Building Accountability into Our Parliamentary Democracy
How can we rethink accountability and citizen engagement in our parliamentary democracy? Some thoughts from my work in Assam, on the need to demystify legislative work & sustain citizen engagement beyond election cycles.
In the recent Lok Sabha election, the world’s largest democratic exercise spanning seven weeks and 543 parliamentary constituencies, 216 incumbent MPs who returned to the ballot box were re-elected. Now, take a moment to reflect: If your parliamentary constituency had an incumbent MP in the fray this election, what did you know about their work over the past 5 years? How were you able to assess their performance and contribution? How much of their allotted MPLADs fund, around 5000 crores of the annual Union Budget, was utilised and how did they choose to spend it? How active were they in representing public interest, especially local issues of your constituency, in Parliament? Did your MP file questions seeking information, speak on matters of public importance, and contribute to legislative discussion?
Over the past 3 years, I’ve had the unique opportunity of working with an Indian Member of Parliament from Assam, one of India’s most politically intricate states. My role involved managing legislative affairs, public relations, policy advocacy and constituency engagement, giving me a 360-degree view of what it is exactly that MPs do, but more importantly, can do. And one of the first observations I made, a month into my role in 2021, was the widespread lack of public understanding of not just what elected representatives are elected to do, but what they are actually doing — or failing to do, too.
Bringing Parliament to the People
If local projects like road construction or retrofitting schools can make local headlines, why can’t MPs work in Parliament? Most public information in India about legislative proceedings and parliamentary reportage is ridden with jargon, so bridging the gap between constituents and Parliament was key. We began doing this by putting out short explainers on social media of interventions in the local language using easy-to-understand terms, either in text or video format. For example, if we raised an intervention on the need for increasing paddy procurement for farmers in Assam, we put out a video in Assamese explaining the same, which was widely circulated so that these very farmers could know. Similarly, if we asked a question seeking data on budget allocations for building flood resilience, we translated this into straightforward terms for constituents to read and understand.
Before every Parliament session, we also began putting out a social media post informing constituents about the session dates and encouraging constituents, stakeholder groups, and experts to send in public interest issues they thought needed to be highlighted. And as feedback poured in, ranging from specific gaps in public infrastructure to constraints with government schemes, I saw how the diversity and depth of concerns this exercise of pooling in feedback brought in. Many ground-level issues that might have missed our attention otherwise, then made it to Parliament through this simple exercise of public consultation.
Grade your MP
At the end of every parliament session, we would compile all activities undertaken into a simple report card format — which, on circulating online, received positive feedback from local party workers who could now understand and advocate their party leader’s work better, as well as from lay voters who now knew what the person they had voted (or not voted) for was doing on their behalf.
A few months before the General Election, when attempts to polarise the campaign on religious lines became evident, I was keen to bring the report card plank to the campaign. Why shouldn’t an election be fought on past performance, capability, and promise for the future, I wondered.
While the proposition was initially met with scepticism, stemming from the belief that such ‘idealism’ might work in intellectual circles but isn’t suited for mass consumption, I proceeded with cautious optimism. I sat down with the media team to create a visually engaging four-page report, which not only highlighted past work, both in Parliament and the constituency but carried an 8-point vision for the upcoming term, tailored to address specific local needs based on our learnings thus far. This was unlike typical parliamentary campaigns that usually rely on the party’s national manifestos.
Crafted with clear, accessible language, striking visuals, and a distinctive campaign tagline, we put it out on social media. It quickly garnered positive feedback from all quarters and even nudged two other incumbent MPs (albeit from the same political party) to publish their own 5-year reports. To my pleasant surprise, the fear that it would resonate only within elite circles was allayed when acknowledgement poured in from grassroots party workers, who asked us to arrange bulk printouts in Assamese for their door-to-door campaign. Within a few weeks, lakhs of these small pamphlets reached households across the constituency.
The impact of this effort to reframe the narrative became evident when media interviews began incorporating questions on performance, sparking broader public debate and discussion. While efforts to polarize the campaign persisted, these attempts were dented. Whether on social media or in offline gatherings, one would encounter voters inclined to think about the work the candidate had done, even if their party affiliations lay elsewhere — a significant change in the broader political landscape where party affiliation and social identity often dominate voting behaviour.
The Indian Express undertook a great exercise of publishing ‘MP Report Cards’ for a few incumbent MPs in the run-up to the election this year. But what if this evaluation could be something all MPs undertook in the spirit of greater accountability? And not merely a pre-election activity for garnering voters, but periodically across their 5-year term. The incredible wealth of information PRS Legislative Research collates on parliamentary performance could be a good start for MPs to take to their constituents.
Some takeaways
It’s easy to presume that voters care less about performance and more about identity, which does a great disservice to collective public intellect. Citizen engagement, like anything else of value, has to be cultivated, and I do think those in power share the onus of cultivating this.
Moreover, citizen engagement cannot be a strategy employed during elections but requires sustained, long-term commitment for it to be meaningful. And so I’m less swayed by the trend of political consultants parachuting in a few months before polls with their Excel sheets — there’s only so much data analytics and glitzy social media can change. The real work is built through long-term engagement and understanding of communities and their needs.
The ‘incumbency disadvantage’ in India has been well–documented with its unusually high rates of political turnover when compared to most other democracies. Among several probable reasons, Gilles Verniers attributes this phenomenon to ‘the propensity of voters to reject incumbents’ — a manifestation of ‘structural discontent that elected representatives face in India.’ Can sustained citizen engagement, particularly through improved forms of accountability, potentially change this? This remains to be seen.
And, finally, on a personal note, perhaps it is good to retain some sense of idealism and grit to challenge and reimagine the status quo — our political system can greatly benefit from it.
