The Parliament’s Winter Session has been delayed this year.
What is the role of Parliament in a democracy?
The Constitution provides for the legislature to make laws, scrutinise the functioning of the executive, and hold the executive accountable for its decisions.
The Constitution provides for MPs to raise issues of public importance in Parliament, and examine the Government’s response to problems being faced by citizens through -
Debate - which entails a reply by the concerned minister
Motion - which entails a vote
Motions are made for discussing important issues such as inflation, corruption, drought, etc. or adjourning the business in the house or to express no confidence in the Government.
The Government is collectively responsible to Parliament for its actions.
The Parliament may use various methods including, debates on Bills and issues, questioning ministers during Question Hour and in parliamentary committees.
Question Hour is one of the forums of holding the Government accountable for its actions.
During this hour, MPs pose questions to the ministers regarding the implementation of laws and policies by the Government.
Who convenes Parliament?
The constitution provide for the President to convene the Parliament atleast once in 6 months.
Since the President acts on the advice of the central government, the duration of the session is decided by the Government.
However, this practice of allowing the Government to convene Parliament differs from those followed in other countries.
In a parliamentary democracy, the executive is accountable to Parliament, so there must limited role for the Government in summoning the Legislature.
What is the frequency?
Lok Sabha met for an average of 130 days in a year during the 1950s but these sittings came down to 70 days in the 2000s.
This decline indicates that Parliament was able to transact less business compared to previous years.
To address this, the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution has recommended that Lok Sabha should have at least 120 sittings in a year, while Rajya Sabha should have 100.
There is a lower rate of functioning Question Hour due to the disruptions, which reduce the number of questions that may be answered orally.
While Parliament may sit for extra hours to transact other business, time lost during Question Hour is not made up.
What best practices can be adopted further?
Given the legislature’s role in keeping the executive accountable for its actions, the Parliament should convene itself, so that it can effectively exercise its oversight functions.
There can be a mechanism which scrutinizes and answers the questions asked in the Question Hour with required inter-ministerial expertise and broader government policies.
UK has the Prime Minister’s Question Time on weekly basis to address the questions posed by MPs. Such measures can be adopted.
