24 October, 2008

A Shaky Foundation

Rediff reports:

The Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha are usually adjourned because of commotion. But on Thursday the Upper House was forced to adjourn briefly for an interesting reason—malfunctioning of the presiding officer’s seat. [...]

Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan, who was in the chair, rose to cool tempers. But, when he was about to sit, the back cushion seemed to fall off. [...]

Soon after, Khan adjourned the House for 10 minutes. [...]

But the problem with the seat persisted when the House reassembled at 12:45 pm and Khan adjourned it till 13:30 pm.

There are two things to note here:

1] Parliamentary proceedings cost taxpayers Rs 26,000 a minute, and these dudes showed a remarkably cavalier attitude towards that money. If I was the speaker, I’d just have taken any random chair available and sat on that. Khan’s attitude is of a man who thinks that politicians rule the people, not serve them.

2] If our government can’t maintain a simple thing like the seat of the presiding officer of the upper house of parliament, what chance do you think they have of running the rest of the country well?

Earlier posts on parliament: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

(Link via email from Deepak Iyer.)