Vice-President and Chairperson of Rajya Sabha, M Venkaiah Naidu has expressed concern over poor quality of debate, disruption of proceedings and absence of members in Parliament.
Delivering the Valedictory Address at the National legislators Conference, Naidu said that legislature is the central pillar of democratic governance, which articulates hopes, aspirations and dreams of citizens.
“As such, the legislatures are mandated with the task of catalyzing nation building by propelling socio-economic transformation, “ he said, adding, “ the legislators must take note of the growing perception of the people about the legislatures which is very important for the credibility and functioning of the important law making bodies.
He cautioned that legislatures are meeting for very few days; time for deliberation and the number of legislations is steadily dwindling; quality of debate is declining; disruption of proceedings has come to replace the norms of deliberations and members’ attendance is dipping.
He elaborated that ideal behaviour of the legislators is more important than ideology. Conduct of the legislators in the legislature, constituency and Governing bodies is equally important. Moreover, a self introspection by the legislators on the work done by them on everyday basis is essential for self development, he said.
Naidu said the members must study the topics to be discussed in the legislatures, be accessible to the people, and tour the constituency to understand and address their issues properly.
Naidu reiterated the resolution adopted on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of Independence, August 26 to September 1, 1997, in which the parliamentarians had set certain standards and norms for preserving and enhancing the prestige of Parliament, more especially by maintaining the inviolability of the Question Hour, refraining from transgressing into the official areas of the House, or from slogan shouting, and desisting from any efforts at interruption.
Naidu said that legislators have a greater role in changing the mindset of people, thus development should be the focus as people are demanding it and observing it. People should, therefore, be in the centre of developmental policies and we need to make them partners in development.
Presenting the closing remarks, lok Sabha Speaker Smt. Sumitra Mahajan said that development should be sustainable and we should have a continuous dialogue with all stakeholders, including at the grassroots level. She felt that development and electoral politics should be mixed with party politics. She suggested that legislators should not restrict development to aspirational districts only, but to all districts. She further said that we all have to be alert and create awareness among people about the government schemes and policies so that benefits of development trickle down to every the nook and corner of the country. She thanked the delegates for their keen interest, minute observations, suggestions and meaningful interaction with the Union Ministers and senior parliamentarians.
Union Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley observed that a legislator’s credibility emanates from his conduct and the parameter for judging his credibility is ‘peer recognition’, both inside and outside the House. As such, it is imperative that they imbibe the norms of parliamentary decency and decorum for successful working of democracy. In modern times, we have a huge treasure of knowledge and what we need is to cull out, collate, analyze and then present our arguments on the floor of the House. He urged legislators to have sufficient knowledge of the financial health of the nation. Referring to GST as an example of Centre-State coordination, he emphasized the need of exploring the feasibility of effective harmony between the Centre and State in other areas such as agriculture, social justice, etc.
On the occasion, Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari said that there is no dearth of technology or knowledge but what the legislators require is strong political will and a vision to achieve the kind of development they aspire for He called upon the delegates to learn new ways of finding solutions to the problems and to develop a model plan.