Parliamentary bagpipes

Two days inside the parliament has taught me how to listen to foolishness without a smartphone under the table to help out. The classes were sloppily organised and the speakers were generally putting on a talk show without substance. All was not gloom and doom though. There were a couple of redeeming sessions. They were bot informative and engaging. One faculty talked of the Somnath Chatterjee-era. When he was speaker, he had admonished Shivraj Patil, then Home Minister for not being present during laying of papers. Shivraj Patil had to tender a public apology after which the House carried on its business. There was also an incident of the Indira Gandhi government resigning because of the failure of the Privy Purse constitution amendment bill. The bill failed to get the two-thirds majority by one vote. And incidentally, one Congress MP was busy in the outer lobby when the voting took place. If he had been present, the bill would have sailed through.

The delicacy and finesse of having a Rajya Sabha was also elaborated on. A check for democratic tyranny. A Lok Sabha majority would be not just enough. The federal structure is represented in the council of states. The founding fathers, though mostly from the Congress, had the foresight to put it in place over riding objections to constituting an Upper House on the lines of the House of Lords. One objection by an Englishman was interesting. If the Upper House agrees with the Lower always, he said, it is just superfluous, if it does not, it would be mischievous. Why then, have it?

Another interesting event was a visit to the Parliament Library. It housed the original copy of the constitution which was kept inside a nitrogen filled chamber. It was on the first floor, inside a tiny room. Above the entrance of the room, a print out was pasted with cellophane tape saying this room housed the original constitution. Inside a copy of the constitution was covered with crudely cut dark green silk cloth. The edges came out in strings. It wasn't exactly disrespectful but it didn't have any sanctity either. It looked a little sidelined, the constitution, a reflection of the times perhaps.

There was a session by Murli Manohar Joshi on financial committees of the parliament. The real work is done in committees, he said. When in session, the politics is played out for the gallery. He said another important thing. Inside the houses, the game is between the ruling party and the opposition. In committees, it is between the politicians and the bureaucrats. What he meant was, the committees are the forums where the accountability of the executive is taken stock through seasoned parliamentarians.

The parliament complex is filled with statues of great men. Mahatma Gandhi himslef, sits as a mammoth statue outside the main entrance. The soul of great men, however, is hard to find. It feels like a badly orchestrated show business performed by uninterested actors and impatient, haphazard support staff. There are some high profile cameos though. Tomorrow there is a visit to both the houses. Hopefully, it won't be adjourned before we make it inside.