Each session of parliament is expected to not only enact laws aimed at creating a better society, but also to serve as a forum for elected representatives to pose hard questions to the government to keep it accountable.

Congress deputy leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Pramod Tiwari, posed a question a day before this year’s monsoon session was to start, “When the prime minister knew that he would be abroad on those dates, why did he call the session?” 

Speaking exclusively to ANI on July 20, a day after the opposition parties held a strategy meeting in New Delhi for the monsoon session opening on July 21, he had said, “The prime minister should look at his attendance as to how many days he attended the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Our prime minister is not serious about democracy.” 

In questioning Narendra Modi’s proposed absence from an important session of parliament, the first after Operation Sindoor, Tiwari did what opposition leaders are meant to do. He asked why the prime minister proposes to go missing from the “temple of democracy” exactly when people’s representatives would be engaging in issues that concern them. 

A reminder to the BJP

Tiwari’s line of questioning before this monsoon session can well be a reminder to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of a time when it was in the opposition. Consider the monsoon session of 2012. 

That year, the session was between August 8 and September 7.  Towards the fag end of it, for four days, the then prime minister Manmohan Singh had travelled to Tehran to attend the NAM Summit, between August 28 and August 31. 

At that time, the main opposition party, the BJP, was demanding Singh's resignation over the Coalgate scam, leading to frequent adjournments. Nine days in a row, the parliament did not function, between August 23 and August 31, 2012. Fingers were pointed at Singh’s absence from the House, both by the BJP and the national media. 

If we look further back to the 2012 Budget session of parliament, Singh was missing from the House for five days (between March 23 and 27, 2012) due to a bilateral visit to South Korea. This was a point raised by the BJP and also by media. In 2013 too, Singh had come under attack from the BJP during his Russia and China trip.

A Business Standard report had then said:

“Asked about the frequent foreign visits of Prime Minister Singh, BJP Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, "He has lived abroad for several years for his livelihood as he was employed abroad. The Prime Minister's love for foreign countries, especially for the US, is well-known".” 

The report had also said:

“The main opposition (BJP) wondered how the PM has been travelling abroad so often at a time when UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi has been talking about austerity. Nobody in the government, other than the Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily who took the metro one day, has taken any austerity step.”

An India Today report from around that time had also highlighted:

“A look at the past 11 Parliament sessions during UPA-II’s tenure shows this ‘disappearing act’ has almost become a habit for the PM. Ironically, the Prime Minister issued a directive in 2010 asking cabinet ministers not to undertake any foreign tours while Parliament was in session, but he seems to have exempted himself from it."

It further said:

“The PM has travelled abroad 13 times during eight out of the 11 Parliament sessions during UPA-II's tenure so far, skipping as many as 35 working days in the process. There have even been occasions when the PM was out on three foreign tours in a single Parliament session - during the 2010 Budget session of Parliament, for instance.”



It had also underlined:

“In the 2010 winter session, which was washed out because of the BJP’s demand for a joint-parliamentary probe (JPC) into the 2G scam, the PM missed four days of Parliament by first travelling to South Korea in November and later going to Belgium and Germany in December. A senior government official, however, defended the PM's visits, saying they were ‘important and pre-scheduled events’.” 

Yet another India Today report had then stated:

“Singh has surpassed (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee and many other former prime ministers, earning the tag of ‘non-resident Prime Minister’ with over 70 foreign trips and nearly Rs 650 crore spent on his travel since 2004, when he was sworn in as Prime Minister for the first time. In his second term, Singh has already made 36 foreign tours and embarked on 37th on Sunday, leaving on a five- day visit to Russia and China.”

It had then added:

“No less than 15 of Singh's 36 UPA II foreign visits have been made when Parliament was in session. In fact, the Prime Minister has been out for a few or more days during nine of the 14 Parliament sessions of the last four years. More trips, including one to the United Arab Emirates, are in the offing before the 2014 elections.” 

‘Disappearing act’ by media after 2014

Such news reports keeping a close watch on the prime minister’s public-funded visits, including those that commenced during a parliament session where the leader of the House ideally should be present, should be the norm to keep the government accountable to citizens. 

Interestingly, as per the current government’s own data, prime minister Modi undertook 49 foreign visits between June 2014 and November 2019, 27 trips in the second term, and 16 already, including the ongoing UK-Mauritius trip, in his current term. Together, this is a much bigger number than the trips undertaken by Singh.

That some of these visits happened during parliament sessions, and that Modi hardly attends the Lok Sabha even when he is in the country is no secret.

And yet, what is missing are those Manmohan Singh-era news reports, which could have helped in the accountability of Modi’s public-funded trips. This disappearing act by the Indian media is clearly a marker of dipping press freedom in the world’s largest democracy, post-2014. 

What is found instead are adulatory articles, highlighting Modi getting a “standing ovation” and “non-stop applause from lawmakers” during a foreign trip. For instance, during his July 2-9 trip to Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago and Namibia, an ANI report had said that it “marked PM Modi’s 17th address in a foreign nation’s Parliament, matching the combined total of all Congress Prime Ministers before him.” 

Prior to leaving for his latest nine-day foreign trip to the United Kingdom and the Maldives which is overlapping with the ongoing parliament session, Modi, exuding his typical style of functioning, addressed the media outside the Parliament House on July 21, before the session was to formally commence. It is noteworthy that Modi has spoken more times outside the House than on its floor. This choice for speaking outside extends to rather grave issues including the horrific sexual assault on two Kuki women in 2023 in Manipur which was then under his party’s rule.

This is perhaps a good moment to recall his predecessor’s speech, delivered to reporters outside the Parliament House, prior to a monsoon session.  

Ahead of the August 2013 session, Singh, standing outside the parliament, had spoken to the media to appeal to opposition MPs to “cooperate with the government in smooth running the session”. 

“We have wasted lot of time in the previous two or three sessions and I hope that will not be repeated in this session,” Singh had said. That was Singh’s second appeal from outside the Parliament House before a session commenced, amid at the BJP and other opposition MPs to allow the Houses to function. A Reuters report had then stated, “On Monday, (August 5, 2013) Singh again stood outside parliament to appeal to political parties in the world’s biggest democracy to cooperate with the government to ensure the monsoon session of parliament that started this week is ‘truly productive’.” 

In the ongoing monsoon session, with the Opposition MPs taking on the Modi government on various issues of significance including a demand to scrap the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar, leading to adjournments, politics seems to have come full circle. The only cog missing in the wheel are the media reports questioning Modi’s ‘disappearing act’ when the House is in session

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