The Opposition on September 2 slammed the Centre for doing away with the Question Hour during the monsoon session of Parliament that begins on September 14. It accused the government of using the coronavirus outbreak to reduce “Parliament to a notice board”.
“I said four months ago that strongmen leaders would use the excuse of the pandemic to stifle democracy & dissent. The notification for the delayed Parliament session blandly announces there will be no Question Hour. How can this be justified in the name of keeping us safe?” Congress MP Shashi Tharoor wrote on Twitter on September 2.
A day earlier, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said in a notification that in the wake of ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there would be no Question Hour.
The Question Hour is the first hour in House that allows members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to ask questions from the government.
The notification also said there would be no private members' business. However, Zero Hour, which follows and is a more informal form of the Question Hour, will be on but has been curtailed to 30 minutes.
The monsoon session of Parliament starts on September 14 and concludes on October 1. This will be the first time that the two House will work in shifts—the Lok Sabha will sit from 9am to 1pm on the first day and from 3pm to 7pm till October 1. The Rajya Sabha will sit from 3pm to 7pm the first day and 9am to 1pm for the remaining session. Parliament will also meet on weekends.
“Questioning the government is the oxygen of parliamentary democracy. This Govt seeks to reduce Parliament to a notice-board & uses its crushing majority as a rubber-stamp for whatever it wants to pass. The one mechanism to promote accountability has now been done away with,” Tharoor wrote in another tweet.
Trinamool Congress’ Rajya Sabha member Derek O'Brien said that doing away with the Question Hour was like murdering democracy.
"MPs required to submit questions for Question Hour in Parliament 15 days in advance. Session starts 14 September. So Question Hour cancelled ? Opposition MPs lose right to question govt. A first since 1950? Parliament overall working hours remain same so why cancel Question Hour? Pandemic excuse to murder democracy," he said.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is learnt to have reached out to the Opposition, explaining why the Question Hour was scrapped.
The minister spoke to Opposition leaders including Congress’s Ghulam Nabi Azad and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, and TMC's O’Brien.
Last week, Chowdhury had written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, urging him not to curtail the power of the members to ask questions and raise issues during the session. Curtailing the question and zero hours would not be in the interest of elected representatives, especially amid the pandemic, he said.
“If this is true, it is not just a violation of a member’s right, but it also means that Govt is uncomfortable answering questions on their Governance. Govt is answerable to people & any move to cancel Question Hour reflects the autocratic mindset of Govt,” another Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Mallikarjun Kharge tweeted.
His party colleague from Odisha and Lok Sabha member Saptagiri Ulaka said it would be the first time in the history of Parliament that there would be no Question Hour. “Government is scared of opposition & using pandemic to avoid scrutiny,” Ulaka tweeted.
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