Sansad Samachar-Trust Vote

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!!

Of cricket, controversies ,crybabies and some monkey business..

Sunday, 6th of January witnessed the final day of an intriguing test match at Sydney. Those of you who missed the live action and only managed to get a glance at the scorecard may be forgiven for thinking this was one of the great test matches of the modern era of cricket. Australia, says the scoreboard, won by 122 runs with 7 balls in the match to spare. It was a tense nail biting finish, the kind that cricket lovers yearn for.

The intrigue however, was not limited to the contest between bat and ball. By all means, congrats to Ponting's crybabies for equalling the record 16 consecutive wins, however this team can never command the respect that Waugh's men did. Not even close. Umpiring is another issue entirely. The biggest contributors to the result wern't MoM Andrew Symonds or Ponting or Clark (neither Michael nor Stuart) but Messrs. Bucknor, Benson and the third umpire whose name i cant quite recall. About the standard of umpiring the lesser said the better. That aside, the Aussie appealing was school boyish n sportsmanship appalling. Credit is due, of course, to MoM Symonds the great job that he did. But it seemed as though the universe (read cricket officialdom in Sydney) had conspired to allow (allow is a good word as he still had to make use of all his luck which he did) his achievements.

To top this all Harbhajan gets banned for three matches for allegedly calling Symonds a monkey! Why am i reminded of a primary school kid?? Is it just me?? Now imagine this for a second... 6 feet 4 inches tall, well built, intimidating aussie with dirty braids dangling over the menacing scowl of his face complaining to papa (Ponting in this case) about a puny Sardar who calls him a monkey!!! Is this what they teach at the Aussie school of banter and sledging?? Firstly, where is the evidence supporting the allegation? Pontings pearls of honesty? or Theses of Michael? or is it The Gospel of Andrew?? All three have demonstrated their integrity amply during the match.. And supposing Harbhajan did call him a monkey, how is the remark racist?? Is it so for all higher mammals of the animal kingdom like donkey or hippopotamus? Or is it because the word 'monkey' is assumed to refer to someone having a black skin tone? Well the aussies may not know it, but the commonest monkeys found in India are actually fair skinned.. Symonds perhaps, should take it as a compliment. As i see it, the only ones who should feel racially abused are the monkeys! If Harbhajan is liable to punishment by any organisation it is the WWF.........

Well the BCCI has now appealed to ICC against the ban. Harbhajan will be allowed to play untill the verdict of the appeal hearing is delivered. Bucknor will not be officiating in the rest of the matches of this series. Team India however, will be moving on from Sydney to Canberra only after Harbhajan is cleared of the charges. And better sense will soon prevail...

A lot has happened over the last few days.. And i dont think we've heard the last of it.. A lot is goin to b written about it in the media but the article to look out for is Harsha Bhogle's. Read his blog at espnstar.com this friday.....

Oh of course welcome to my blog.... do post ur comments and critique.. id appreciate honest criticism guys........