Fish markets are very parliamentary

The National Fisherfolk Forum (NFF) may have justifiably taken umbrage to a judge likening persistently obstreperous lawyers to a fish market, but at least it shows that the hallowed precincts of the Indian judiciary are not unaware of quotidian life.

Fish markets, it may be noted, have practically disappeared in the most developed economies (including Billingsgate in London that inspired the English term almost 400 years ago) and most people there are now unaware of the accompanying cacophony that led to the rise of the phrase that the exasperated honourable Supreme Court justice directed at noisy lawyers.

On the other hand, fish markets are still very common in India and are frequented by ordinary people daily, if not by high functionaries, and the decibel levels are generally high. Of course, the NFF is quite right to point out that the raucousness of fish markets is without purpose or solely to annoy — as courtroom cacophonies may be — as a lot of business is actually transacted amid the uproar.


However, NFF calling the judge’s remark unparliamentary is off the mark. For, as many Indians would concur, if there is any place often rife with purposeless cacophony, it is the lawmakers’ Houses, at the Centres and in the states. Judges should perhaps consider substituting the words fish market with a more apt simile.