Silent question

Every morning the two Houses of Parliament begin proceedings at the rather leisurely hour of 11 a.m. In each House,a little booklet is circulated carrying the 20 starred questions for that day. An extraordinary amount of groundwork goes into selecting these questions,ascribing them to particular MPs,and putting on notice the concerned minister. Questioner and questioned the minister are expected to be in attendance and,in case either cannot be present for some reason s/he is expected to alert the chair and designate a stand-in. In fact,ministers on call are routinely seen with stacks of papers to prepare them for any eventuality that may come by way of supplementary questions. Parliaments website underlines the importance of the entire exercise: The government is,as it were,put on its trial during the Question Hour and every minister whose turn it is to answer questions has to stand up and answer for his or her administrations acts of omission and commission.

It is therefore obviously shocking that once Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar had overseen the first three questions on Monday morning,she was forced to adjourn the House because more than 30 MPs against whose names the remaining 17 questions had been listed were not present. Certainly,written answers to those 17 questions will be circulated. But by failing to be present the MPs denied the House the opportunity to pose supplementary questions and deepen this exercise in accountability. What is truly telling,in addition,is the political spectrum covered by this record in absenteeism: BJP,Congress,JDU,CPI,AIMIM amongst them. One of the offending MPs tried to obfuscate his discourtesy by pointing out that since the House normally covers about five questions on average in that hour,he was liable to be doubtful that his question,listed seventh,would be taken up so soon that morning.

That is disingenuous,and the floor managers of the above mentioned parties must be watched for the seriousness with which they follow up this lapse. At the end of the last Lok Sabha,a roll call of dishonour included MPs whod never asked a question. Monday added a new criterion for taking stock of the House.