THE WINTER SESSION
The Winter Session of Parliament will commence next week. While the Opposition is keen to corner the government on the SIR voter revision exercise, the government already has its distraction plan in place. The government is keen that the House has a day long debate on Vande Mataram. The Prime Minister set the ball rolling when he recently said that important stanzas of the National Song were dropped in 1937 and that this had sowed the seeds of a divisive mindset. Reacting to this Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had countered that it was the BJP and the RSS that were opposed to chanting Vande Mataram. Raising this issue now also neatly fits into the current narrative where the BJP has accused the Congress of being Macaulay’s prodigies. Interestingly, it was in 2012 that the then UPA government had inserted the chanting of Vande Mataram in Parliament’s lists of ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ (Parliament bulletin on rules stated that “The decorum and the seriousness of the proceedings of the House require that there should be no ‘Thanks’, ‘Thank You’, ‘Jai Hind’, ‘Vande Mataram’ or any other slogans raised in the House.”). It also must be noted that the all important Bengal election is around the corner and it was a great son of Bengal, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, who wrote the National Song. The TMC and the BJP have already been trading charges on this issue outside Parliament. So expect another version of the nationalism debate being acted out on the floor of the House. One just hopes that other issues pertaining to economy and reforms will also be given the same space and firepower.
TRUCE IN A TEACUP
The Karnataka face-off between the sitting Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D. K. Shivakumar has all the ingredients of a déjà vu. We have seen this film before in Rajasthan between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot, in Madhya Pradesh between Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia and in Chhattisgarh between Bhupesh Baghel and T. S. Singh Deo. In each case the second in command has claimed that he was promised a rotational CM-ship and demanded his turn on the CM’s chair, and in each case he has been fobbed off with a half-baked promise of a future reward. This has not curbed the dissent within and has been one of the reasons why the Congress lost Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in the elections that followed. That same script is being repeated in Karnataka where D. K. Shivkumar is being fobbed off and placated with some future placement. Without going into the merits of the D. K. vs Siddaramaiah fight, isn’t it high time that the Congress gets its act together to prevent this problem from recurring again and again? And the only way this can happen is if the high command takes a strong stand. That will involve action beyond placatory tea parties, which at best offer Band-Aid solutions.
SCRIPTING THE END
Few may have met David Malone when he was Canada’s High Commissioner to India. But a recent email sent by him to his close friends here has sparked a nationwide conversation on WhatsApp groups and in newspaper columns. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Malone has decided to opt for Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying Program (MAID). At least two of his friends, Shashi Tharoor and Pratap Bhanu Mehta, have written about this after receiving a farewell note from their old friend. Having been diagnosed with a fatal illness that robs one both of dignity and quality of life, Malone has chosen to bow out on his own terms. As Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes, when Malone informed him of his decision he also added, “it really is a choice between two different ways of dying”. And indeed one has to both admire—and to some extent envy him—this choice. India is still to legalise active euthanasia, although passive euthanasia (withholding medical care) in some cases is permissible by the court. Most of us, having lived active and independent lives, have a healthy fear of what old age has in store for us, especially in terms of mental and physical health. While there is much scope for misuse, there is also an argument for bringing its similar relief—with the necessary safeguards. One hopes our lawmakers would take up this issue instead of some of the divisive debates we see on the floor of the House.
