Rajan Gandhi
The word parliamentarian used to remind our grand fathers of sober faced and khadi clad leaders seated in power who served the people of country. Now a day we have parliamentarians boxing each other in parliament and unparliamentary language is the taste of present. During this monsoon session itself one MP had the honor of reciting derogatory poem on Hindu Gods and most tragic part is he cannot be prosecuted for what he said inside the house as the house provides him “Parliamentary immunity” !!!. Words containing insinuations and offensive and unparliamentary expressions should be avoided. When the Chair holds that a particular word or expression is unparliamentary, it has to be immediately withdrawn without any attempt to raise any debate over it.
And who says the parliamentary proceedings are boring? Churchill is the man who is often spoken of with respect whether stemming out of hate or love or reverence as he bulldozed his way out of this. It happened that, calling someone a “liar” would come under unparliamentary language in British Parliament; so, Churchill used the term “terminological inexactitude”. It meant the same thing, everyone knew that but no one could do anything about it. In the 1950s and 1960s, when our Parliament was young and had stalwarts like Jawaharlal Nehru, Ram Manohar Lohia, Piloo Mody, they were able to handle bitter criticism and sharp verbal ammos with ease. Lohia would attack Nehru with ferocious wit and the latter would retort with equally biting words. Yet, sessions were not sacrificed as Lohia called Nehru a “bald man”. Once, Lohia told the House that Nehru wasn’t an aristocrat he was made out to be. “I can prove that the prime minister’s grandfather was a chaprasi in the Mughal court,” Lohia said and Nehru smiled and replied thus: “I am glad the honorable member has at last accepted what I have been trying to tell him for so many years. That I am a man of the people.” Not one congressman rose up and screamed, “Aapne hamaare neta ko chaprasi ka pota bola. Shame, Shame.” Nehru’s finance minister TT Krishnamachari once described Feroze Gandhi as Nehru’s “lap-dog”. Feroze Gandhi didn’t take that lying down. He said since Krishnamachari considered himself a pillar of the nation, he would do to him what a dog usually does to a pillar. Today, most parliamentarians wouldn’t even get the meaning of lap-dog. In fact the presence of the three-letter word dog would result in total chaos in parliament. Another time, Congress’s JC Jain kept heckling Mody. An irritated Mody shouted, “Stop barking!” Jain started playing the victim and began pleading with the chair: “Sir, he’s calling me a dog. This is un-parliamentary language.” The chair agreed and declared, “This will not go on record.” Piloo Mody corrected himself thus, “All right then, stop braying.”Jain couldn’t get the meaning of this and the word went on record.
Interestingly, a glossary of unparliamentary words includes ‘communist’. It entered the list when an MP said in 1958 that “friendship does not mean that I should give my wife to the communists.”Similarly, ‘Hitler’, ‘Mussolini’, ‘Idi Amin’ and ‘Ravan’, ‘Godse’ among others, are strict no-nos. In 2003, the word ‘videshi’ (foreigner) was declared unparliamentary by the chair when Bharatiya Janata Party MPs used it for Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. Trust the politicians to find an excuse to avoid going to work. Even if they do go, they will find a reason to not work. We are a nation of hartals frequently called by our politicians. Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused his predecessor Manmohan Singh of not being corrupt while his government was full of corruption, he said: “Dr Sahab is the only person who knows the art of bathing in a bathroom with a raincoat on.” That may not be a pretty picture, but definitely funny. What was funnier than this that the Congress believed this jibe was reason enough to boycott work. Looking closely at PM’s lexicon, this metaphor is the small part of Modi book of humor. When he is in his elements, the jokes get serious and very few people can stop a cackle. Politics remains the only subject we can joke about, no that’s something to cry about actually. Our politicians are so short of humor that repartee seems banned in the house where frivolity has been a hallmark. We have elected a lot of un-parliamentary lumpens, communal reprobate and under trial criminals to this august House, but parliamentary language remains a thing .The Lok Sabha secretariat has, in fact, an exhaustive book of words and expressions in Hindi and English that are considered unfit for use in Indian parliament. It runs into several hundred pages.
Nowadays social media has become very effective tool for connecting with people. Social media has exposed decency of so many people and has brought that rage out of the drawing rooms. Political parties are using social media to be one up than their opponents. Public scrutiny of newsmakers in the society has increased but the response is not what a decent society would expect. Social media offers benefit of laissez faire from the government. Unless things move out of control, intervention from government has not been done. Even institutions such as Supreme Court or Election Commission are not spared. The political discourse in this country has seen many lows; one does not know where to place this one. It was Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee’s remarks in the past and Digvijay singh and Manish Tewary recently turn to take the limelight with their startling and outrageous tweets against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Both congressmen lifted a third person’s comments to describe Modi’s followers as Bhakts in a condescending reference and alleged the PM had befooled the nation. He is the best in the “Art of Fooling!” were the words used. Most tragic part is both of them refused to contest elections citing some silly reasons. Right from “Maut kae saudagar” by Sonia Gandhi to ” Chai wala cannot become PM” by Mani Shankar , numerous opposition leaders had taken a jibe at Modi ji and time and again public has given them a befitting reply during elections but it seems they haven’t learnt any lessons from the past experience. Politics is not calling names each other, stooping to such standards just depicts the frustration of the opposition who even after three years have been unable to stop the victory chariot of PM Modi.
Politicians and parties resort to frequent elections, ‘horse-trading’ issuing party-whips’ buying votes at hefty sums of money and other unethical activities. The majority do not seem to really represent the problems of the country and the regions from which they are elected. Each one is bent on improving his political glory and standing in the party .Their white-collar criminality has reached astounding proportions and nowadays, they are even caught in the web of the law of the land and some get even punished! Thus, the standard of conduct and attitude and kind of work performance of the average politician has greatly deteriorated these days! The Satyagrahis who ruled and led the people with hearts of sacrifices and undaunted minds are no longer seen among the politicians of today.
Democracy is not just a form of government in which the government is elected by the people; it is also about plurality of ideas. Truth does not emerge by itself; it is only through a conflict of opposing views that truth emerges. The real issue starts when opinions are manufactured in the digital space. Many people will like/follow/share and view only those pages or sites which are in harmony with their inflexible world view. When a feeble-minded person sees another with the same mindset, a bond develops between them. The situation turns worse when they decide to take on digitally the one who disagrees with their view. Social media is a double-edged sword. Every decision by the high and mighty should be objectively taken after weighing the pros and cons.
“Mind your language “- is the crux of today.
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