Address of the Hon'ble Vice President of India and Chairman, Rajya Sabha Shri M. Hamid Ansari at the Function to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Parliament of India on 13th May 2012 at 1730 hours in the Central Hall, Parliament House, New Delhi.

Sixty years is a good time to assess the working of Parliament in two critical areas of its functioning: ensuring accountability and oversight of the executive, and deliberation and law making.

Both tend to exhibit declining efficacy. The institutional mechanisms and procedural norms for ensuring accountability are being progressively underused. There is a perceptible drop in the working days of Parliament. Deliberation is less frequent; legislation is at times hasty.

Our citizens know, must know, that Parliament is central to economic reform and development as these hinge on bringing about new laws, amending old ones and harmonising differences. As we see nation after nation suffering from fiscal problems, we are reminded of the key responsibility of Parliaments around the world in prudent fiscal management and ensuring financial accountability.
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Shri M. Hamid Ansari, Vice-President of India releasing the three volumes of Sumer Chand’s ‘Valmiki Ramayan’ in Hindi and Persian, in New Delhi on May 08, 2012.