Cautioning that the lack of debate is dangerous for the country, minister of state for communication and IT, Milind Deora, during the inauguration of his special initiative of the Youth Parliament 2013 on Monday, underlined the need for discussing issues more deeply in the Parliament. “There is definitely a need to discuss issues more deeply in the Parliament. There are issues like foreign policy, defence preparedness, agriculture... sometimes (demands of) thousands of crores get passed without a debate,” he said.
The chief guest on the occasion was Union minister for corporate affairs Sachin Pilot.
The main aim of Mr Deora’s initiative is to encourage the idea of youth participation in the process of governance. Hundred students selected from amongst 352 students of south Mumbai colleges are being exposed to the legislative process in the country and the various parliamentary functions.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the event, Mr Deora said, “Of course, the lack of debate is dangerous for the country.” On BJP leader Varun Gandhi’s remarks about the low standard of debates in the Parliament, the minister said, “I don’t know who is to blame for it, but I think that all MPs have to collectively do a better job. Do we need to improve the debate in the Parliament? Definitely. Is it because of leadership in the Parliament, is it because of the constituents not being aware and not holding the leaders accountable? I think all these are issues we need to address,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mr Pilot said, “The members of the Parliament make a tremendous amount of effort to debate on several issues. Some MPs give fantastic inputs which becomes part of law. The effort that goes into holding a debate is fantastic.”