A Politics of Avoidance that Must be Questioned

Context:  The recent discontinuation of Question Hour in the Parliament,  in light of pandemic has serious consequences to the fabric of democracy in India.

Importance of Question Hour

• An Instrument of accountability: apart from various others like adjournment motion, calling attention, half­an­hour discussion, and motion of no con?dence.

•  Question Hour is critical on account of its regularity and its availability on the basis of equality to every Member of the both the Houses

• Inclusive: It covers every aspect of government activity, domestic and foreign.

• Transparency: Public can view the performance of their representatives and Ministers.

• Seeking the specifics: They tend to elicit specific information from the government

• The questions are divided into:

• Starred Questions: needing urgent oral answers and allows oral supplementary questions.

• Unstarred Question: requiring written answers.

• Answers given to questions lead to wider debates, inquiries, and even administrative scandals.

• Acts as a Basis of Government’s Authority: The Government can use this to authoritatively explain its position in the matter. 

• Acts as a critique of Government: Explores the intent and the alleged illegality or procedural lacuna of the government decision.

Issues with the discontinuation of Question Hour: marred with “Politics of Avoidance.”

• Unqualified reasoning of discontinuation: The Government’s citing the pandemic as the reason for the said move is challenged by the following:

• International Examples: In many countries, legislative bodies have continued to function with new sets of ‘dos and don’ts’.

• Domestic Examples: some of our State Assemblies functions without substantial changes 

• Abdication of Right to question the government: Deletion of ‘Question Hour’ has understandingly been viewed as a curtailment of the right to question the government. 

Exploring options

• Procedural options: Should have explored procedural options that would retain the substance

• For, E.g. Starred questions with some relaxation like allowing the follow-up questions to be answered in writing the following day.

• Consensus building: Should have resorted to moving a motion to develop a consensus on matters of general public interest. 

Conclusion: The test of a functioning democracy is its ability to face crises — social, economic, political — and seek correctives premised on institutions of democracy. A resort to what has been called ‘the politics of avoidance’ does not help the process.