By your leave

People who love holidays are in august company. If a working day is sandwiched between two holidays, our MPs promptly decide to declare the day a holiday. To mention just two recent instances, the Parliamentarians gave themselves additional off days ahead of Raksha Bandhan and Janmashtami. In basic numbers, it meant six working days in two weeks. It must be said, however, that representatives of at least three parties8212;Gurudas Dasgupta of the CPI, Rupchand Pal of the CPIM and Bhartruhari Mahtab of the Biju Janata Dal8212;opposed the declaration of September 4 as a holiday at the Business Advisory Committee meeting of the Lok Sabha. Needless to say they constituted a woeful minority.