Lucknow: He may be the most vocal regarding the NDA Government’s Rafale deal, but Amethi MP and Congress president Rahul Gandhi was among the top leaders who did not pose a single query during ‘Question Hour’ in the 16th Lok Sabha, research by website ‘parliamentarybusiness.com’ has shown.
Of the whopping 1.42 lakh questions asked in Lok Sabha between 2014 and 2019, the Gandhi scion’s silence was noticeable even as Supriya Sule, Vijay Singh Mohite Patil and Dhananjay Mahadik (all from NCP) posed the maximum number of questions.
The managing editor of the website Neeraj Gupta told this agency that the 48-year-old Gandhi was one of the 31 MPs across the spectrum who did not ask any question during the five-year tenure of the 16th Lok Sabha.
The other notables in the no-question-list include former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, BJP veteran and former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Data provided by the website has revealed that 171 MPs asked questions relating to farmers’ suicides. In addition, a majority of questions were asked on issues relating to finance, health, family welfare and the railways.
The website has also claimed that both Narendra Modi and Gandhi also failed in spending their quota of rupees five crore per annum MPLAD funds.
While the Prime Minister spent 62.96 per cent in his parliamentary constituency Varanasi, the Amethi MP exhausted 60.56 per cent of his funds. Among the MPs who have spent 95 per cent and more are Murali Manohar Joshi, Giriraj Singh, Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Anurag Thakur (all BJP).
Bhairon Prasad Mishra (BJP) and Kulmani Samal (BJD) are the only two who have utilised 100 per cent of their funds.
IANS