Corporate Tycoon's article on Sansad Ratna Award

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T N Ashok

Sansad Ratna–Awards

Best Performing MPs’

Consulting Editor T N Ashok is a veteran journalist with wide experience in business journalism. He is the former Economics Editor of Press Trust of India

Sansad Ratna team with Ex Prez Apj Abdul Kalam March 12, 2015

M

y little niece once asked me two questions – One, are all politicians corrupt? The second one was a googly. Does one have to have a big tummy to become a police officer? I could answer the first but not the second.

Politicians have been portrayed in recent years as corrupt, slimy, crooked and manipulating waiting to divide the party and over throw the Chief Minister and form a breakaway faction and seize power to form the new government betraying the trust of the people. This is what one gets to see both in Hindi or Tamil films these days, sometimes taking off on national politics as well taking pot shots at MPs and the Prime Minister.

In real life, politicians are not bad and slimy as portrayed in films. On the contrary there are some excellent politicians cutting across party lines who have done much service to the country. It is worth mentioning that but for the pioneering role played by Hansraj Ahir in Parliament the near Rs 2 lakh crore Coal Gate scam would not have been busted evoking nationwide media attention and coverage.

54 Corporate Tycoons March 2015

Capital Close UP It is a happy augury that a small and unassuming NGO called Prime Point Foundation in Chennai decided to monitor the performances of the people’s representatives in Parliament and award them – they have been doing this yeoman service for the last five years, not many people know about it in the public domain, because the Chennai NGO is a publicity shy organization.

It may be recalled that at the end of th 14 Lok Sabha, the then Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, an eminent lawyer from West Bengal and a leading MP from the CPI-M and a former minister, became highly emotional and registered his unhappiness over the frequent disruption of Parliament proceedings, especially in the lower house of Lok Sabha. The image that percolated to the public was none too good as evidenced by incidents of mock Parliament session in Colleges and Schools, where students indulged in shouting and even throwing chairs. Elections had been just announced for 15th Lok Sabha.

It was then that the Chennai NGO, Prime Point Foundation, run by K Srinivasan, a former senior official of a public sector bank, decided to project positive aspects of Democracy and the useful role played by parliamentarians and chose to highlight the top performers in the public domain.

While the entire media and nation was lambasting the Parliamentarians, the NGO thought differently taking a new line. “We identified the top performers of 14th Lok Sabha from the data released by PRS India and featured them with their interviews in our electronic magazine called PreSense”, recalls Srinivasan. Former President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam appreciated the concept and the theme of ‘Celebrate Democracy that featured top performing politicians in the electronic magazine, and gave a telephonic interview. The interview was carried both in audio and text format.

It was then that the Chennai NGO, Prime Point Foundation, run by K Srinivasan, a former senior official of a public sector bank, decided to project positive aspects of

Hansraj Ahir with Adsul mp at Sansad Ratna meeting in Delhi on march 11 2015 Democracy and the useful role played by parliamentarians and chose to highlight the top performers in the public domain.

This marked the humble beginning of honoring the outstanding Parliamentarians by the civil society. The Chennai NGO Prime Point Foundation formed the Sansad Ratna awards committee with Srinivasan as the convenor and eminent citizens as its members that began to confer these awards.

15th Lok Sabha – That Started It all After completion of the first year of 15th Lok Sabha, the NGO decided to honour the top performers on a wide range of parameters (a) Questions (b) Debates (c) Private Members Bills. Coinciding with the 50th edition of the electronic magazine PreSense, top performers were featured as ‘Un-Sung Heroes’. Three MPs viz. Anandrao Adsul (Shiv Sena), Hansraj Ahir (BJP), and Ramasubbu (Congress) were personally honored at Thakkar Bapa Vidyalaya, Chennai on 1st May 2010 in the presence of eminent citizens of Chennai. Former Chief Election Commissioners of India TS Krishnamurthy and N Gopalaswamy honoured the MPs’.

Dr. Abdul Kalam gave a speech through live feed from the phone from Delhi. Attendance was not taken as a criterion because there were MPs with 100% attendance who did not either participate in some or all debates or ask questions as issues concerning their constituencies reportedly occupied their mind and time.

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Sansad Ratna committee meeting at Delhi March 11, 2015 Since then, the awards have been given by the Chennai NGO every year unfailingly at Chennai. In 2012 (Third year), Indian Institute of Technology, Madras also supported the NGO. In this year, the top performers were given awards by Gopalakrishna Gandhi

(Grandson of Mahatma Gandhi). In 2013, Dr K Rosaiah, Governor of Tamil Nadu presented the Awards. This time the top performers among the women MPs’ (Sansad Mahila Ratna) were also included.

In 2014, after the end of the 15th Lok Sabha, all the top performing MPs with total score of more than 1000 under the above three categories and top 3 women MPs were selected. Nine MPs who had scored more than 1000 points and 3 women MPs received the awards. Not all MPs could turn up for the awards function as the election process had got underway,but some flew in and flew out with the trophies given by Prime Point Foundation at a function at the Chennai Press Club and continued on their campaign trail.

Hall of Fame

k srinivasan convenor of Sansad Ratna committee addressing the meeting.

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As the 16th Lok Sabha was constituted with the historic win of the BJP led

by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it was decided to motivate many MPs to take part in the proceedings of Parliament, many of them first timers, says Srinivasan.