Through the Third Eye

Mocking Parliament

The move by a group of Lok Sabha members led by Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav to hold a ‘mock Parliament’ on the floor of the Lower House last Friday has generated much anger and anguish among the national parties. Many senior leaders of the BJP, Congress and the Left are livid about which they think was a new low in Parliament’s history.

L K Advani has already admonished Gopinath Munde for joining the drama and let that fact be known to one and all. Some Congress leaders are now privately arguing the need for a stern message from the appropriate quarters denouncing the incident. Some of them feel Speaker Meira Kumar, as the custodian of the House, should rise to the occasion and set the record straight. As the House is slated to meet on Wednesday after an extended holiday, many wonder whether Ms Kumar will bite the bullet or duck it.

Plotting games

Suresh Kalmadi might have become the main target of criticism for the messy run-up to the Commonwealth Games. But the episode has reopened the factional fault-lines in the Delhi Congress with the opponents of chief minister Sheila Dikshit now trying to regroup against their powerful rival. Their past attempts, with the hidden support of some central leaders, to destabilise the chief minister failed after she led the party to a record-breaking hat-trick victory.

With the role of the Delhi government for the Games mess-up under the scanner, and the tradition of the Congress brass not to let any non-Gandhi leader become too powerful and popular, Dikshit’s critics seem to be feeling their target has never been so vulnerable. In short, the buzz in the Delhi Congress promises some real games after the curtains fall on the Commonwealth Games.

Role reversal

For many years Mamata Banerjee has been at the receiving end of the West Bengal CPI-M MPs who unitedly rise to shout her down each time she got up to speak. The twist in the political tale in West Bengal has now brought in a sort of in-House role-reversal . With Trinamul Congress acquiring more numbers and political clout in the Lok Sabha, where the Left MPs have been pushed to the margins, Didi seems to have decided to return the compliment.

Now it has become a common sight that each time a Left member from West Bengal rises to speak, the entire Trinamul brigade virtually unleash themselves on their state rival. The same scene was enacted in the House last week when the Bengal comrades tried to take on the railway minister on the Maoist issue. With her party MPs running down each of the Left MP who tried to target Mamata, the railway minister sat silently, with an imperious look on her face.

Who belled the cat?

Amit Shah is still cooling his feet in a Gujarat jail and Narendra Modi has already found a new replacement for his behind-the-bars former home minister. But the BJP has not yet found time for pressing for a discussion on their promise of raising the issue of the “misuse of CBI by the Congress’.

Some Left leaders are claiming that BJP leaders have been forced to go slow on their pet issue after the comrades had planted the fear of isolation in saffron minds. But JD (U) members too claim credit for reining in the BJP’s agenda, saying it was the fear of the ally deserting them on the issue that is forcing the BJP to overlook Amtibhai’s plight and Narendrabhai’s nightmares.