Questions on social welfare top Parliament proceedings

AS COMPOSITION OF RAJYA SABHA IS DIFFERENT, THE QUESTIONS ON INDIA’S SECURITY DO NOT SEEM TO LOSE PROMINENCE

NEW DELHI: Parliament may have seen protests or uproar over border tensions, agriculture laws, defence deals or foreign affairs, but its lawmakers have typically shown greater concern for issues of livelihood and social welfare in their questions, according to data analysed by HT.

A study of the Question Hour of the 17th Lok Sabha and its corresponding period in Rajya Sabha shows that parliamentarians posedmorequeriesonissuessuch as health, education and agriculturethanforeignpolicyordefence.

In the past eight sessions of the Lok Sabha, a total of 13,496 questions were asked on issues related to the health ministry, followed by 10,905 onagricultureand9,138 on education. But parliamentarians asked just 2,787 questions to the external affairs minister and 3,687 to the defence minister.

The numbers reflect the total number of questions posed by members starting from the monsoon session of 2019, the first after the2019LokSabhapolls, andupto this year’s budget session. Officials however, pointed out that only a limitednumberofquestionscould be taken up for oral or written replies. “Every day, we can take only 20 questions for oral replies and 230 for written replies. Also, a member can ask only 5 questions daily. Excess questions are considered lapsed but a member can ask them on some other day,” said RS Kambo, former additional secretary of the Lok Sabha.

Six-term Lok Sabha MP Bhartruhari Mahtab maintained that being elected from the House of the People, lawmakers’ choice of questions also reflect issues in their constituencies. “The Question Hour is essentially a period that is used by lawmakers to raise concerns of the people. Without undermining the debates on the country’s security or on raging issues such as the farm laws, it is one of the most important parts of daily proceedings...”

The use of Question Hour to flag problems in constituencies and to get an instant reply from the government perhaps explains the high number of questions asked on railways, the key connectivity link in rural India and smaller towns.

In the Rajya Sabha, too, the social sector has found higher priority but as the composition of the Rajya Sabha is different in nature from the lower house, the larger questions on India’s security do notseemtolosetheirprominence. While 4,547 questions were asked on health issues, another 4,365 questions were submitted for the home ministry and 4,440 for the finance ministry.

The priority of MPs also varies depending on prevailing issues. After the ordinance was promulgated on three farms laws in June 2020, the monsoon session of Parliament saw 2,024 questions on agriculture — the highest in the eight sessions of 17th Lok Sabha.