Chandigarh: Manish Tewari’s ‘MPs not responsible for civic issues’ statement invites BJP’s ire

Manish Tewari said while MPs do represent the citizens in their constituency, they cannot be held accountable for civic issues

Though MPs represent the citizens in their constituency, they can’t be held accountable for civic issues, Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari said on Friday while listing out parliamentarians’ key responsibilities on X.

Manish Tewari listed out MPs’ responsibilities after the BJP questioned his absence from JERC public meeting on Friday. (HT)

In his social media post, Tewari said, “An MP holds a very crucial position in a multitiered parliamentary democracy like India. MPs have specific roles and responsibilities, even those from the ruling party/coalition. MPs do bear the responsibility for making the laws our country is run by. They play a pivotal role in designing and supervising the programs; however, they have no role in the implementation of these programs.”

Tewari further said while MPs do represent the citizens in their constituency, they cannot be held accountable for civic issues. So, what do their responsibilities include?

“The broad responsibilities of MPs entail the following: Legislative responsibility: passing laws of India in the Lok Sabha; Oversight responsibility: Ensuring that the executive performs its duties efficiently; Representative responsibility: Representing the people’s views and aspirations of their constituencies in the Lok Sabha; Power of the purse responsibility: Approving and overseeing government-proposed revenues and expenditures,” Tewari further said.

Slamming Tewari on his “escape from civic responsibilities” comment, BJP councillor Mahesh Inder Singh Sidhu said, “This shows the escapist mentality of Tewari. He should have listed these out before the elections. His absence clearly shows that Tewari is a headline hunter and just raises issues for the sake of it without any intention of taking them to any logical conclusion. If Tewari was so serious and concerned about the residents of the city, he should have attended today’s meeting, when he himself had called upon everybody else to attend.”