When the menu mattered more

The golden jubilee celebration of Parliament last week was a memorable event and the ambience of the new Library building in which it was he...

The golden jubilee celebration of Parliament last week was a memorable event and the ambience of the new Library building in which it was held added to the elegance. The prime minister and the leader of Opposition shared the dais, hours after they clashed in the Lok Sabha. There were no sharp edges in their speeches even though the Parliament session had been an acrimonious one. Pramod Mahajan was the master of ceremonies and was at his witty best as he introduced the speakers, drawing laughter from the audience, paying generous compliments to Sonia Gandhi and other Congress leaders, striking conciliatory notes, creating a bonhomie which seemed to say that it was possible to disagree without rancour 8212; the basis for consensus and functional democracy.

There was only one jarring note and that was a menu card. While the commemorative stamp and the two books on 50 years of Parliament which had been released waited to be picked up in covers on the floor outside the auditorium, the menu card was distributed to the guests in the auditorium itself. Printed with a flourish in red and gold like a wedding card, it contained descriptions of the fare to be served to the guests, with the names of the famous food outlets located all over India and their proprietors.

If the menu had been handed out at a PATA conference or in the business class of a jumbo jet, or even at a function of an Indian embassy to showcase the country8217;s best traditions in cuisine, it would have been different. Of course, it would be interesting to calculate the cost of the gargantuan exercise of collecting all the cooks and chefs and printing the mini booklet which passed off as a menu.

Though, of course, menu cards for such functions would have been phrased and printed without incongruous connections that were on this menu. Sample this: 8220;Bhatti ka Murga8221; prepared by Beeray in Amritsar, a city built by Guru Ramdas 400 years ago.

The menu booklet promised many more delicacies which Mahajan and his team had brought together from all over the country for the golden jubilee celebrations like 8216;Fateh ki Kachori8217; on which generations in old Delhi have thrived, the 8216;Tunda Kebabi-Avadh8217; with 160 spices prepared by Tunda Mian, which has been the legend of Lucknow, the 8216;Meen Kaari8217; fish curry of Malabar, the 8216;Ram Babu Parathas8217; of Agra which 8220;merrily soak up oodles of desi ghee8221; on which circus performers had built their muscles over the years, the Biryani of Hyderabad described as 8220;a kushta or aphrodisiac8221; which justified the saying, 8220;Jo istimaal karta hai, woh buddha nahin hota8221;.

The message of insensitivity that the menu card sent out even compelled an otherwise amiable prime minister to rap the organisers gently. In fact, the prime minister opened his speech with the quip, 8216;8216;Jo maza khane maen hai woh uske baare maen parhne maen nahin8230;.8217;8217;

MPs are no longer interested in the dry taps in Guntur or the non-existent toilets in Gujarat camps

The red card underscored the corporatisation of Indian politics that has taken place, and the 8220;me and my interest8221; that has come to be the dominant factor when it has to emerge out of a social concern in a democracy. For democracy, which is a social concept, has everything to do with the representation of the people8217;s interest. But people8217;s interest is finding less and less place in our legislatures. This is as true of the way people are making it to the Upper House with the use of money or money bags as of the attempts to manipulate the elections by creating a 8220;hawa8221;, with a gimmick here or the use of showbiz artistes there, who may be popular but do not represent the interests of the people.

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The card rankled because this kind of show of vulgarity does not match with the ethos of a function to celebrate the golden jubilee of the parliament of a developing country. While the rest of the function celebrated the very survival of Indian democracy despite severe onslaughts, the garish menu card was a give away, symbolic of the decline of Parliament.

It showed the extent to which the elected representatives have distanced themselves from the concerns of their constituencies and their elitist preoccupations. They have forsaken all restraint, want to eat the best food that India and the world offer them, wear designer clothes in Parliament, spend their summers in Europe and the US. They are no longer interested in the dry taps in Guntur or the homeless in Andhra Pradesh where 600 people have already died due to heat this summer or the makeshift toilets in the Shah Alam relief camp in Ahmedabad.

The organisers of the function may claim they have not been hypocritical when pseudo-morality has become all pervasive in Indian politics.

The menu card was being distributed to those present even as Pramod Mahajan started to speak, speaking about the five historic dates in India8217;s freedom struggle starting from Mangal Pandey8217;s heroism to the first Parliament session that was held on May 13, 1952. It jarred all the more because the expectations from the otherwise dynamic minister for parliamentary affairs were quite different.