Praliament Ailment

A few days back I posted on the Government ducking the Parliament by not convening the monsoon session, despite grave issues facing the nation.

Now we have the official figures. Parliament, as of date, has met only for, hold your breath, 32 (just thirty two days) in 2008. Of course the parliament is in session. Assuming that it will sit for another 2 weeks in the coming days, the total number of days it has met will be less than 50, the lowest in its history. Which means our MPs dont do anything for more than 315 days in a year. Imagine you and me working (not working) for less than 50 days in a year and getting fabulous perks. Also, one needs to understand, out of this 32 days of sitting so far, at least 10 of them have been abandondened when some party or other had stalled the parliaments proceedings. Now, you can count for yourself how much they actually work in a year. What a tragedy!

Contrast this with what was in the past. From 1951 till 1999, the parliament met for more than 100 days a year regularly. Even during 1976, the emergency period, it met for 98 days. To put things in perspective, in 1953 and 1954, it met for 137 days and in 1956, it met for 151 days, the maximum.

Since the turn of the millenium, the average days have come down drastically and has been hovering around the 50 day mark. This is inspite of an unwritten agreement between the political parties that Parliament will meet for at least 100 days.

But then what will be the value of a Politician's word if it were not to be broken?

Why should we elect MPs if they are going to play hookey?