Surely this was not meant to be part of the deal. This insistence on the nitty-gritty, this compulsion to mark attendance, this inconsiderate chorus about appointments with make-up artistes. No, Shatrughan Sinha’s honeymoon on the treasury benches was to have been coterminus with his tenure as health minister. His extraordinary wit and thundering rhetoric should have catapulted him to a special status. Fellow parliamentarians should have been discerning enough to cherish the few moments he could spare for them from his hectic routine. They should have known a good thing when they saw it, those few minutes of boisterous bonhomie to punctuate dreary debates. Instead they crib. Look how they have stacked up against him. Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, debuting as chairman of Rajya Sabha, has taken it upon himself to zip through the day’s starred questions. Not content after having created a record by taking up all 20 queries in the 60 allotted minutes, he took Sinha to task for filibustering and asking that a question be restated. Over in the Lower House, Speaker Manohar Joshi was no more sympathetic. He nodded vigorously through a legislator’s complaint about Sinha’s extended absences, about his tendency to leave his junior minister to field questions on the health of the nation. And the rest took their cue. Nary a submission by the health minister passed without a wisecrack about his acting skills, his guest appearances. Who, then, would have heard out his defence in Lok Sabha on Monday. But I only excused myself from the House after taking permission from the speaker and the prime minister, he pleaded. Oh dear. May we submit that we empathise with the hon’ble minister, that we understand the burdens of celebrity. Such are the adjuncts of superstardom that the well-known are inevitably more conspicuous. This, after all, has been a parliamentary session marked by notably fewer charges to the well of the House. Maybe because there was nobody around to make the charge. The quorum bell’s been rung this past month with alarming frequency. Bills have been passed with a democratic alacrity, but debate has been limited to just a few minutes. Zero Hour has progressed with few interruptions. But one of Sinha’s own partymen sighed just last week that there are never any ministers around to hear out MPs’ articulation of their voters’ travails. Does any of this give Sinha heart? We hope not. Indeed, we would recommend that he keep his wits about him and include an hour or so in Parliament in his daily official duties. It may inspire his colleagues.
