LAW MAKERS – PAID FOR WHAT?

No work, no pay. Job description job fit. Quality of work. Professional delivery. Performance appraisal. This is the norm for any job, for any professional, anywhere. Code conduct is another area of concern and every organization wants to create the best organizational culture to get the best out of its highly paid professionals. Punctuality and fixed hours of work is a given, in any work you do, it does not deserve time or attention of anyone to make it happen. The movement of every professional is accounted for, and has a meaning, as there is a huge cost impact as well. Sloganeering, placard displays, ruckus and manhandling is not tolerated in any job. This is the professional world in which we live.

After fulfilling all the criteria mentioned above, professionals don’t even get a part of the acclaim, public domain standing and immunity and yet the Damocles sword keeps hanging in a variety of ways. The law makers, as a professional group, stand completely distinct from any other professional group. They are the super professionals being the constitution’s most unique contribution to democracy, both as law makers and having the supreme authority to hold the government accountable. For this ultimate responsibility which they are legally bound to shoulder, the expectancy was that they would be matured, self-disciplined, responsible and accountable and because of these presupposed qualities,  most of the rules that enslave a professional, were not created for them.

The whole logic has gone astray. We start with the most basic of the issues, is the attendance of the parliamentarians or the legislators for the sessions. It does not entail a year long work anyway. Most of the material they are supposed to read and contribute is served to them on a platter.* Rest of the discussions keep meandering. How many contribute in a qualitative manner, has never been researched upon. The conduct of the sessions in the temples of democracy are meticulously organized, executed and documented.* Based on the constitutional duties assigned to them and what they actually perform, the question arises, what should they be paid for? It is not the salaries and financial perks, what is even more chilling is the cost of running these sessions.

All these happen at the expense of the taxpayers. Which taxpayer expects this performance from the lawmakers, nobody has any idea.  The agony of being paid for piles up, when you have witnessed Session Washouts and which is slowly yet steadily becoming the routine. Then the tragedies of the passage of bills with no discussion, with voice vote and earlier even with CCTV black outs as well. The lawmakers of all parties keep playing these roles. The hooliganism and sometimes violence in lots of legislatures does not forebode well for the law making constitutional bodies, the law makers and certainly not for the country. All these have to be paid for by the country; by the hard earned money of its struggling masses. Paid for what remains the eternal question.