Naresh Gujral’s message to new MPs: Don’t be taken in by Ministers

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Ravi S Singh
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 13

Shiromani Akali Dal MP Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha Naresh Gujral on Saturday advised the newly elected and nominated members not to be taken in by the courtesies and compliments showered on them by the Union Ministers while giving replies to their questions on the floor of the House.

“This may be a ploy to dissuade you from asking uncomfortable supplementary questions,” Gujral said while sharing his 14 years of experience as a parliamentarian.

Gujral, a three-time MP, said this while presiding over a Session on importance of “Question Hour” in Parliament during a two-day Orientation Programme organised by Rajya Sabha Secretariat for new members. Saturday was the first day.

He dwelt on the nuances of the Rules and norms, protocols, formats relating to both the ‘Starred’ and ‘Unstarred’ questions, which are legislative instruments to make the executive accountable to the legislature in a functional democracy.

His tutelary lessons were pepped up with narration of his practical experiences of situations, which were lateral and not available in the Rule Book of Procedure.

Dwelling on the dissuasive tactics resorted to by ministers, Gujral said they would preface the answers by appreciating the questions.

He said that there have been instances in the long past of Cabinet Ministers landing at the residence of Members early morning of the day their questions were listed in the Question Hour urging them to absent themselves from Parliament.

“Many reputations have been made and unmade by the nature of questions,” Gujral said. “Ministers have lost their jobs because they could not answer the questions well.”

He advised new MPs to have a sense of humour, which would add more punch and finesse to their style and diction of their questions.

He urged them never to disrupt proceedings as it distracts and impinges on the time of the precious Question Hour.

“Question Hours is the liveliest part of Parliamentary proceedings.”