Duties of Members of Parliament 28th March 2014 Manasi Tatke GreenEarth Social Development Consulting Pvt. Ltd. [email protected] (Prepared as an input for the Governance Blueprint) Page 1 of 14 MPs and Parliamentarians Quotes: "The skill of a great leader lies in narrowing the numbers of those whom he angers and the duration of their anger. But anger them he must (and) risk his popularity with them…Mahatma Gandhi (did this). Ram Manohar Lohia1 'I was never a bird on the unpinioned wing,” Winston Churchill once told the young Jonathan Aitken. “You see, my boy, when I got up to speak, I always knew precisely where every noun and adjective would go and how every piece of punctuation would bed into my speech.” Winston Churchill:2 Roles of MPs and Parliamentarians is not sufficiently addressed – in fact the question seems to be missing from academic research too. Not much literature is found on the characteristics of a good MP. Duties of MPs On February 2, 2009, an RTI application was filed by activist Dev Ashish Bhattacharya with the Election Commission seeking details of duties, responsibilities and accountability of MPs and MLAs. The commission replied that it was "not concerned with information sought" and it had no such information. On an appeal, the commission's appellate authority ruled that the query should have been transferred to the ministry of parliamentary affairs and ministry of law and justice. Lok Sabha secretariat said on June 3, 2009 that there was "no provision either in the Constitution or the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha defining duties and responsibilities of members of Parliament or through which the accountability can be fixed on non‐performing MPs". A series of RTI queries filed with the central government and state assemblies show that there are no duties and responsibilities for elected representatives of the people.3 A detailed Code of Conduct of for UK’s MPs clearly states the duties of the parliamentarians.4 Duties of Members 4. By virtue of the oath, or affirmation, of allegiance taken by all Members when they are elected to the House, Members have a duty to be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen, her heirs and successors, according to law. 5. Members have a duty to uphold the law, including the general law against discrimination. 1 http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/The+provocateur/1/6920.html 2 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/3259953/Where‐have‐all‐the‐parliamentary‐orators‐ gone.html 3 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/MPs‐MLAs‐have‐no‐duties‐and responsibilities/articleshow/7985796.cms 4 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmcode/1885/188502.htm#a1 Page 2 of 14 6. Members have a general duty to act in the interests of the nation as a whole; and a special duty to their constituents. 7. Members should act on all occasions in accordance with the public trust placed in them. They should always behave with probity and integrity, including in their use of public resources. IV. General Principles of Conduct 8. In carrying out their parliamentary and public duties, Members will be expected to observe the following general principles of conduct identified by the Committee on Standards in Public Life in its First Report as applying to holders of public office.[1] These principles will be taken into account when considering the investigation and determination of any allegations of breaches of the rules of conduct in Part V of the Code. "Selflessness Holders of public office should take decisions solely in terms of the public interest. They should not do so in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. Integrity Holders of public office should not place themselves under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organisations that might influence them in the performance of their official duties. Objectivity In carrying out public business, including making public appointments, awarding contracts, or recommending individuals for rewards and benefits, holders of public office should make choices on merit. Accountability Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office. Openness Holders of public office should be as open as possible about all the decisions and actions that they take. They should give reasons for their decisions and restrict information only when the wider public interest clearly demands. Honesty Holders of public office have a duty to declare any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interest. Page 3 of 14 Leadership Holders of public office should promote and support these principles by leadership and example." V. Rules of Conduct 9. Members are expected to observe the following rules and associated Resolutions of the House. 10. Members shall base their conduct on a consideration of the public interest, avoid conflict between personal interest and the public interest and resolve any conflict between the two, at once, and in favour of the public interest. 11. No Member shall act as a paid advocate in any proceeding of the House. 12. The acceptance by a Member of a bribe to influence his or her conduct as a Member, including any fee, compensation or reward in connection with the promotion of, or opposition to, any Bill, Motion, or other matter submitted, or intended to be submitted to the House, or to any Committee of the House, is contrary to the law of Parliament. 13. Members shall fulfil conscientiously the requirements of the House in respect of the registration of interests in the Register of Members' Financial Interests. They shall always be open and frank in drawing attention to any relevant interest in any proceeding of the House or its Committees, and in any communications with Ministers, Members, public officials or public office holders. 14. Information which Members receive in confidence in the course of their parliamentary duties should be used only in connection with those duties. Such information must never be used for the purpose of financial gain. 15. Members are personally responsible and accountable for ensuring that their use of any expenses, allowances, facilities and services provided from the public purse is in accordance with the rules laid down on these matters. Members shall ensure that their use of public resources is always in support of their parliamentary duties. It should not confer any undue personal or financial benefit on themselves or anyone else, or confer undue advantage on a political organisation. 16. Members shall never undertake any action which would cause significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole, or of its Members generally. 17. The Commissioner may not investigate a specific matter under paragraph 16 which relates only to the conduct of a Member in their private and personal lives. According to the Parliament of Canada, 5 5 http://www.parl.gc.ca/content/lop/researchpublications/prb0204‐e.htm Page 4 of 14 The central principles of parliamentary government, shared by systems based on the Westminster model, are reflected in formulations of the role of Parliament and its members developed by John Stuart Mill and Walter Bagehot in the nineteenth century. They portray a sovereign representative assembly performing three central tasks: (1) to consider, refine and pass legislation; (2) to hold government accountable for its administration of the laws and authorize the expenditure of the required funds; and (3) to determine the life of the Government through exercising the ability to provide or withhold support. In India, such a detailed system of code of conduct is sorely lacking. What do MPs do?6 Former Labour member of Britain's House of Commons poses it in a collection of writing, Doing Politics, what are MPs for? Wright's question is posed amidst his larger ambition to present a defence of politics and politicians in these times when their absolutely pivotal role in underwriting basic liberties in a democracy is so glibly discounted. He notes that breaking down the job description of an MP to its bare essentials — of seeing to one's constituents, voting in divisions, and serving on committees — does not quite capture the nature of the task. Neither, he adds, does a more thorough list of the functions an MP performs tabulated by a Commons committee: such as supporting her party in Parliament, in government or in opposition; representing constituents individually and as a constituency; holding the government to account by scrutinizing its functioning, challenging it and nudging it in certain direction; initiating, scrutinizing and giving final shape to legislation; shaping policy, on the floor of the House and in committees, and explaining her party's position to the public. What these objectively tabulated criteria miss is practically every MP's constant activity in "campaigning to get re‐elected", in individual and party terms. The terms of this activity are more difficult to determine or, indeed, to appraise, but this is the KRA that matters to most: "What MPs have in common is that they are members of a professional political class, paid for out of public funds to sustain the national and local political battle." Within the legislature, moreover, MPs can be divided into the "when" people and the "why" people. The "when" people, says Wright, are focused on moving up, into office, nearer the front benches in allotment of seats in the House, into key parliamentary committees. This ambition is essential to a healthy House, because in a parliamentary system MPs are indispensable for "providing the rather shallow pool of people from who governments have to be chosen".