After speaker Meira Kumar made the conventional obituary references, members in the House stood up to take up the issues of concern to them.
Until now, members from the opposition benches who wanted to make their point as vociferously as they can would walk to the well of the House and shout slogans. On Tuesday, the first day of the winter session, there was a new element. After speaker Meira Kumar made the conventional obituary references, members in the House stood up to take up the issues of concern to them.
Members from Maharashtra wanted increased minimum support price for cotton. The Congress MPs from Telangana showed their placards demanding Telangana. The BSP contingent brought in their own banner demanding 10% reservation for Muslims, written in English and in Urdu.
The strategy behind the innovation seems to be that because in the din where several sections of the House try to out shout each other, the issues they are raising and shouting about to draw the attention of the speaker and indirectly of the media get drowned out. Now the placards make sure that the Doordarshan cameras capture them clearly, whose footage is used in turn by the other news channels.
As this was the first time that the placards have made their appearance in the House, there is as yet no debate whether they should be allowed or not. For example, members are now allowed to read from a written text except when a minister is making an official statement which is then placed on the table of House.
But the issues gain no more legitimacy or acceptance because they are written in big letters and they are held up in the House.
For example, one of the ministers speaking on condition of anonymity explained the MSP for cotton was Rs4000 while the members were demanding Rs3,300 for every bale of cotton.
The government was silent on the Telangana issue which was an embarrassment because it was the Congress members who were raising the issue. The members had earlier stood in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statute in parliament premises and shouted slogans demanding Telangana, which was clearly an attempt steal the thunder from the TRS. Perhaps the entry of placards would be a better option if it were to replace shouting. But it would seem that the placards are there only to supplement the shouting.
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