Indian Express
Sign In | Register Now
Newsletter | ePaper
Indian Express >  Op-Ed >  Walk The Talk > 

‘Here were MPs worth Rs 25 crore each and I wasn’t even worth 25 seconds of Parliament’s time’

Font Size
  Posted: Jul 29, 2008 at 2351 hrs IST
Related Stories: ‘A crime of this scale and size cannot be committed without active state help’‘Cricket is a beautiful metaphor for life’‘Pak military can only be reined in by itself. No civilian govt there has had the ability to do that’‘Caste, parochial or communal politics have become passe now, especially with the youth’‘Liquidity is still an issue... we shouldn’t get into an artificial high or low’'I'm not ready to believe that Sadhvi Pragya Thakur is a terrorist'
Normally you would expect our politicians to speak for hours and hours together but here is somebody who made a difference with just a 3 minute speech and emerged as one of the greatest rising stars in Indian politics today, definitely the star of the no confidence vote that we saw recently in the parliament. Omar Abdullah welcome to Walk the Talk.

Thank you very much.

How wonderful to have you here. Early morning right here with parliament here as the backdrop. You are the new star hero of so many young people infact young and old around the country.

Its taken me ten years. I started in Parliament ten years ago. Its not as if I have just burst on the scene, but its amazing how 3 minutes can change everything .

I believe the video of your speech is the hottest thing on you tube.right now.

So I believe. It’s the one way I manage to get a number of my family members not living in India to see my speech. Even dad is in London. So I think his exposure to my speech has been on you tube.

Ads By Google

Is he impressed? Is he envious?

He is coming back to the country today. I will have to ask him.

Is he envious?

I don’t know.

Do you sometimes compete?

No I don’t think so. I don’t think so.

But tell me Omar. We will get into other things. But just about this speech. From where did the passion come because you know you have been in parliament as you said for ten years. We didn’t see this side of you.

I think it was the combination of the frustration that I was not going to get a chance to talk. I have been pressing for 2 days for a couple of minutes to speak and the overwhelming thought I had was that here were members of Parliament supposed to be worth 25 crores each and I wasn’t even worth….

That was the floor price.

…well, fixed price and I wasn’t even worth 25 seconds of Parliament’s time. and this thought began to really irritate me. And then of course this whole thing about Amarnath and how.kashmiri muslims don’t want the yatra to go ahead and things like that. So all this kind of just churned inside, until finally I got the moment to speak.

... contd.

Ads By Google
Post Comments
Message*
Maximum characters allowed     
 
Name* Email ID*
Subject* Country*
TERMS OF USE:
The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).
I agree to the terms of use.
View all Messages [ 0 ]
View all Messages [ 0 ]
Group Websites : Express India | Financial Express | Screen India | Loksatta | Kashmir Live | Biz Publications
Privacy Policy | Feedback | Site MapThe Indian Express Group | Work With Us | Adverise With Us | Contact Us© 2009 Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd. All rights reserved
*Recipient(s) name *
*Recipient(s) e-mail address *
(Separate addresses by commas)
*Your Name *
*Your e-mail address *
Select your Country
Comments(optional)

The name(s) and e-mail address(es) you provide will
not be used for any purpose other than to inform the
recipient(s) of your identity. (*mandatory field)
 
Close