It was so soothing to hear this
when the Vice-President of the nation had to remark this on the unruly
behaviour of the parliamentarians in the Indian Parliament.
His statement, “Please allow
question hour to proceed. Every single rule in the rule book; every single
etiquette is being violated. If the honorable members wish the House to become
a federation of anarchists, then it is a different matter”, should be put
on the walls of the Parliament instead of being expunged something that both
the ruling members as well as the main opposition Bhartiya Janta Party have
demanded.
It is a well-known human tendency
that we do not want to hear criticism about us. In case of Indian politicians,
this human trait breaks every barrier of the observable human decency.
A common man, forced by the
circumstances, is compelled to hear his critique and such occasions come
regularly in his life.
But, our politicians are not the
common men. It is what they have come to believe. It is what they are working
to establish.
So, they behave differently. They
behave like kings. And kings seldom like to be told that they are wrong. They
hate their true reflection in the mirror.
And so, when a non-political man,
sitting on a non-political and ceremonial chair like India’s Vice-President, charges the
politicians, elected to the highest policymaking and governing body of the
country, the Indian Parliament, how can they let it go?
How can they allow someone to
castigate them whom they have installed in the position he is in? After all, Hamid
Ansari was the Congress candidate for this decorative position in the hierarchy
of political institution of India.
It doesn't matter for them that
how frustrated Hamid Ansari, otherwise seen as a ‘yes-man’ of Congress, would
have been that he was forced to make this comment.
Okay, whatever be the line taken
by the politicians over it, if we do a round of some brisk talking in our
immediate circles, we would find everyone endorsing what Hamid Ansari has said.
Let’s all of us, who think
sincerely over such themes on problems of Indian democracy, carry out this
small, random exercise, to feel good about it, even if this ‘feel good’ is not
going to do anything to ‘what politics and politicians have become in this
country’.
They have made
politics synonymous with corruption, high handedness, insensitivity and
elitism.
‘Federation of Anarchists’ is an
innovative expression of displeasure and frustration over this political lot. It
suitably describes the deterioration of values in Indian politics.
Please, Mr. Vice-President, don’t
let it be expunged from the Parliament records. Even if it is not going to
change anything, at least, it gives us, the common men, yet another symbolic
point of reference’ to brood-over the growing political apathy.