The 16th Lok Sabha (2014-2019) under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has 1,540 assurances unfulfilled, according to a report by IndiaSpend. When compared to its predecessor, the number has jumped by 300%. Two-thirds of these assurances were left unfulfilled in the lead up to the 2019 general elections.
Government assurances are defined as promises made to Members of Parliament (MP) on the floors of both the parliamentary houses. These "assurances" could be in the form of promises given in response to a question or requests raised by the MPs themselves.
The assurances range from impact of demonetisation and implementation of goods and services tax, attacks on journalists, a national policy on empowerment of transgender rights.
These assurances are required to be implemented by the Ministry concerned within a period of three months. In its inability to do so, the Ministry is required to request the Committee on Government Assurances to drop the assurance. These requests are considered by the Committee on "merits and decisions taken to drop the Assurance or otherwise."
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government made 5,383 assurances of which 1,540 have been pending over the last five years. The rate of assurance of fulfillment fell from 84% in 2014 to 10% in 2019. However, pending assurance rose from 11% in 2014 to 89% in 2019.
The parliamentary committee, which considers request by the Lok Sabha to drop assurances, has rejected 56.7% of all requests. Two-thirds of all requests in 2019 were also rejected.
Govt’s Reasons for Dropping Assurances Criticised
IndiaSpend mentions several examples where the government has not given sufficient reasoning for dropping assurances.
A particular answer received harsh criticism from the parliamentary committee when the government wanted to drop an assurance about jobs being provided to those who lost their land during land acquisition for building railway lines in February 2014, reasoning that it was a state task and that land acquisition was the state government’s remit. The committee stated in response that “such a statement is not only a manifestation of the ministry's perfunctory approach towards fulfilling their parliamentary obligation but also shirking of their responsibility”
The MPs do not have any other platform to seek a government response on a pending assurance.
“The committee pursues the assurances and the MP can write to either the chairman of the committee or the concerned minister on a personal level if he/she wants a response. As far as the record-keeping of assurances implemented is concerned, it is updated regularly.”S L Singh, deputy secretary of the committee on government assurances
According to the IndiaSpend report, there have been no investigations when questions regarding the impact of demonetisation or GST were raised. Assurances regarding the collection/discovery of any black money post-demonetisation have also not been fulfilled. According to the government, these investigations are still in the “information collection” phase.
In December 2018, a question regarding India’s position on the World Press Freedom Index and if it had any information on attacks on Indian journalists was raised. The government’s position was that “the National Crime Records Bureau does not collect data for separate categories of professionals, including journalists.”
(Ali is a reporting fellow with IndiaSpend and Sharma is a researcher with a member of parliament.)
(This story has been published in an arrangement with IndiaSpend)
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