Thiruvananthapuram: If Kerala was determined to secure its rightful share and more from the Narendra Modi Government, the convening of the first conference of the newly-elected MPs would have been the first demonstration of its resolve. However, the manner in which the MPs Conference has been called suggests that the UDF government has still not woken up to the fact that
a Congress-led UPA government has been booted out of office.
The MPs Conference, on June 27, has been called late. “What is the point in conducting a pre-budget session when both the railway and union budgets are just a few days away? Documents perhaps would have already been prepared,” said Rajya Sabha MP, Dr T N Seema.
“An MPs’ Conference should be held fairly early so that the MPs get the time to study issues, understand requirements of the state and take them up with the ministers concerned,” she added.
What’s more, the Conference is being convened two days after the new MPs have been asked to start submitting their questions and submissions to be raised during the coming Budget session.
The fundamental data to prepare their queries and speeches are mined from a 200-page ‘agenda note’ distributed to the MPs before the Conference. Not without a hint of sarcasm, CPM’s Palakkad MP, Mr M B Rajesh, said that the Conference had been called relatively earlier this time.
“There were instances when a conference was called just a couple of days before a session began, also times when it was not even convened,” said Mr Rajesh. Second-time MP, CPM’s P K Biju, said the Conference was a must.
“It is a fruitful exercise. It gives us a chance to voice our concerns and opinions. The state government will list its priorities and we can put forward ours,” Mr Biju said.
The MPs conference is a two-way interaction. The MPs, since they are part of a number of Central committees, will also suggest a number of projects that the state government should take up with the Centre. Mr Biju said his grouse was that they are not convened early enough. Bureaucratic dereliction has done its bit to weaken the interaction. Mr Rajesh said that state government departments should do their homework meticulously.
“There are certain departments that simply make plain statements without offering any empirical data in the agenda note given to us. We have often complained that this will not help the state’s cause,” he said.
The 200-page agenda note distributed to all MPs before the Conference is a compendium of the state’s demands. It will contain details, including status, hurdles and possibilities - of all the projects each of the nearly 40 state government departments had taken up with central assistance.
“We will be able to articulate our views emphatically only if we are given comprehensive information,” Dr Seema said.
Too much of politics, too, have undermined these conferences. “MPs use this as a platform to raise constituency-level issues during these conferences unmindful that such conferences should be strictly apolitical,” said Rajya Sabha MP, Mr K N Balagopal.
The only way out, as many MPs suggested, was to establish another platform for MPs to take up local issues with the state government. During the last two years, charges were raised by even Congress MPs that the conferences were turning out to be just lifeless rituals, merely customary.
“During the first UPA government, the union ministers too were keen to attend the conferences and major issues were taken up with the Centre jointly. But during UPA-II, the opposition were largely ignored and ministers stopped attending the conferences,” a Congress MP said.
For instance, Dr Seema said that the opposition MPs had been clamouring for a liaison arrangement with the Railway Ministry but the UDF Government refused to heed. However, with a BJP government that has the potential to be indifferent to the state’s needs, MPs have no choice but to suspend their political differences and put up a united front.
