How to Discipline Parliament’s Truants

Among the MPs who got a taste of Modi’s wrath for being absent in the Lok Sabha when the crucial Land Acquisition Bill was passed last week included, besides others, the likes of Varun Gandhi, Poonam Mahajan and Pritam Munde—all three young representatives of political families.

Among those most upset about being asked to stand up and explain his absence was Varun Gandhi. True, Modi could have acted in a far more gentle way. But don’t our errant MPs deserve to be treated like school-children?