No motion only commotion

No motion only commotion

Taxpayers' money once again goes down the well of the House. Somebody in Parliament said adjournment motion but the only motion citizens saw was commotion. When it was time for Question Hour, there were no questions asked. When the Speaker called for order, there was only disorder. In place of parliamentary debate there was only unparliamentary language. Lok Sabha became shor sabha and Rajya Sabha became rowdy sabha, the House of Elders seemingly consisting of veterans of disruption.

The government said it's the opposition's fault, the opposition said it's the government's fault, showing that there are just too many fault lines in the political class. The winter chill has not yet set in but Parliament is in deep freeze and 22 non-working days have meant that taxpayers' money has once again gone down the well of the House.

The grey eminences of public life, President Pranab Mukherjee and BJP senior LK Advani are wringing their hands. Even senior citizens were upset that parliamentarians seem to have taken VRS from their duties and reduced the House to a retirement home. The margdarshak mandal knows that netas were not being good margdarshaks for the country . While the queues outside ATMs are becoming longer, productive time in Parliament is becoming shorter.

In one instance it took just 30 seconds for the Speaker to adjourn the House, showing that Indian democracy is in too much of a hurry.

The PM speaks in jan sabhas and at the Coldplay concert but there's no mann ki baat in the House. Rahul Gandhi is the angry young man at press conferences asking the nation to read his lips. But in the House his lips are sealed. The Left is standing up in Parliament but is lying down outside the House. While Madam Speaker flails her arms and tries to control MPs, every MP wants to be in the Speaker's Corner. Quipped the internet wag, I don't approve of political jokes, I've seen too many of them get elected.

The costs of democracy are high. According to figures often cited, running Parliament costs Rs 2.5 lakhs per minute or Rs 2 crore per day . MPs get Rs 2,000 per day to attend Parliament. But of course when the aam admi gets to the bank, he faces a sign saying, “Sorry , No Cash Available.“ We are working towards a cashless economy but perhaps we should first work towards a cashless democracy . While citizens come home after a hard day's work, netas return from Parliament after hardly any work.