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Disruption of Parliament as well as the question and answer session and thereby preventing healthy debate is tantamount to blocking people’s right to make the government accountable through the Opposition, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien MP has said.
‘’A government is accountable to the legislature or Parliament. The Opposition should be able to put the government on the defensive. If there is no Q & A hour, the very functioning of an Assembly or Parliament fails. Ministers may be happy over it but ultimately democracy suffers,’’ he told a meet the press programme here on Saturday.
‘’Parliament is a place of debate and venue for effecting corrective measures and not a place for slogan shouting,’’ he said, in his first official interaction with the media after assuming the post of Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman.
Kurien said that a government with a clear majority is entitled to declare policies but if it is anti-people thereare ways to challenge it and hold protest.
Rejecting the charge that the rights of MPs are being steamrolled, he said that a minimum 30 Bills are pending due to failure of discussion and approval of the Parliament.
Asked about the rising trend of declaring crucial policies just after the Parliament session is over, Kurien said this was being done as a last resort. He said that the executive alone cannot be blamed for the charge of the lessening importance of legislature.
‘’It is however heartening to note that all the standing committees of Parliament are functioning quite well,’’ he noted. He said that he is against criticising the CAG personally or casting aspersions on him but his actions and reports are not final and hence not sacrosanct or above criticism.
‘’A CAG report is not final. It is the PAC of Parliament which deals with it,’’Kurien said.
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