It was the 135th birth anniversary of the first president of
India Dr Rajendra Prasad, 3rd of December, 2019 when for the first time I as a
citizen of the country had the privilege to visit the Parliament to see how it
looks and functions at first hand.
On a recommendation I was able to get a pass bearing number
444881 to enter the highest lawmaking body of democracy in the country. The
timing was from 2 PM to 2:40 PM well mentioned on the slip of the pass I had
obtained from the counter. Accordingly, accompanied by my litterateur classmate
Ajay Anurag I reached the destination much in advance with full of curiosity
and alacrity.
I took a metro train from Vaishali of Ghaziabad where I stay
to reach the central secretariat metro station from where the parliament is
just a furlong. Soon after I checked out the gate number five of the station I
was stopped and asked to show the entry-pass on the wide road under the blue
sheet. The security staff I bumped into was Ms Laxmi whom I appreciated for her
righteous duty and she gave me a return wide smile.
My entry at the first
security check was allowed on the presentation of the pass and my Aadhar
card. At the second security check point
I saw the visitors lined up in two different queues- one for depositing the
mobile phone sets and another for those without a set. The second queue was
rather smooth to proceed to the next which I chose; handing over my phone set
to yet another journalist friend Manish Kumar Sinha who had joined us only to
return to the press club nearby.
Everyone was supposed to deposit their cell phone sets before
entering the next gate. Following the norms I reached the next security check
that included frisking. I was also told not to carry even the wallet from the
certain point of the security management.
The security staff
performing their official duty said “only three things are allowed, entry pass,
identity proof and the amount of cash. It was well written on a piece of paper
which was pasted on the adjacent wall. Rest of other belongings had to be
deposited at security check. I asked for a token of objects I had deposited
with a mention of details. I was denied the rights, saying that they did not
have the system for the same. I was a little filled with fear of losing any of
the multiple cards- Driving License, Voter Identity, PAN and ATM cards I had in
my swollen pocket.
What began to run
through my mind was that if I lost any of them, I would not be able to claim in
the court of law for lack of evidentiary proof. Hence, it was all a matter of
faith and trust while depositing these articles.
At the next entry level, I was told not to carry even a pen,
visiting cards and even so a single piece of paper. All I had was deposited
there conforming to the security rules.
Passing through the multiple security checks in adherence to
norms in place, I was able to get seat on the bench, on the upper floor from
where I could see the Hon’ble MPs speaking with my naked eyes. So nice so
good! I was ushered to the seat by the
lady staffer mostly using sign language.
The moment I entered,
I found and heard Mrs Muthuvel Karunanidhi Kanimozhi, Hon’ble MP representing
Thoothukudi constituency speaking in the House. One by one, I could hear half a
dozen of Hon’ble members reading their papers within the specific time limit.
Good was that these MPs were raising developmental issues pertaining to their
respective constituency. BJP MP Ravi
Kishan drew the attention towards the extension of UPSC at his constituency.
In between
instructions for the MPs were often repeated on part of Hon’ble speaker to
stick to the text submitted to the chair in advance for the august purpose.
The medium of
communications was either English or Hindi. I could notice the leaders from the
cow belt chose to use Hindi whereas those from south preferred English.
However, MP Nishikant
Dubey from Jharkhand representing Deoghar (Godda) had submitted his paper in
English but spoke in Hindi with permission granted under current system. He
wanted the DRDO extension in his constituency.
In between I got reminded of my college time as back as 30
years ago. One of the professors perhaps to win hearts and minds of the
students announced in the class that he would be dictating a set of eleven
questions; out of them the five were sure to tally with.
Interestingly, in question battery of the examinations, there
used to be a set of 10 questions and only 5 were needed to be answered to score
the marks.
The teacher’s claim was often correct with past records which
I had heard the seniors speaking so.
Most of the students were contented and happy. The flipside was that the
classroom was almost empty with a thin attendance. They only waited for the
day to get ‘guess questions’.
It stands to reason why I got reminded of my college time. I
saw the lower house of parliament almost half of the seats unoccupied, the
reasons best known to the absenting MPs. I can say I saw the House of
Representatives without representatives.
Sessions of parliament are generally conducted for limited
number of days in a year. Even for such a small period, the house often goes
without full attendance. Given that their absence does not affect their
salaries, allowances and other benefits including a pension.
The MPs are entitled to pensions out of the amount of tax
collected from citizens ‘hard earned money throughout their life. On the
contrary, the scheme of pensions for government officials is almost abolished.
An amount of wage is deducted pro rata for their absence and late arrival from
those working in private sectors.
This is what I observed in my maiden visit to the parliament.
Hats off to the security personnel who work very diligently, keeping us safe
including members of parliament! Can’t we have one card system in place of
multiple cards as mentioned above in the country? Carrying all of them at times is cumbersome
and they can sync into one.
The social entrepreneur Dr Birbal Jha is a noted author
and the Founder of British Lingua. He is
regarded as having created a revolution in English training in India with the
slogan ‘English for all.’