Ms. Sonia Gandhi may not see eye to eye with Mr. Arvind Kejriwal. Or Mr.Sharad Pawar with Mr. Anna Hazare, for that matter.
But the Congress president and the Nationalist Congress Party chief may have more in common with the anti-corruption activists than most would imagine.
Ms. Gandhi and Mr. Pawar are among the Lok Sabha members who claim they are social workers or / political and social workers by profession, something Mr. Hazare definitely is and Mr. 0Kejriwal was,before he took the plunge in to electoral politics.
Along with the likes of senior BJP leader Mr. Yashwant Sinha, cricketer-commentator Mr. Navjot Singh Sidhu and DMK chief Mr. M. Karunanidhis son Mr. M .K Alagiri,this lot today forms the biggest individual grouping in the lower house of Parliament.
At 28.82 % of the 15th Lok Sabhas strength,this group is even bigger than the 27.7 % who describe themselves as agriculturists or / farmers, another indication perhaps that the emerging Indian economy is moving away from its agrarian roots.
This also helps explain perhaps why Parliament finds so little time to discuss issues such as suicides by distressed farmers or / the severe drought that has gripped several states.The official number of lawyers in the current Lok Sabha also seems counter-intuitive, given the preponderance of advocates among the authorised talking heads on national television from both the Congress and the BJP.
Just 8.57 % of the Lok Sabha members are listed as advocates, down,interestingly, from a whopping 35.6 % in the first Lok Sabha in 1952 that were much more numerous than the 22.5 % farmers at the time.
According to PRS Legislative Research,a non-profit independent research initiative that tracks Parliament, members are given a form to fill when they enter the Lok Sabha.They are asked to furnish information on their date of birth, marital status, name of their spouse, number of children & even details of countries they have travelled to.
Ruling Class of Parliament
Type Ist Lok Sabha % 15th Lok Sabha
Social Worker - 28.82
Agriculturist 22.5 27.70
Advocate 35.6 8.57
Doctor 4.9 2.36
Writer 10.4 2.36
Sportsperson - 0.8
Src: ET
No comments:
Post a Comment