign trips,it is nowhere in the world the case that all forms of diplomacy being tried and other tools of foreign policy are necessarily discussed in the House. In several countries,legislative committees are briefed in camera. This discussion also exists at the interface of several fraught questions: the efficacy of Parliament,the virtues of secrecy as against openness,and the effect of domestic politics on foreign treaties. And informed discussion in Parliament is the way in which India must discover the contours of its solution.
