Assam's Pradan Baruah among 9 silent MPs in Lok Sabha

Assam's Pradan Baruah, the Member of Parliament (MP) representing Lakhimpur for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has emerged as one of the nine silent lawmakers in the Lok Sabha. Despite his active presence in terms of attendance, Baruah refrained from participating in debates, maintaining a silence.

Baruah's presence in the Lok Sabha was punctuated by a notable absence of verbal contribution. While he submitted 15 written questions, his voice remained conspicuously absent from debates and discussions. With an attendance rate of 85 percent, exceeding the average attendance rate of 79 percent among all MPs, Baruah's reticence raises questions about the nature of parliamentary engagement and representation.

The list of silent MPs extends beyond Baruah, encompassing notable figures such as TMC's Dibyendu Adhikari and BJP's Sunny Deol, the famed Bollywood actor-turned-politician from Gurdaspur. Despite his iconic on-screen dialogue, "ta-reekh pe tareekh," resonating with cinema lovers, Deol's silence in the Lok Sabha was deafening. Alongside him stood Shatrughan Sinha, the TMC MP elected in a by-election in April 2022, who remained equally reticent throughout his tenure.

Among the silent cadre were MPs like Ramesh Chandrappa Jigajinagi of the BJP, whose prolonged absence due to ill health kept him away from parliamentary discourse and Atul Rai of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), who remained incarcerated until August last year.