Opinion Mahua Moitra cash-for-query case: It’s not so easy to ask a question in Parliament

They are usually divided into two categories. First, the starred questions, which require an oral answer by the concerned minister on the floor of the House and are printed on green sheets of paper. Then come the unstarred questions, which are given written answers printed on white sheets of paper.

Beyond the above, there are also the rather obscure short notice questions and questions that can be posed to private members. The ministries are grouped into blocs for different days of a session. Certain criteria, such as the competence of the Union government in the matter and national security, among others, govern the admissibility process with the presiding officer having the final say.

Parliamentary Questions are critical for upholding the principle of accountability in the government. By asking for information, the MPs not only help in keeping the establishment on its toes but also help in dissemination of facts in the public domain that otherwise may have been withheld.

However, productivity of Question Hour has shown a dismal trend of late. In the Budget Session 2023, where the entire Union Budget was passed without any discussion, the Question Hour clocked a mere 19 per cent productivity in Lok Sabha and seven per cent in Rajya Sabha. Likewise, in the Monsoon Session, only nine per cent of the questions that were listed for oral answers were taken up. To put it in perspective, just 10 minutes were spent everyday in the LS in the session on questions.

This is emblematic of the deep erosion of parliamentary traditions and signals the need to restore accountability in the highest representative body of the country.

Coming to how questions are filed, the MPs at present have a Member’s Portal, a digital account that they can use to access and register interventions in the Parliament. Each Lok Sabha MP can file five questions, while a Rajya Sabha MP can file seven questions for each day of the session for relevant ministries 15 days in advance.

Questions to be answered on any given day, whether in writing or orally, are determined by a randomised ballot. Separate lists of starred and unstarred questions are fed into a computerised ballot. Based on this, 20 starred and 230 unstarred questions are listed for answers in the Lok Sabha, whereas 15 starred and 175 unstarred questions are listed in the Rajya Sabha.

Individual MPs exercise no control in this process and have no means to ensure that the questions they file are actually balloted. Even this mechanised process, however, does not ensure that all MPs get an equal chance to pose questions to the government. As per an analysis from 2016, 7.5 per cent of the Lok Sabha MPs asked 50 per cent of starred questions and 13 per cent asked 80 per cent of all questions. There is no system of rotation that can ensure that all MPs have an opportunity to get their question listed. This can lead to a situation where a whole session goes by with an MP not getting a starred question balloted.

Problems do not end with the luck-based ballot system. Questions are routinely rejected without proper reasoning, merely citing non-compliance with admissibility criteria. The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Secretariats often modify the language of balloted questions, sometimes even changing the ministries to which the question was originally posed. Thus, there is no assurance that a question will be perceived and answered in the same manner as intended by the MP.

India also lacks an effective mechanism for directly posing questions to the Prime Minister. A specified time is not set aside for Prime Minister’s Questions, as is the practice in the UK. While “Prime Minister” is part of Group C and Group IV of the Groupings of Ministries in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively, questions balloted under the same are few. During the entirety of the tenure of the present Lok Sabha, only one question addressed to the PM was balloted, that too in 2019. Rajya Sabha has had no such questions balloted since 2017. Even when questions have been balloted in the past, they have been answered by the minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office and not the Prime Minister himself.

The procedural roadblocks, declining productivity and lack of direct accountability of the PM, are some of the reasons for the dwindling importance of the Question Hour. The renewed discussion around parliamentary questions presents an opportunity to evaluate and address these shortcomings. This would ensure that questions effectively serve their intended purpose of keeping the government in check.

The writers are Legislative Assistants to Members of Parliament (LAMP) Fellows, 2022-23 batch. They worked with MPs from the Lok Sabha