How does the Lok Sabha function? Who is responsible for the smooth functioning of the Indian parliament?
India is the world’s largest democracy with over 900 million eligible voters. Elections to the Indian Parliament are held once every 5 years and citizens across the country get a chance to elect their representative. In all 543 members are elected and these members form the Lok Sabha, or the “people’s house”. Very often our definition of democracy starts and ends with the election. In reality though, elections are only one part of the democratic process and it is in the Lok Sabha that democracy is really in action.
So how does the Lok Sabha function and who is responsible for its smooth running?
A problem of scale
Imagine you are in a room with 5 other people having a discussion on where to have food. Few want to have Dosa for dinner. Some others can’t think of anything other than Pizza. And one person who is health conscious suggests that everyone should be eating salads. Familiar situation? Imagine the effort needed before all 5 of you can finally agree to have one cuisine? Along the way you may need to make compromises on your first choice, or convince others to follow your suggestion provided you will support their recommendation next time.
The Lok Sabha speaker is the ‘ring master’
Now let’s scale up this problem. Instead of 5 people, you have 543 people. And instead of discussing about dinner menu, you are discussing laws and rules for the country. It becomes immediately clear that the Lok Sabha cannot function unless there are clearly written down rules that everyone follows.
| Did you know… |
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| The Election Commission of India (EC) is responsible for conducting all elections in India. The EC is governed by the rules framed in the Constitution. For the purpose of conducting elections, the entire country is divided into ‘constituencies’. In simple terms, a constituency is a geographical area such that all eligible citizens staying within that area elect their own representative. Karnataka, for example, has 28 constituencies. This means that the state of Karnataka has been broken down into 28 geographical areas and the voters in those 28 areas elect separate representatives. Elected representatives are also referred to as ‘members of the house’. |
The Ring Master
The Lok Sabha speaker is the ‘ring master’ who ensures all rules are followed and the house functions smoothly. And the speaker cannot perform her/his job without the co-operation of all the members of the house.
It has been said of the Office of the Speaker that while the members of Parliament represent the individual constituencies, the Speaker represents the full authority of the House itself. He/She symbolises the dignity and power of the House over which he/she is presiding.
From ‘Office of the Speaker of Lok Sabha’
Electing the Speaker
With the speaker being a crucial figure in running the house, the very first business that the house takes up when it meets after a general election is to elect a speaker. The speaker has to be one of the elected members in the house, he/she cannot be an outsider. Usually each political party or group will have a candidate of their choice and each member in the house gets to chose their preference. Each member can cast one and only one vote.
| Did you know… |
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| The Speaker is usually from the ruling party, although anybody can become the speaker as long as he gets majority votes. There are no gender restrictions for a speaker and Lok Sabha has had both male and female speakers. Current speaker of the Lok Sabha (2021) is Shri Om Birla. Remember that the speaker should also an elected representative and can never be an outsider? Om Birla represents Kota constituency in Rajasthan. |
Please have a seat
When you have 500+ members in a room and want to conduct business, it is important to know who is seated where. Remember that members of the house get to vote at the end of discussions and their vote will not be correctly recorded if they are not in the right seat. As with other things, there are certain rules followed on where members are seated in the Lok Sabha.
Speaker’s podium
The speaker’s chair is placed such that she/he can get a commanding view of the entire house. Any member, even if they are seated in the last benches, can very easily draw the attention of the speaker towards them.
Leader of the House
To the right of the speaker are the seats of the ruling part. Seated on the first row, closest to the speaker is the leader of the house. Usually, this post is held by the Prime Minister of India. Right next to the leader of the house is the seat of the second most important person in the government. This position is usually held by the Home Minister, Defense Minister or the Finance Minister.
| Did you know… |
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| Right behind the leader of the house is the seat of the Parliamentary Affairs Minister. This minister and his/her ministry is responsible for working with the speaker and the opposition parties to plan which laws and bills have to be introduced in the house. |
Leader of the Opposition
At the other end, facing the leader of the house, is the seat of the leader of the opposition. This post is held by the leader of the largest political party or group that is not part of the government.
Other Members
The remaining members of parliament occupy their seats such that
- Ruling party members are seated closer to the leader of the house
- Opposition party members are seated closer to the leader of the opposition
- Members of one political party are allocated seats next to each other
- Within members of a political party, the leaders of the party get seats in the front and junior members get seat towards the back
Secretariat
The speaker is assisted in his tasks by members of the Lok Sabha Secretariat. Officers of the secretariat are well versed in the day to day function of the house and help the speaker ensure that procedures and practices are followed correctly. Select members of the secretariat are always seated inside the Lok Sabha, but they cannot participate in any proceedings/discussions in the house.
A day in the Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha starts its sitting at 11AM and has a break from 1PM to 2PM. In the evening the sitting usually ends at 6PM. Of course, this is only a general guidance and if there are matters of national importance being discussed the house sits beyond the 6PM end time.
The primary job of the Lok Sabha is to
- Keep the government accountable and answerable to the people
- Frame new laws as applicable
- Discuss matters of public and national importance
Let us see how a day in the Lok Sabha is structured to meet these goals.
Question Hour
The first hour of the sitting, from 11AM to 12PM, is dedicated to questions that members have for the government. This time is called Question Hour and the government is duty bound to answer all questions raised in parliament.
| Did you know… |
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| Questions are of two types – starred and unstarred. Starred questions have to be answered by minister in person in the house. Unstarred questions will be given written answers. Members should submit their questions 15 days in advance to the speaker before it gets answered. |
Zero Hour
Immediately after the question hour is the ‘Zero Hour’. The zero hour is so called because it starts at 12PM – neither morning, nor afternoon! In this 30 minute slot, any member can raise a question on a matter of public importance that was previously answered in the question hour but needs more clarification. The idea of a half-an-hour discussion time is to make sure matters of importance get sufficient attention and are not limited just to simple Q&A in question hour.
Business of the day
With the Q&A part of the day out of the way, the Lok Sabha takes up other business as planned.
| Did you know… |
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| Remember the parliamentary affairs minister, the person who sits right behind the leader of the house? This minister is responsible for listing down any laws and rules that the government wants to introduce in parliament. Of course, the list has to be shared with the speaker and only with the speaker’s approval will the item be taken up in the house. Usually, this information will also be shared with opposition leaders so that they can study the new law and come prepared for detailed discussions. |
The vast majority of time in the Lok Sabha is spent on this activity. This is the not-so-glamorous part of the house work and gets reported very less in media, but in reality the laws being passed every year deeply influence our day to day life.
Brahmastras of Parliamentary democracy
In Hindu mythology, Brahmastra is a super special weapon that needs to be used with great care. In the parliament too, there are such weapons that the members can use and attempt to force the government to listen to their grievances or even force the government to resign.
Adjournment Motion
Suppose there is a matter of great public importance that a member wants to discuss. Example, the issue of the rising cases of COVID-19 in the country. A member wants this topic to be discussed at length in the house and he expects the government and the health minister to respond back in detail as to how they plan to control the epidemic.
This discussion cannot come under Question hour, since the question in the question hour should have been given in writing 15 days in advance. It also cannot be discussed in Zero hour as it was never a part of the answer in the Question hour. Being a matter of urgent importance, the member cannot submit a new question and wait for another 15 days for an answer – so he/she brings out the Brahmastra, an Adjournment motion.
Adjournment means suspension. An adjournment motion is a request to immediately suspend all activities of the house and take up just this one topic for discussion
The Adjournment motion, once accepted by the speaker, supersedes other business matters and should be taken up for discussion. Adjournment motions can be accepted by speaker at any time of the day. Usually, such motions are taken up at 4PM and a minimum of 2.5 hours of discussion time provided. This means that discussions will finish at 6:30PM. In reality, many adjournment motions are taken up earlier in the day and the discussions run many, many hours till quite late in the night.
| Did you know… |
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| As a rule, once an adjournment motion is taken up for discussion, the house has to complete the discussion on it before closing for the day. |
No Confidence Motion
As per Article 75 of the constitution, the government under the Prime Minister is answerable to the parliament. A majority of members in the Lok Sabha should have confidence in the council of ministers for them to continue. If there is a lack of confidence, the Lok Sabha can remove a minister or the entire council of ministers via a no confidence motion. At least 50 members should have signed the no confidence motion before the speaker accepts it.
As soon as the no confidence motion is accepted for discussion, all regular business activity is stopped. The discussion could last hours or even days and always ends in a voting. If the no confidence motion fails, the government survives. If the no confidence motion wins, the government has to resign.
Special Days
While the Lok Sabha and the parliament in general is busy every day a session is on, some days draw extra attention. Two of the most important events in the calendar of the parliament are the ‘President’s Address’ and the ‘Finance Bill’.
Thanking the President
The President of India addresses a joint session of both houses of the parliament once a year. All members of the Lok Sabha and Raja Sabha come together in the Central Hall and listen to the President. The President’s speech is written by the government and represents the views of the government. Remember that in a democratic setup, the ultimate power is with the people and their representatives in the Lok Sabha, so in many ways even the President is not above the parliament.
Once the President finishes his address, over the next few weeks members in each house get a chance to discuss the content in detail. The government moves a motion thanking the President for his time and his speech and this motion is put to vote. The government should win this vote, else it is morally bound to resign.
Finance Bill
Perhaps the most widely anticipated day in the Lok Sabha, as far as a common citizen is concerned, is the day when the finance bill is presented.
Never heard about the finance bill? Maybe you’ve heard about it in its more glamorous avatar – the Union budget. The budget is presented by the Finance minister and describes the income/expense of the government, plans for new financial allocations and changes in taxation for income and goods. TV channels and newspapers wait with bated breath for the budget to be presented and spend a day or two discussing it in depth. And once that’s out of the way, we wait for a year for the next budget to be presented!
Tracking your member
For our democracy to flourish, we the people should always keep track of what our representatives are doing in parliament. Want to know how many discussions your local representative is participating in? Very easy, the Lok Sabha secretariat publishes that list. Check here and see how your representative is faring.
Conclusion
The Lok Sabha represents the democratic will of the people of India. The government is answerable to the people through the elected representatives of the Lok Sabha. In fact, the government can continue to be in power only if it enjoys confidence of majority of Lok Sabha members.
While the parliament is usually considered as a place where lot of yelling and shouting happens, we must realize that most of this happens with good intentions. A lot of hard work and passionate discussions happen in the Lok Sabha during passing of bills and legislations. These discussions, and their outcome, are central to proper governance of our country.
Further Reading
Official website of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha describing the speaker’s role.
Rules of Lok Sabha are documented here. While lengthy, certain sections such as question hour and adjournment motions are interesting read. Note that there are many types of motions that can be raised in Parliament such as privilege motion, calling attention motion, censure motion and point of order.
You can read here the number of bills passed by parliament since 2019. It is a pretty impressive list.
The easiest way to understand the functioning of parliament is to watch a parliament session in action. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha proceedings are live streamed on TV and on their respective youtube channels.
Food for thought
What do you think about the rules governing the Lok Sabha? Do you think it is important for us to know more about this so that we can make sure our representatives are held accountable? How do you think we can get to know more about the functioning of the Lok Sabha? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
