Anjan Roy
The D-day had come and gone. The new parliament building was inaugurated By the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 28, however much boycotted. That means, the curtains had come down on the old Parliament House. What will happen to it, not yet certain. Some have suggested it to be converted, like many another old building, into a heritage hotel. Some have suggested it should be a place for holding meetings and conferences related to parliament functions.
But the most elegant suggestion comes from an eminent architect. That it should be allowed to gracefully fall into old age and disrepair. And then, let nature take it over, with plants and weeds growing and some large trees sprouting in the wonderful interim spaces in between the old parliament’s main chambers.
Be that as it may, like many a former parliament correspondent and reporter, I feel nostalgic about the old place. Apart from the real proteges of parliament – the elected representatives of the people and the high authorities of state who flitted around – the parliament reporters and correspondents were the shadowy other figures in the overall situation. We used to hang around with the principal actors in that overarching drama that used to be parliament.
Honestly, we could have been the constant pain in the burley necks of the principal protagonists. But we were not only tolerated; we were positively encouraged and many of the politicians would seek out our company to subtly give out hints of what they would have liked to see in the media.
There used to be open nepotism of a kind as well. Some correspondents would be the favourites of some political big wigs and they straightaway invited them to see in the chambers. It used to be known facts and no qualms about it. Others, of course, would have “exclusives” to yet known lightweights. It was open competition for news and hints and no hurt feelings.
When Parliament would be in session, here on this balcony one would often see L.K. Advani talking to his favourite BBC correspondent tall, sandal-wearing Britisher Mark, Tully. Gurudas Dasgupta, CPI leader and active parliamentarian, would be frequently seen with groups of his close Left-supporting journalists. He was always a good source for new tips in finance and banking.
But such exclusive excursions apart, there was an overall bonhomie among those who drifted around the corridors of parliament or the circular upstairs balcony along the outer pillars, which were the front-loaded visible features of Parliament House. There used to be improvised tea and coffee vendors on this balcony where all and sundry will gather for conversations and gossips. And, occasionally some political heavyweights would also join in the general mirth of the chit chats.
There would be long lines from in front of rooms adjoining the balcony distributing papers laid in the tables of the two Houses. Remember those were the days before digital era when printed papers used to convey the news and matters. If we had felt irritated and disgusted with the wait and the hassle of standing in line, today we feel nostalgic about even the associated boredom and irritation of waiting in a line!
We hear, the journalists have been more or less banished from the new parliament house. For one, in the digital age your presence is redundant. Secondly, there would be no physical space for the journalists and their ilk. There would be no central hall or corridors or balconies which would be as freely available to the hack writers as the principal protagonists and politicians.
With that bold step, would end the era of “leaks” and key information which could prod us on to many major discoveries. Information would now be very competently and in strict confidence. Maybe, that could help the administration and those in power. But competing news and information were possibly the best way of ensuring functioning democracy.
In that now-defunct era of leaks and conviviality among the press and the powers, I could remember when a very powerful prime minister could not appoint his select incompetent and ill-trained candidate to become the chairman of the then mammoth public sector airline operator. An advance leaked news of that attempted appointment had foreclosed any possibility of it ever taking place.
There were advantages of allowing free way to the journalists into the proceedings. Vice president Shankar Dayal Sharma was presiding over the session of Rajya Sabha, as far as I could remember. He was so cruelly and incessantly heckled by the ruling party members that he had almost come to tears. Proceedings were not on live television. It was the general newspapers which brought out the debased demeanour and shamed the perpetrators subsequently.
One remembers when Dr Manmohan Singh, as prime minister, was mercilessly attacked by some members of the opposition for many of the omissions and actions of his government. Not being a hard boiled politician, Dr Singh was moved and took the allegations and criticism rather seriously and personally.
When things were rather taking a bad shape, in comes who but Atal Behari Vajpayee, and looked like rescued Dr Singh in an avuncular fashion. The seasoned politician gave sane advice to Dr Singh to grow a little thick skin and take nothing personally. He said he had been abused for as long as he could remember in his political session. In his remarkable speeches and impromptu interventions, Vajpayee was the finest parliamentarian many of our generation had seen.
His resignation speech, when his short-lived government had fallen, is memorable, no doubt. But there was at least one occasion, when he had soared the heights of our political sky in his speech before parliament.
It was a piquant moment. Some elected representatives of Andhra Pradesh legislature had come to Delhi to present their memorandum to the then prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi. Instead of letting one or two of them to hand over the memorandum to prime minister, the Delhi Police had roughed them up. Parliament was win session and the news had reached.
Impromptu, Vajpayee stood and spoke up in his incomparable Hindi. Prime minister was not in the House, but he had addressed the prime minister as if to say: “Until now, people from the states are coming to Delhi for getting justice; but if they get such treatment in Delhi, then the day is not far when Delhi will have to go knocking at the States doors to retain it seat of authority”.
It was almost a seer’s verdict. In the years following, the government at the centre had become abjectly dependent on the support of the regional parties for its survival. Of course, those days are long over, admittedly. The new Parliament Building is the symbol of the digital age. With the central hall non-existent and the media virtually being disallowed to have any interaction with the parliamentarians within the premises of the new Building, the media functioning will lose its charm. The old timers will always be nostalgic about the golden days they had in the old Building. (IPA)
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