The parliament that cannot question its prime minister

Nepal’s rules are modelled on other parliamentary democracies. But rules matter only when the prime ministers answer questions — and the Speakers insist that they do.

Late night on Tuesday, India’s Congress MP Shashi Tharoor stood up in the Lok Sabha with nine minutes on the clock. The bill under debate was India’s anti-paper-leak law. Tharoor’s point was engaging and harder to dismiss: the country’s public examination system needs structural reform that prevents leaks, rather than relying only on harsher punishment once the damage is done. Right then his mic was cut and the House moved to other business. But it didn’t really matter. Tharoor had built the argument anyway, on the record, in the shape a policy debate is supposed to take and it was covered widely in the Indian media.