The home minister used sarcasm to depict today's reality in Parliament, which has been paralysed during the entire monsoon session over the second generation mobile telephony spectrum scam.
Home minister P Chidambaram today used sarcasm to depict today's reality in Parliament, which has been paralysed during the entire monsoon session over the second generation mobile telephony spectrum scam.
"Today, the Parliament convenes at 11am and it ends at 11.05am. It ends in five minutes. We discuss about the day-to-day happenings in just five minutes. We discuss everything by that time," Chidambaram said sarcastically at a function in Tamil Sangam here.
He made the remarks while recalling "great debates" between late Congress leader C Subramaniam and the DMK leader CN Annadurai in the Tamil Nadu assembly in 1960s.
Since the winter session began on November 10, Parliament has not been functioning due to the opposition's uproar over the constitution of a joint parliamentary committee to probe the second generation mobile telephony spectrum scam.
Speaking at the function to commemorate the centenary year of Subramaniam, pioneer of India's Green revolution who held several portfolios in the Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi cabinets, Chidambaram hailed his role in India's freedom struggle and described him as a statesman.
The minister said C Subramaniam, agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan and the then agriculture secretary B Sivaraman played a major role in translating the dream of a 'green revolution' into reality.
"Then in 1970s we did not have wheat and most of it were being imported. People used to jokingly say 'Ship to Mouth'. Once the wheat is shipped into the country, it is cooked and people used to have it immediately. But now the problem is non-availability of godowns to store them," he said.
As a result of this, 1 lakh tonnes of wheat and rice are being wasted and rats are eating them and the Supreme Court is chiding.
"It was this man (Subramaniam) who pioneered the Green Revolution... Everyone is proud that the three S (Subramaniam, Swaminathan and Sivaraman) are from Tamil Nadu," he said.
Terming Subramaniam as a man who was "deeply interested" in promoting the use of Tamil and the language, Chidambaram said he played a very vital role in naming the then Madras state as Tamil Nadu.
"Though many people can take credit now for these things, and many people may have forgotten these things, I am indebted to recall his contributions to Tamil," the home minister said.
He recalled Subramaniam's contributions to the mid-day meals scheme as the education minister of Tamil Nadu when it was introduced by then chief minister K Kamaraj.
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