Enumerate the duties of a Parliament.

The election of Lok Sabha is held once in five years. As the country is divided into different constituencies, from each of these, one person is elected to the Parliament. The elected candidates belong to the different political parties and become the Members of Parliament or MPs. After getting elected, the parliament has to perform various duties which are as follows:

• To choose the National Government – The main duty of the Parliament is to choose the government for the country. Indian parliament comprises of President, Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. The number of Members of Parliament or MPs is counted after the Lok Sabha elections and accordingly, it was counted how many MPs belong to each political party. To form the government, the political Party should have the majority of elected MPs in the Parliament. A political party should have half of the total elected members (543) in Lok Sabha which is 272 members or more. One of the important duty is to select the executive and through them only the government functions. The people who try to put into effect the laws created by Parliament are called Executive. The leader of the ruling party is Prime Minister who chooses the elected MPs to work as part of the executive to implement laws. They then work in different departments like education, finance, and health, etc.

Another important part of Parliament is the Rajya Sabha who functions as the representative of the states of India. For the law to function it needs to be passed through Rajya Sabha. Thus, their duty is to review and make changes in the law passed by the Lok Sabha.

• To control, guide and to keep the government informed – Through the question hour, the Parliament tries to control, and guide the government. The question hour is that part of the time when the MPs put forth all the information about the working of the government in the Parliament. Through such a questioning process, the parliament is able to control the executive and the way they function. When questioned the ruling party know about the fault or shortcomings and also the demands of the population through their representative in the Parliament (MPs). For MPs, this time period is the critical one as they have to discuss the way they function.

Moreover, the opposition party by questioning the various policies and programmes of the government helps in the proper functioning of a Democracy in our country. Through this, they try to put forth their own policies and generate popular support for them for future elections. The approval of the Parliament is crucial for the government especially in matters like Finance. The question hour provides feedback to the government and helps them function in a better way.

• Making laws for the smooth functioning – the most important duty of the Parliament is to implement the law for the smooth functioning of the government. For every caste and community, equal numbers of representatives are there in the parliament. Seats are now reserved for the SCs and STs and for women. For the proper implementation of the laws with regards to different communities and caste, it is important to have equal representatives in the Parliament.