The qualities of a shrewd politician and parliamentarian are wit, wit and retort
The qualities of a shrewd politician and parliamentarian are wit, wit and retort
The story of Mulla Nasruddin exposes the complicated business of law. Once, Nasruddin told a king that the law does not make people righteous. The king disagreed, claiming that he could make people virtuous through coercive power of law. On the bridge leading to the royal city, the king built a gallows. The royal decree said: “Everyone will be interrogated at the gate. They will be allowed inside if they tell the truth. If they lie, they will be hanged.” When Nasruddin stepped forward, the guard asked where he was going. Nasruddin replied, “I am on the way to the gallows.” The guard did not believe him. Nasruddin smiled and said: “Well, if I have told a lie, hang me.” The confused guard said, “But if we hang you for lying, we will make what we said true. It ended in a catch-22 situation and Nasruddin’s argument proved to be correct.
unparliamentary words
in front of monsoon session of parliamentThe Lok Sabha Secretariat released a revised booklet containing a list of words now deemed ‘unparliamentary’. This list contains words like ‘ jumla jiva (person making false promises)’, ‘covid spreader’, ‘snoopgate’, ’embarrassment’, ‘abuse’, ‘betrayal’ and ‘incompetent’. As the story of Nasruddin suggests, parliamentary decorum cannot be maintained by issuing decrees; It can be nurtured only when democratic civility is expressed by the ruling party as well as the opposition.
Democracy is government by discussion, said John Stuart Mill. Mill admired the Athenian Republic and attempted to model modern representative government on the discreet character of its democratic political life. The practice of democracy is discussion, debate and disagreement. Liberal democracy favors the ethicism of Athens, where oratory was worshiped and eloquence was the norm, while liberal democracies find refuge in Sparta’s laconicism.
Wisdom, wit and retort are the qualities of a shrewd politician and parliamentarian. An anecdote about Abraham Lincoln underscores this point. When Lincoln entered the Senate to deliver his inaugural address as US President, an elite senator stood up and said, “Mr. Lincoln, you must not forget that your father used to make shoes for my family. The Senate laughed. Lincoln replied: “Sir, I know that my father used to make shoes for your family in your house … Do you have any complaints? If you have any complaints, I can make another pair of shoes. Because I know how to make shoes myself. But as far as I know, no one ever complained about my father’s shoes. He was a genius, a builder, and I am proud of my father.” Similarly, socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia once said in Parliament that Jawaharlal Nehru was not an aristocrat as he was portrayed. I can say that the Prime Minister’s grandfather was one.” Chhaprasi in the Mughal court,” he said. Nehru smiled and replied, “I am glad that the honorable Member has finally accepted what I have been trying to tell him for so many years: that I am a man of the people.” An ideal parliamentarian should emulate Lincoln and Nehru.
Letting go of parliamentary terminology doesn’t help deter shrewd MPs like Pilu Modi, the flamboyant leader of the Swatantra Party. Once a member of Congress kept teasing Modi in Rajya Sabha. “Stop barking,” Modi shouted at the member. The Congress member pleaded from the chair: “Sir, he is calling me a dog. This is unparliamentary language.” The Chairman agreed and announced that Modi’s words would be dropped. Modi corrected himself as follows: “Okay, then stop braking.” Congress member Meaning of the word ‘braking’ could not understand and it remained in the record.
Satire is more mischievous than unparliamentary words. When Lohia pleaded in parliament for Soviet leader Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva to be granted asylum in India on the grounds of her ties with Indian Communist leader Brajesh Singh, Tarakeswari Sinha jokingly asked the bachelor Lohia about her marital feelings. How can he talk when he had no experience of it. Lohia retorted: “Tarakeshwari, when did you give me a chance?” Can such things be inferred in the revised booklet of the Lok Sabha Secretariat?
In rational indian, Amartya Sen said that “Proximity in India is not alien to us.” He exemplified this with VK Krishna Menon’s record for the longest speech ever to the United Nations. The argumentative tradition can be traced back to the dispute between Krishna and Arjuna quoted in the Bhagavad Gita. Both sides of the argument are given equal importance in the text. As Prof. Sen had said, “A defeated argument that refuses to be wiped out can live a long time.” There is no place for logophobia in the parliamentary system.
Faisal CK is the Under Secretary (Law) to the Government of Kerala. thoughts are personal