If I were to give credit to anyone after the two day acrimonious debate, it is not to any speaker but it is to the Speaker of the house. In recent times, I don’t recall any other speaker, in recent times, handling the house in a more efficient, involved and sincere manner. He made sure he was present for most part of the debate, he cut the speakers when necessary, corrected them when required, asked for clarifications and above all pitched in with light hearted comments too. His experience as a respected Parliamentarian clearly showed in his conduct. He will definitely go down in history as one of the best Speakers we ever had.

Speaking of other speakers in the debate, I was particularly disappointed at the performance of many of them. We could literally count on our fingers, the good ones. Pranab Mukherjee was articulate, precise and superb; Omar Abdullah’s speech, though brief, was exceptional and passionate and Advani too was good in parts. Lalu … ah Lalu… what do you say about him? Feel like quoting something he told some 10-15 years ago – ” Jab tak rahega samosa mein alu, tab tak rahega Bihar mein Lalu! “. His speech was laced with humour and roof top shouting in equal measure !! He definitely provided to us the much needed relief during these 2 days.

And the over-over-hyped Rahul Gandhi disappointed us yet again. Neither did his speech have style nor did it have any substance. He made some feeble attempts at some arguments, when the points can actually be made more forcefully. My grouse is not about the fact that he did not know how to talk, but he did not know what to talk. If this is how he talks when he is prepared, what will it be like when he is not prepared! I feel that the burden of expectation is getting too much for him to take. He is not to blame for it, but I guess those stupid sycophants have to realise this if they want him to become a strong leader.

The quality of the debate was again good only in parts and nowhere in comparison to the 3 other confidence motions I have seen. One thing that was missing in this confidence motion was that there were no good speakers from the opposition. The quality of debate we get to watch on TV was not present in the Lok Sabha today primarily because most of them are not Lok Sabha members! ( Prakash Karat, Yechury, Arun Jaitely, Venkaih Naidu, Brinda Karat etc). Well, it is actually a sad reflection on them that they could not get elected to the Lok Sabha… that’s totally another debate.

I guess the write-up is not complete without mentioning the flashing of the currency on the floor of the house. While the dramatic touch to the episode might be good television, the ugly spectacle of MP’s waving wads of notes does not reflect good on the image of the Parliament outside India. These are some of the things the MP’s ( as well as Mr. Advani ) should have kept in mind before barging into the house in that fashion.

However, what is uglier is the fact that they were offered the money in the first place! A few MP’s here and there indulging in such behaviour is a sad reflection on the people electing them also. People should not just blindly vote for someone who is susceptible to such frivolous alluring, without thinking about the larger issues at stake. The sanctity of Parliament is already being questioned too many times in recent days, and today’s incident just made it worse. The only silver lining is that there are many more MP’s who are not susceptible to such kind of offers, and most of them have stuck to their party lines.

I was however disappointed in the end that the Prime Minister chose not to reply to the debate and instead lay it on the table of the house. True, the opposition was not allowing him to speak ( I had no clue why they were asking him to resign!), but waiting for atleast some time might have made a difference. I read his speech today and it had good content in it. It would have been forceful had it been delivered.

Anyway, the government now has a new mandate in the house and new partners. How they will function from now on is what remains to be seen… Check back for more updates!

Source: This article was taken from the writings of “S. Sudhir Kumar”, who is an expert writer on World politics and Citizen Journalist of “The Peace Times”.