Young Turks, first timers fail to strike a chord in LS

But, when the House adjourned sine die after a 26-day session on Friday, there was really nothing much to write home about.

A study of the Lok Sabha proceedings says 27 per cent of first-time MPs did not even speak once, while about 38 per cent of the young MPs remained mum. The PRS Legislative Research, an independent organisation studying Parliamentary trends, said first-timers and  young MPs’ performed worse than their elder counterparts. The figure for “silent’ women MPs was 33 percent.

“All three categories of MPs –– first timers, young MPs and women MPs –– saw a fewer proportion participating in debates than the average”, the study said. First time MPs form 59 per cent of each party on an average and at 81 per cent, the BSP has the highest proportion of such MPs.

Each first-time MP participated in about 2.0 debates as compared with 2.5 for an average MP. Young MPs from the BJP were more active than their older colleagues. Young MPs in the Congress, the SP and the BSP participated in less number of debates than their party average.While women MPs constitute 11 per cent of the LS strength, they recorded a participation of 8 per cent. Across most parties, participation by women MPs was slightly lower than the party average. While participating in debates, women MPs of the BJP matched their male counterparts.

The budget session saw 76 per cent of MPs participating in debates while the figure among women was 67 per cent. In general, MPs from the SP stood out as each member of the party participated in 3.8 debates while the figure for Congress was 2.0 and the BJP, it was 2.4.