It’s what MPs do: List of unparliamentary words is not such a big deal. Quality of law-making is the real House test

Source: This post is based on the article “It’s what MPs do: List of unparliamentary words is not such a big deal. Quality of law-making is the real House test” published in The Times of India on 15th Jul 22.

Syllabus: GS2 – Parliament

Relevance: Parliamentary debates and related issues

News:  A list of ‘unparliamentary’ words and phrases, published by the Lok Sabha secretariat, saw opposition leaders accusing the government of trying to gag them.

Why the accusations hold no ground?

Publishing such words has been happening since 1950s.

The list is not a diktat, it’s based on rulings by presiding officers in parliamentary and assembly proceedings in India and Commonwealth countries.

And none of the words is banned.

Presiding officers will expunge remarks they deem unacceptable.

Also, there are easy workarounds for many words listed as unparliamentary.

Way forward

Parliamentary secretariats should not entirely take a mechanical approach.

– House discussions must also reflect the liveliness of the politics in a democracy.

MPs can also help by reminding themselves that the five minutes of news television coverage they get for using unparliamentary words do nothing for their legislative career.

Ultimately, a Parliament is judged by the quality of its debate and its law-making.

What’s needed in greater measure is extensive deliberations in smaller parliamentary committees and deeper House debates on complex issues.