When members of the lower house of parliament — the Lok Sabha — are elected following independent India’s 15th general election, it’s devoutly to be wished that the newly-elected MPs will take their duties more seriously. Attendance records of the 543 members of the recently dissolved 14th Lok Sabha, elected to discharge the critical responsibility of debating and enacting legislation and policies to improve the lives of 1.2 billion Indians, indicate that most of them were negligent in attending work, safe in the knowledge that no punishment awaits them. Topping the absentee list was the infamous RJD member from Bihar, Pappu Yadav (4 percent attendance), followed by Bollywood actor Govinda Arun Ahuja (12 percent) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s Shibu Soren (14 percent), who was in and out of jail on charges of murder.
The original sin of shirking work was compounded by disruptive behaviour — a notable characteristic of the 14th Lok Sabha in particular — within both houses of Parliament during their short parliamentary sessions. The sobering truth that each minute of time lost due to the obstructions of Lok Sabha MPs costs the exchequer Rs.34,500 apart, the upshot of all this is that important legislation is passed without debate and scrutiny. On the last day of the penultimate session of the 14th Parliament, a record 31 Bills were enacted into law. This irresponsibility of elected MPs presents bureaucrats who draft legislation, which should be thoroughly debated in Parliament before being enacted into law, ample opportunities to award themselves wide discretionary powers.
Inevitably, ill-considered laws open to wide interpretation and conferring a plethora of discretionary powers upon bureaucrats are used by government babus to extort bribes and speed money from the citizenry. That’s the prime factor behind India ranking among the ten most corrupt societies worldwide. Citizens need to bear this in mind as they ready to exercise their franchise in the imminent general election.