IndiaPost.com - INDIA'S DEAL

India Post News service

NEW DELHI: In the last couple of weeks, India witnessed a full on drama in its political scenario. Action, emotion, suspense, and comedy-all the ingredients for a masala flick were present. The UPA government had to go in for a trust vote, to move ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal, and the whole voting, till the result declaration, was no less than a last ball cricket match, where nail biting and head scratching are common traits.

The Left and the BJP picked up all their weapons and started attacking. 'Indians will become slaves in the hand of America', 'the US is using India to attack Iran' and similar statements were thrown as verbal weapons. And following all this, the UPA was pushed to go in for a confidence voting session. What happened during the two days' session was all the more interesting. Indian media felt no need of going to the Bollywood industry for spicy stuff.

The masala was all there, in the two days' debate and voting session. The debate session of the parliament had all ministers trying to slander the acts of the opposition. BJP leader LK Advani, in his very strong speech against the ruling party, and more against the present Prime Minister, tried his best to demoralize Dr Manmohan Singh. He described him as the weakest Prime Minister, called him a 'nikamma' Prime Minister, and accused him of having devalued the office of PM. To this, the Prime Minister, who is believed to be a quiet person, who does not speak strongly, spoke, what was totally unexpected from him.

He left no stone unturned, to defend himself and lashed out at Advani. This is how he made a counterattack on allegations put against him. "To fulfill his ambitions, Shri Advani has made at least three attempts to topple our government. But on each occasion his astrologers have misled him. At his ripe old age, I do not expect Shri Advani to change his thinking. But for his sake and India's sake, I urge him at least to change his astrologers so that he gets more accurate predictions of things to come. As for Shri Advani's various charges, I do not wish to waste the time of the House in rebutting them. All I can say is that before leveling charges of incompetence on others, Shri Advani should do some introspection.

Can our nation forgive a Home Minister who slept when the terrorists were knocking at the doors of our Parliament? Can our nation forgive a person who single handedly provided the inspiration for the destruction of the Babri Masjid with all the terrible consequences that followed? To atone for his sins, he suddenly decided to visit Pakistan and there he discovered new virtues in Mr Jinnah. Alas, his own party and his mentors in the RSS disowned him on this issue. Can our nation approve the conduct of a Home Minister who was sleeping while Gujarat was burning leading to the loss of thousands of innocent lives?" Tit for tat.

Now, this is what we call, the typical Indian tamasha. There were even more exciting and dramatic speeches between these two speeches, the most interesting one being that of Lalu Prasad Yadav. There was singing, taunting, and attacking, it didn't lack any aspect of entertainment. Lalu said the Left ideology had become outdated and required a revision. "The Left ideology is not applicable to India, for us, the ideology of Mahatama Gandhi is the best," he said. Replying to BJP leader L K Advani, Lalu said: "The basis on which Advani ji was opposing the deal was not known. He says he would renegotiate the deal when he comes to power, that is his real problem". The speech which everyone listened to carefully was Rahul Gandhi's speech.

When he started, he was interrupted highly and the parliament was adjourned for some time. When he started again, he requested to let him speak just for ten minutes. But once he started, he went on speaking beyond ten minutes, and everybody listened to him without interfering. He related the nuclear deal to the common man through a story and spoke a line that said it all, "It does not matter how the world impacts us, what is important is how we impact the world."

With such dramatic speeches, what added more spice to the whole session was the 'currency showing' episode. Three BJP MPs opened big bags, and showed Indian currency notes to the speaker, saying that the money was given to them by SP and Congress members, for voting in favor of the UPA government. In all this thrilling action packed Parliament session, the UPA managed to win the trust vote, with 275 votes for them, and 256 against them. But the story did not end here.

The after effects came in such a manner, that the opposition claimed UPA's win was a moral loss as they bought MPs, they started protesting, and they threw out all MPs who voted for the UPA. After all what happened within these two weeks, whether India impact the world in other areas or not, it has certainly made a mockery of its own political scenario, and has in a way, warned the world of not taking Indian politics seriously, in the future. Such is the great Indian political 'tamasha'.