New Delhi, July 23 (IANS) School and college students, watching the raucous two-day debate in parliament on a trust motion sought by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, were stunned to see MPs springing to their feet and shouting at the slightest provocation, caring little for the speaker.
“Parliament resembles a school with a helpless teacher (the speaker) taking care of a bunch of hooligans. And he has nothing to tame them with,” Harshat Malhotra, a Class 12 student of Mount St. Mary’s School, told IANS.
“Classrooms are much better that these parliament sessions,” said Achal Uppal, a second year student, Indraprastha University.
“We guys do fight with each other, but that just strengthens our bond. These people (MPs) seem to be fighting each other with the intention to kill.”
As the two-day confidence motion debate was beamed live into Indian homes news channels, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee looked formidable as he constantly chided members – like a teacher does to errant schoolchildren – for disrupting MPs who were speaking or for simply not sitting in their seats and roaming around when the crucial vote counting was going on at night.
But the “class” he presided over seemed out of control.
“This is the parliament of India. The whole nation is watching you,” was Chatterjee’s constant refrain. His futile efforts evoked sympathy from youngsters, even those who have played a prank or two with their teachers.
Said Anmol Narang, a Class 12 student at K.R. Mangalam World School: “The parliament session has no resemblance with our school. It’s shameful. Our school principal is way more strong than the speaker or deputy speaker. They are completely helpless. Unlike MPs, our fellow students are more disciplined.”
Tanvi Nagpal saw a reflection of some of her classmates in Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Shibu Soren whom she found snoozing during the debate.
“When we saw a snoozing Shibu Soren we could relate to parliament,” said Tanvi, a Class 9 student of Modern School. But school is much “better organised than parliament,” she said.
Taha Siddiqui, an undergraduate student in the Jamia Milia University, told IANS: “It is an insult to schools to call the Lok Sabha a classroom! Even the kids in a school are not that boisterous and ill mannered.
“I can never imagine my classmates or myself for that matter yelling at a teacher! I wonder if they ever attended school. In fact they need to!”