Amid controversies of MP horse trading, cash and other inducements, the parliament of our country commenced yesterday morning, to live out what may be known in the future as its most shameful day. One of its most eventful, to say the least. News channel visuals of BJP MPs accusingly (even triumphantly) waving bundles of notes, may have hijacked what had been a gripping day at the Lok Sabha. In between the hours of exasperation due to eventless, pointless commotion, there were moments of hope, inspiration, laughter that united an otherwise divided house. Even the stonehearted of cynics may have been moved to applaud at some point…. All that before a few losers decided to have their 15 seconds of fame….
The PM was to reply to the opposition’s debate at 5 p.m., to be followed by the trust vote for or against the Govt.’s position on the Nuclear Deal, which the Govt. was more or less sure of winning (hmmm…). Few remembered the House’s agenda for the day. Forty minutes before that was to happen two barely acknowledged members of the opposition march up to the ‘well’ of the house carrying with them a bag, that vomited wads of money almost on cue as the house’s attention was on it. Hon. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee (Man… Did he have a honeymoon yesterday!) may not have had enough time to shift his thoughts from “Do I know you??” to “Wait… What the hell is happening here??” The Parliament house erupted… (The recently passed out Mech. Engg. Branch of Amritapuri sure had competition!)
The uproar was adjourned. When the House sat again the commotion did not offer to die down. The PM’s reply speech was submitted to the chair in statement since it stood no chance of being heard. The Govt. won by a comfortable margin of 275-256 with 10 abstentions. The process completed, a result arrived at, but hordes of worrisome questions linger….
Did the Govt. actually buy its victory?? Are the allegations true? What is the worth of a vote? …… Even if they were, how could elected representatives of the people act so irresponsibly, and bring the sanctity of The Parliament into disrepute in front of a global audience?? Couldn’t they have gone to the Police, CBI or the Media? Why strip in the temple of Democracy??
All in all, a day The Indian Parliament lost by a greater margin than the Govt. won trust!!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Sansad Samachar-Trust Vote
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good one...hey by the way...somnath has been chucked out of cpm....flash!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat work.Loved it.
ReplyDeleteParliamentary democracy did show its ugly face that day.But to throw light on the positive side,i think the quality of the debate on the first day was remarkable.The PM,the leader of the oppostion and the minister for external affairs put forward their point in their typical styles i must say.All worth listening to.But the rest were a disappointment.What do you think of the actual deal? The main cause of this ruckus?
exactly.. quality of the debate was excellent... fitting of the worlds largest parliamentary democracy if u minus the unfortunate events towards the end... plenty of positives were unnecessarily overshadowed.. somnath chatterjee as speaker for one.. there was no reason for him to continue as speaker except for the call of duty... parliamentary democracy won there as the the man rose above party barriers for the cause of the house... some fresh n exceptional speeches... omar abdullahs for one was short but emphatic... rahul gandhi demonstrated some unexpected insight for someone of his experience... perhaps a result of his political inexperience.. moreover he charmed the house with his well mannered disposition.. it was a speech of hope n optimism...
ReplyDeleteabout the deal... india needs nuclear power among other alternatives.. fact.. do we need the us for it?.. maybe, may be not... do we become subserviant to the us as a result of this deal?... that depends largely on how the future govts assert our sovereignity internationally... wat do we gain from the deal?? a) its a step towards energy security b) india becomes an important player in the energy market therefore an opportunity to shape the same
its time that india stops taking decisions based on fear of the unknown... its time we take positive decisions and be confidant of dealing with any outcome... the only question to b asked is can the deal be negotiated further in indias favour at this juncture...... i donot understand the intricacies of the clauses well enough but my impression is that the govt has done the best it can since it was under intense pressure frm the left during the negotiations.. may be a boon really that the left was a part of the govt then...
i must assert that im relatively new to politics and my understanding is very limited... so do refute any of the arguments u feel incorrect.....
For someone who says that i am new to politics and my understanding is very limited,your assessment of 1)the sansad samachar and 2)the deal and its ramifications was indeed very good.
ReplyDeleteFirst about the deal.
As you said the deal is essential to quench our swelling energy demands.And especially now when oil has shown the audacity to reach $145/b.Nuclear energy is certainly an option that we can look at as a developing economy.There are a couple of ways to look at it.India takes nuclear fuel from the US for civilian purposes.In the process,it upsets quite a few important players.But it doesn't need to worry as the US covers the displeasure and discontent of India's cynics and critics.But not without gaining anything.What does America stand to gain? Well,two things.It successfully makes a traditionally non-aligned India incline toward itself.And secondly ,India offers the potential for increased cooperation with a country that is rapidly growing as an economic and military power in a region increasingly dominated by China.Another way of looking at it is that all this is extremely paradoxical.The government has made it clear that India will not be under any pressure to change its foriegn policy vis a vis Iran for example,after signing the deal nor would there be a US watchdog keeping an eye on India's Strategic Weapons programme.If India has always advocated nuclear non-proliferation shouldn't we be setting an example by assuring the world that we will reduce the number of strategic nuclear reactors and increase civilan nuclear reactors? Instead we are saying that India's weapons programme is none of America's business(which is right) and that the strategic nuclear reactors will continue to function on indigenous fuel.I dont understand.If we need weapons we should say so.If we dont,we should stop advocating non-proliferation.We cant be champions of non-proliferation or even non aligment for that matter and act contradictorily.In short what you say is right.We need to be mor positive and forthright.This is no longer the India of the 60's or the 70's....
so the us cannot, if worse comes to worst, hold india to ransom over supply of nuclear fuel... is that what it all boils down to? ie if the us, one day decides to shut off the supply of fuel, india has a strong legal case in the international court... are there clauses in the agreement that state the scenarios in which the us can shut off legitimately? what are they? which court and how strong n independant is it? these are my grey areas.......
ReplyDeleteIn any case india shouldnt depend greatly on imported energy. all imports must keep in mind a vision of future self suffiency. as i see it, (however, through misty glasses)this nuclear deal is for quenching our immediate, urgent energy demand. of course 'immediate' in this context means by 2017 (or so?) when india starts reaping its benefits. but we must plan to ease off our dependance on us for nuclear fuel over a calculated, suitable time period. there are at least two ways of doing this.. 1) most essentially, developing technology to process thorium and other potential raw fuels available sufficiently in india. and 2)signing deals with other suppliers like australia without getting our hands tied by the npt. thereby avoiding a case of putting too many eggs in the us basket.
during this period we must increase reliance on alternative indigenous energy options to achieve the vision of sustainable self suffiency. and if we play our cards well, who knows? we may reach a position by then, where we are empowered to make great and lasting changes in the way the world works... the power india would use responsibly n positively unlike superpowers of the past.........
well ya rightly said ,,i do share your same opinion ,,in fact the trust vote reminded me more of a bollywood drama than any thing else.left pulling out joining hands with mayavatis bsp which they shouldnt have done at any cost and will certainly face the consequences for that and ya indirectly with bjp as well.manmohan our honrable pm categorically had taken a very valiant effort from his part moving forward with the deal in spite of the lefts gripes. but he should have declared elections and left it to people to decide whether this nuclear deal was needed or not than the victory he had bought by what u called the trust vote(the melodramatic drama).this seems to suggest to me that what advani had mentioned about the pm during his loksabha speech stating the nuclear deal more as an agreement between 2 individuals than 2 nations. I do have high regardsfor manmohan singh as an economist ,but as a politician he has botched to deliver what was expected from him.
ReplyDelete