Somebody You Know??

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!!