4 Questions for the Monsoon Session of the Parliament: The Question Hour Dilemma

Been in place for years even before Independence, the Question Hour is one of the fundamental functions of the Parliament -- the heart of any democracy. As we know, the government recently announced the scrapping followed by introducing a written-version of the Question Hour in the much-awaited monsoon Parliamentary session, which is also the first one, post the COVID-19 induced lockdown which has been in place since March 2020. Question Hour is the initial hour of the session during which Members of Parliament (MPs) from all over the country ask questions ranging from legislation to policy making, which the government is accountable to answer. In a nutshell, it is the passage to keep the Members of Parliaments, Cabinet of Ministers, and other executives in check. The Question Hour has proved to be a deadly weapon when it comes to scanning the government for any shortcomings or discrepancies given it was the Question Hour itself, back in 1957 which led to the surfacing of the Mundhra Financial Scam.

Although the practice in its entirety was borrowed from the United Kingdom’s governance model, it seems that this year the Indian government might fail to live up to their version of the practise considering the difficulties and the need of transparency accompanying these unprecedented times. This year the government shall only respond to unstarred questions which is to say that it will respond to questions received in writing ignoring the supplementary questions which generally follow in the case of starred questions. With the huge leaps of advance in technology and medicine, it is safe to say that India and the government is well-equipped to come up with a more interactive and inclusive method to carry out the Question Hour in as much as an inclusive and responsible manner as possible.

Is it just another episode of the Modi-series to shut democractic voices and avoid answering difficult questions?

It does not require a genius to decipher the fact that, since December 2019, the central government has repeatedly made more than several attempts to shut down the voices of the common public, and gradually moving towards minimisation of the public’s participation in policy making and addressing their general feedback or concerns. In this case, the voice of the general public’s representatives on the executive level, that is the MPs, is being hindered. Essentially leads to the lack of a fair chance of the public’s grievances related to the functioning of the government to be heard. One might believe that the written-version of the Question Hour should be sufficient to address the public though indirectly, but the absence of supplementary, or ‘follow-up’ questions eliminates the possibility of a full and fair discussion of the recent events and reduces the efficiency of the process to directly question the accountability. The government is fully capable of hosting a full-fledged Question Hour, but the fact that it has tried it’s least to get it done, speaks a lot about its take on addressing people’s representatives.

A few of the pressing questions that the public expects an answer to:

1. The past couple of months have witnessed multiple natural disasters along with a whole set of problems which have accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic. The government’s response to these difficult situations along with the propagation of the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ vision consist of a long list of questions.

2. The subject of the failure of the economy is another ticking bomb waiting to be set-off.

3. The government’s coronavirus related economic package and the increasing labour issues have also attracted a lot of speculations.

4. The border tensions with China, among others, is definitely a subject of widespread worry and confusion when it comes to the plan of the government to eliminate the potential threats to the nation’s peace and safety.

Vocalising against these issues that the nation currently faces, and the government’s response to these, the Opposition members and other executives are looking for addressal to these concerns in the Monsoon Session. The Question Hour not only lays the foundation for the parliamentary session, but also is the backbone which supports the framework of a democratic nation like ours where the government should be accessible and at the same time is accountable for everything that happens in the country. Having said that, our nation has barely managed to contain the widespread damages brought in by the novel coronavirus, hence eliminating the fairest chance that the general public gets at having their grievances addressed is undoubtedly not the best course of action to follow.

By: Khushi Agarwal

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