DC Edit | V-P, Speaker not above criticism

The presiding officers of the two houses of our Parliament, Vice-President and chairman of the Rajya Sabha Jagdeep Dhankhar and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla have cautioned the members about the style of them raising issues inside and out. While Mr Dhankhar would want members to study and analyse the calibration of various indices before they quote them in the House, Mr Birla would not want them to criticise him in social media platforms.

Mr Dhankhar is right in that members must have an idea of the studies they quote while speaking in the house but his argument that “our country cannot be allowed to be hurt by calibration from outside on premise which we don't believe” fails to stand to reason. It may be noticed that Mr Dhankhar’s observation came in response to a member referring to Global Hunger Index, the findings of which were consistently rejected by the Union government. The member pointed out that, as per the index, India is behind our neighbours Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. In fact, World Bank data for 2020 says that when it comes to prevalence of undernourishment of population in percentage terms, India (16 per cent) is indeed behind Nepal (six per cent) and Sri Lanka (three per cent) and marginally ahead of Pakistan (17). It is not the Government of India’s policy not to give credence to the World Bank data; Prime Minister Narendra Modi never misses a chance to pat ourselves on the back when India’s Ease of Doing Business Index rank shows steady progress. Indices do not hurt us, as Mr Dhankhar fears, but facts do.  

Mr Birla’s diktat seems more problematic. It’s well-acknowledged in all parliamentary practices that to protect the rights of its members is one of the prime responsibilities of the Speaker, not to extinguish them. They may have a complaint against the Speaker and it may be raised in the House or outside. It will be gross abuse of parliamentary privileges if the Speaker claims the immunity judges enjoy against public criticism, for the latter are not supposed to engage their critics in public.