Reports say every minute of Parliament
activist costs Rs. 2.5 lakh (Rs. 250,000) and most of it has been wasted in the
recent parliamentary history of India.
And the season is here, yet again.
The issue is being debated intensely as the
Parliament is in session and its working days so far, 10 days of this Monsoon
Session, have been totally washed away in chaos.
Congress and the opposition parties
supporting its stand are demanding resignation of External Affairs Minister
Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan's chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia for
helping Lalit Modi and Madhya Pradesh's chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for
Vyapam scam in the state. Obviously, going by the politics of the day, the BJP
will never agree to such demands.
And as everyone is maintaining the stands
taken, no one is listening to anyone. If we go by the audible records of the
days in both Houses, voices of the Speakers of both Houses (Lok Sabha and Rajya
Sabha) are the most clear and audible ones - trying to run their Houses and
trying to discipline the members (of Parliament, that seldom happens). That
speaks a lot.
Obviously, that is taxpayers' money which
our policymakers so easily waste. In fact, the Parliament of has become synonymous
with ruckus and chaos and its disruptions have become so routine that when it functions,
it becomes a news.
And are policymakers are openly vocal and probably,
insistent on it.
So, when a union minister proposed that the
Narendra Modi government was considering bringing the MPs under 'no work, no
pay' principle, the ears became spontaneously sceptical, taking the news with a
fistful of salt.
And lo! Soon, the minister that had said so
took U-turn saying he never said so.
Yes, the issue is a burning one and the suggestion,
if someone from the policymaking benches moots so, would be the logical one, in
fact the most pertinent one. After all, bureaucracy comes under 'no work, no
pay'. It is used in many private jobs and in corporate houses.
But our policymakers who see disrupting the
Parliament daily as one of their democratic rights, even if it means loss of
nation's resources, even if means nothing productive happening at a place where
policies running the country are made and modified, would never agree to it.
And reactions by parliamentarians on the 'alleged'
suggestion of the union minister only reaffirm so.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
