THE PARLIAMENT IN INDIA enjoys great prestige. Indeed the struggle for independence from British rule till the late 'thirties of this century was in essence a struggle for represen-tative and responsible government. The twenty years that have elapsed since our independence have seen parliamentary institutions take firm roots, whatever the critics might say. The interest in Parliament is now widespread. When Parlia-ment is in session, one of the common sights in towns and villages is someone reading aloud the newspaper to a group of persons listening intentively to him and thereafter discussing the happenings in Parliament. The working of the parliamentary machine is, however, not so well known. Indeed it could be said that even an educated citizen has no clear idea of the processes the manner and method by which Parliament conducts its business. The present book aims at informing him as to how Parliament gets about its work in the discharge of its responsibilities. Care has been taken not to burden him with all the technic-alities of procedure. The aim has been to instruct without repelling or alarming the reader. The book deals not only with the constitutional provisions pertaining to Parliament and the Executive, but also with the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Houses. Nowhere else is procedure of such consequence and importance as it is in Parliament. Without these rules, it would have been impossible to maintain order in the House or transact business expeditiously. Then again rules are techniques and devices whereby Parliament controls the Executive and the Executive controls Parliament and gets its work transacted with the maximum expedition consonant with the demands of discussion and debate by the representatives of the people. To a Member of Parliament, rules are in one sense the tools of his trade. The effectiveness of a member depends on the effectiveness with which he can wield these various techni. ques and devices. When they are neglected, the effectiveness of Parliament itself goes down and the whole House becomes an ineffective debating society. The author of the book had the privilege of serving the Lok Sabha for fifteen years when he had the unique oppor-tunity of watching Parliament in action. As Joint Secretary, he had the privilege of working intimately with all the three Financial Committees, viz., the Public Accounts Committee, the Estimates Committee, and the Committee on Public Undertakings. The work of Parliamentary Committees is not as well known as the questions and debates in the House. The deliberations of these Committees are not open to the Press, and their reports, which are presented once a year during the budget session, do not get sufficient publicity in the daily newspapers which, due to limitations of space, at best give only a gist of the report. To political scientists and students of public administration, these reports are a veri-table mine of information. In writing this book the material was so vast that the task of rejection and selection was indeed formidable. The author hopes that apart from the general reader, the university student will also find the book instructive. The political scientist, the legislators and the Members of Parlia-ment will find in it something which will interest them and perhaps make them think. In writing this book the author has been greatly encourag-ed by Dr. B.V. Keskar, Chairman of the National Book Trust, India, who took a keen interest in it. Having once been a Minister of the Government of India, he had many valuable suggestions to make for which the author is deeply indebted to him. The author commends the book to the reading public and would be delighted to have any comments or suggestions that any reader may have regarding it.