Question mark over Question Hour

New Delhi: The question hour will never be the same again. After the sting operation which showed 11 MPs taking money to ask questions, there will always be a lingering suspicion in the Parliament proceedings.

And the case of a not-so-innocent question is not new incident. India's Parliamentary history has been dotted with such incidents.

A paltry sum of Rs 2,000 and Congress MP HG Mudgal had to pay a very heavy price for that bribe. That was in 1951.

An inquiry had confirmed that he had taken money from the Bullion Merchant's Association for asking questions related to their business in Parliament.

The then prime minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, had moved a resolution for his expulsion from Parliament.

And it was a Parliamentary question asked by Feroze Gandhi that forced T T Krishnamachari out of his Finance Minister's job.

"Asking a question helps in bringing information into the public domain. The Mundhra deal which led to a minister resigning, a secretary going out started with a question," former secretary general, Lok Sabha, Subhash Kashyap, said.

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Feroze Gandhi had asked a Parliamentary question about the Life Insurance Corporation putting in Rs 1.24 crore in industrialist Hari Das Mundhra's sinking companies without consulting Parliament's Investment Committee.

The question put the government in a spot and Krishnamachari was forced for quit as finance minister.

But this right to ask questions can be misused.

"If someone is found misusing the right to ask questions he can be hauled up. If he is found to be behaving in a manner derogatory to the house he can be hauled under the privilege law. He can be expelled from the house and even imprisoned," Kashyap says.

The Parliament question is considered sacred in a democracy. It is the one method by which people's representatives seek answers on behalf of the people. But when this right is traded for cash, isn't democracy itself on sale?

"This is tragic. If you are asking irrelevant questions for financial considerations, it is unforgivable," Sanjay Kaul, President, People's Action Group says.

The Ethics Committee of Parliament and internal party inquiries will establish the truth in the case of the 11 MPs caught on camera taking money for asking questions.

The people of India, meanwhile, are waiting to see some accountability in high office.