Parliament website in the works, bringing to you wit & humour — amid the ruckus

Although the lighter moments were always captured in the House records, this is the first time they are being made accessible to the general public at the click of the mouse.

Speaking to The Sunday Express, K Srinivasan, former director of the Lok Sabha Secretariat, said that wit and humour has always been part of Parliamentary debates in India. He would know since it was his task to compile such references on a daily basis for 17 years – between 1983 and 2020.

Srinivasan said that at the end of each day’s proceedings, he would go through all the matter and select such instances, which he would then compile in the form of a story board. However, the compilations were in the form of physical publications, or compendiums, which would be circulated to the Speaker’s office and Parliament library among others.

While these remained largely inaccessible to the general public, such moments recorded since 2004 are now available to the public on the new website, officials said. “Those before 2004 are to be found in Parliament library in the form of physical compilations. We have uploaded all the matter we had on the new website,” said an official.

The website is still a work in progress, with new elements and features being introduced on a regular basis, they said. At the end of the current monsoon session on August 11, all the witty and humorous references from this session will be uploaded as well, they said.

Among the lighter moments in the Lok Sabha, Srinivasan recalled, was RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s sarcasm aimed at the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during a discussion in 1999 after Jawahar Rozgar Yojana was renamed as Gram Samridhi Yojana. He had reminded Vaypayee sarcastically: “Nehru ji had said to you that Atal, one day, you will become the PM of this country. Now that you have become the PM not once, but twice, ab to jaan chhodiye mulk ka.”

This had even Vajpayee in splits.

In fact, Lalu has been among the most humorous Parliamentarians so far, although not the wittiest, said Srinivasan. That tag goes to the likes of Madhu Dandawate, Somnath Chatterjee, Hukmdev Narayan Yadav and Vajpayee himself, he said.

In recent times, Srinivasan said he finds Republican Party of India leader Ramdas Athawale and BJP MP Nishikant Dubey humorous.

While felicitating the newly elected Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on June 19, 2019, Athawale had recited: “Ek desh ka naam hai Rome, lekin Lok Sabha ke adyaksha ban gaye hain Birla Om / Lok Sabha ka apko achhi tarah chalana hai kaam/ Well mein aane waalon ka blacklist mein daalna hai naam / Narendra Modi ji aur apka dil hai vishal, Rahul ji ab aap raho khushhaal.”

This elicited thumping of desks from all sections of the House.

Opposition leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had recited the following on the same occasion: “Khuda se kya mangoon tere vaaste / Sada khushiyon se bhare hon tere raaste / Hansi tere chehre pe rahe is tarah/ Khushboo phoolon ke saath rehti hai jis tarah…”

In fact, that particular session of the 17th Lok Sabha was recorded as the wittiest of all sessions, with over 200 ‘wit and humour’ references from leaders across party lines.

The Rajya Sabha section of the new website also has a Wit and Humour column, although it is not up yet. Officials said they were looking to soon populate this section with such instances and references from the Upper House. In fact, they said, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar often uses wit and sarcasm to make his point, and many such videos are also tweeted by the official handle.

One such example is from July 21. Greeting Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge on his birthday, Dhankhar referred to his lighter side as he said, “Kharge ji ka humour satate huye mausam ko bhi badal deta hai.”

In 2014, a few months into his first term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had lamented the loss of wit and humour in the House. “Humour and wit are gradually fading away from parliamentary proceedings as members are worried about what colour the 24×7 (media) will give to even one proverb,” he had said.

But he often recites couplets to silence detractors. While replying to a debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address in February 2022, the Prime Minister had said: “Woh jab din ko raat kahen to turant maan jao / Nahi maanoge to woh din mein naqab odh lenge…”

On February 8 this year, replying to a debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address, he recited another couplet: “Yeh keh keh kar hum dil ko bahla rahein hain / Woh ab chal chuke hain, woh ab aa rahe hain…”