<b>Sunil Jain:</b> Middle class politics

REATIONAL EXPECTATIONS

Many columnists and editors have been critical of the way the upper and middle classes from cities like Mumbai and Delhi have turned activist after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, arguing that the only reason why they’re so concerned this time around is because their favourite watering holes have been attacked; indeed, it’s so elitist that no one went and lit candles at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal even though terrorists killed innocents there as well. That’s probably true, and some of the suggestions/comments are surely stupid (Islamist flags are not the same as Pakistani flags and how does not voting help?), but the editors are also guilty of getting it wrong.

 

For one, albeit indirectly, they are helping the political class — if someone’s coming out against politicians for whatever reason and you’re coming after that person, who are you helping? But more important, it is implicitly assumed the political class represents India, and Bharat if you will. As Arun Shourie pointed out at a seminar of the PRS Legislative Research last week, nearly 60 per cent of those sitting in the Lok Sabha today have got less than 30 per cent of the votes of those eligible to vote — in select Uttar Pradesh constituencies, the number is as low at 12-13 per cent! This is where Shourie’s suggestion of a two-tiered election comes in — only if people get a certain share of the vote, should they be declared elected.

The middle classes, it is true, do not represent India, but make no mistake, by and large, India’s MPs don’t either. This, of course, is also a pointer to the middle classes — don’t dissipate your energies by not voting but ensure the political class takes you more seriously by trying to channelise your votes to parties/candidates who take up your issues. Indeed, the way the middle classes are growing, their numbers are going to be pretty substantial soon — in the top cities, the middle classes are already large enough to make a difference.

But representative or not, just how are our political classes doing? Here’s where the work done by PRS is invaluable. Some highlights of just what Parliament does:

 

Just around a fifth of the time is spent in examining and passing legislation; over half the issues raised by MPs relate to just their constituencies, not to larger national issues of governance.

 

Just how much time is spent on discussing the merits of various Bills is clear from the fact that 40 per cent of Bills are passed within an hour.

 

But even an hour is too much time to spend, so the number of Bills being passed fell from 120 in 1976 to about 45 last year.

 

Sure Bills are passed in less time now, but that’s because they’re examined by various Standing Committees, is what the MPs will tell you. Well, PRS data shows the number of meetings of such committees fell from around 130 in 2005-06 to about 50 last year and the number of reports such committees have filed have halved. How well these committees examine a bill is not clear, but Arun Shourie argues that the voting here is also along party lines — by way of challenge, he says, the voting of the committee on cash-for-votes will be along party lines!

 

Given that the Budget has been passed by voice vote, without even the obligatory reference to Standing Committees on one occasion, this should not come as a surprise, but while the Standing Committee on Demand for Grants met 250 times in 2004-05 (this committee examines the demand for finances of each ministry), this more than halved in 2007-08.

 

Starred questions were the format designed by our founding fathers to put the government on the mat — a member asks a question and the minister replies; but since governments love to obfuscate and not reply directly, the starred question format allows counter questions; but since 40 per cent of the question hour is lost due to interruptions, just 15 per cent of starred questions were answered orally in the life of this Parliament.

The middle class’ solutions may not be on the ball, but right now the onus is on the political class — to show their solutions will work.