Celebrity MPs among top absentees from Parliament

NEW DELHI: A pretty face does not amount to much in politics. Celebrity Members of Parliament may draw crowds but if parliamentary participation is any indicator, they have a long way to go. A study has shown that famous MPs were found wanting both in attendance and participation in debates in Parliament.

None of the 12 MPs tracked attended more than 20% of the total number of days in each session. The absentees were led by Congress MP Govinda who did not attend Parliament on a single day followed by BJP MP Dharmendra. BJP leaders Vinod Khanna and Navjot Singh Sidhu were the other two MPs who had low attendance. National Social Watch's `Citizen's report on governance and development 2008-2009' analysed attendance of MPs in the 11th and 12th sessions of the 14th Lok Sabha and the 210th and 211th session of the Rajya Sabha.

Seven members attended Parliament for less than 10% of the total days. In the Lok Sabha, members did not participate more than four times in 2007, and five members (in both LS and RS) did not participate in the debates even once.

With regard to the number of questions, the pattern is equally dismal. Out of the 12 celebrity MPs, five including Shyam Benegal, Govinda, Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna and Bimal Jalan did not raise a single query. No member has raised even 1% of the total questions in both Houses.

The report notes that MPs who held corporate positions were more efficient. On an average, all eight members raised a fair number of questions and five of them excluding Vijay Mallya and Rajeev Dhoot attended 50% of parliamentary sittings.

Parliamentary record on an average was nothing to boast about and only indicated a fall in standards. Only 173 MPs in the 14th Lok Sabha actually spoke on legislative issues while the House passed nearly 40% of bills with less than one hour of debate. The average hours of working of Parliament was not even 50% of the total time.

Slogan-shouting, walkouts, boycotts and adjournments were increasing over the years. The 11th Lok Sabha lost 5.28% of its time due to pandemonium which went up to 22% by the 14th Lok Sabha. Incidentally, each minute of Parliament costs the exchequer Rs 26,035. "There was not a single session of Parliament during 2008 and 2009 that has not lost valuable man-hours on account of unruly incidents. The year 2008 even witnessed the virtual abrogation of a whole session of Parliament," John Samuel, NSW convener, said.

The report also found increasing absenteeism among MPs with more than 75% of MPs featuring below the median point of 16 or more days of attendance, according to the report.