I was very excited for today(yesterday-20th March) I was to visit the parliament and witness the session's proceeding. In fact, after entering the gate I bowed my head to pay a silent obeisance in the 'temple of democracy'. I had to undergo a series of security checks starting from the main gate where they asked me to deposit all the electronic possessions. From there I entered into lobby, where I could buy a glass of 'Pure' orange juice for Rs 10. I thought the security ordeal was complete but I was wrong it was just the beginning. (To remind you parliament has three sessions 1. Question hour 11am-12 noon; 2. Zero hour 12 noon - 1 pm; 3. Business hours 2pm-5pm;). From here I was frisked at 8 places before I could reach the public gallery. I surrendered all my possessions including pens, paper pieces, handkerchiefs, coins, in short everything other than paper currency. My frisking at the lobby started at 10.25 AM and I could reach the house just a couple of minutes before the proceeding started.
I guess there were two motives behind such unpleasant frisking, first is security and second that a person once visiting the parliament shouldn't even dream of visiting again( one needs a pass from an MP to visit and there are many who want to get it). And yes, I would come to the place again only if I were in a position to issue passes to others.
After this rigorous exercise, I was asked to sit in the third row in the public gallery from where I could see treasury and opposition benches as well as 'Madam Speaker'.
I was asked not to sit cross-legged, not to point fingers, not to whisper, and not to bend heads among others. By now I started feeling alien and lost all my love for this place. Though it is referred to as the temple of democracy where the public is the deity and politicians are devotees here I observed there is neither any respect for the deity nor the temple. And how can there be any respect when the deity is frisked instead of the devotee. Hence proved 'Parliament is a temple is a misnomer'.
During my short stay inside the house, I was more conscious of my movements and postures than the proceedings. I saw three girls being sent out from the 3rd row since they couldn't behave against their 'nature'. :-)
I saw MPs coming inside the house; L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj, MM Joshi, Yashwant Sinha, Salman Khurshid, Kamalnath, and Mulayam Singh to name a few entered the house. Greetings were exchanged, what was more interesting was that some of the politicians were touching the feet of their respective party's big guns to assert their loyalties.
Suddenly a royally dressed assistant/guard spoke at the highest pitch of his voice," Sawadhan, Mananiye Lok Sabha ke Adhyaksha Mahodaya padhar rahi hain" and within seconds all MPs stood on their seat. From front Meera Kumar, speaker of LS entered. Immediately after she reached her seat, without wasting any moment she started paying tributes/ obituary and at the end of this requested all the MPs to stand and offer their tribute by silent tribute.
No sooner the speaker finished the obituary, around 20 MPs came near the seat of the speaker and started shouting something with all sorts of hand gestures. After a few seconds, I saw the speaker leaving her seat and disappearing from the house followed by these MPs coming back to their seats. I thought after some time speaker would return and proceedings would restart but I was wrong. After a couple of minutes, I saw leaders from the opposition bench leaving the house and apart from Sushma Swaraj all major leaders from the opposition left the house.
I still couldn't make out what was going on. Then some security guard came and informed us that the house had been adjourned, and we may leave.
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