Nobel laureate Amartya Sen pitches for food security bill

In the backdrop of Parliament being rendered dysfunctional by the opposition for the 24th day in succession today, India's Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen has appealed to MPs to be "responsible" and discuss issues inside the houses instead of disrupting them.

Sen, known to have a left leaning, also made a strong if indirect pitch for the passage of the food security bill, known to be a pet project of Sonia Gandhi, the Congress president and chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance government.

Addressing a conference in New Delhi organised by the Right To Food campaign and the National Campaign for the People's Right To Information, Sen criticised all political parties for failing to allow Parliament to function and pass social legislation, including the Food Security Bill and the Grievance Redressal Bill, and legislation to protect whistleblowers.

He said legislations like the food security bill were important as they would lead to "substantial enhancement" of entitlements. Passing an ordinance was a poor option to passing the bill through Parliament after debate, he added.

Sen said "killing debate" raised suspicion that the opposition arguments were weak and they were not interested in debate or discussion. The people were losing faith in Parliament, the biggest institution of a democracy, he said.

M R Madhavan of the Parliamentary Research Service told the gathering that the recent past has seen an "alarming" decline in working days per year of Parliament.

"While in the 1950s and 1960s the norm was 140-150 working days per year, this has crashed to 50-60 days in recent years," he said.

He added that even a small number of MPs can disrupt Parliament and hold it to ransom - "Informed debate is also a casualty of this situation as there is no space or time for debate."

Development economist Jean Drèze said apart from food and grievance redressal bills, other important social legislations were also being held up by a political paralysis for which all political parties bear some responsibility.

"The stalemate must be resolved whatever it takes - even an extension of the Budget session of Parliament if need be," he said.

Nikhil Dey of National Campaign for People's Right to Information stressed that the Grievance Redressal Bill was important for successful implementation of all social programmes, and that all political parties support it. He said people "cannot wait" any longer for this bill, which is closely linked to their survival.