FORAY | Sunday, August 9, 2009 | Email | Print | 
Au Revoir, Rajya Sabha
Chandan Mitra
It was an emotional moment as I took a bow in the Rajya Sabha last Friday. My nomination to the House of Elders came in the summer of 2003, taking me by surprise as, unlike many formidable contenders, I had not lobbied for it. I was named in the Nominated Member category at the relatively young age of 49, considering that my predecessors from the media were venerable, grey-haired editors such as Kuldeep Nayar and Khushwant Singh. Whatever may have prompted then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to recommend my name to the then President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam, it was a distinction that surpassed everything else I have received in life so far.
In the six years I occupied Seat No 101 in the Upper House, much water flowed down the Yamuna. Within a few months of being sworn-in on December 4, 2003 by the then Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the NDA Government surprisingly lost power and the Congress-led UPA came to occupy the Treasury Benches to the right of the Chair. There was a sea-change in the behaviour of members on both sides. Left MPs suddenly became highly voluble, attacking both the Government they supported, and the BJP they ideologically despised, with almost equal ferocity. By the time I demitted office, the Left was chastened once again although their interventions are still most effective because they do a fair amount of homework, compared to the easy-going attitude of many other MPs.
Soon after I joined the elite band, Natwar Singh, then Minister of External Affairs, advised me to maintain a diary to record each day’s proceedings. “It will help you when you write your memoirs,” he sagely suggested. But those were times of bitter confrontation between the fledgling UPA and disgruntled NDA, which believed power had unjustly slipped out of its hands. Admittedly not a great stickler for punctuality, I usually reached 10 minutes after the House assembled at 11 am and barely would I get down from my car that a colleague would jubilantly inform “Ghar jaao, adjourn ho gaya”. So, there was hardly scope to maintain a diary of any kind.
Besides, Nominated Members, although treated with a great deal of respect by the Chair and other MPs, were not really expected to contribute very much. Sadly some of our predecessors had set unhealthy examples, thereby reinforcing the notion that the “distinguished” nominees were basically decoration pieces. When I interviewed controversial artist MF Hussain for a group magazine, he told me that he had not spoken even once during his six-year tenure, but used his presence in the House to draw umpteen sketches of members in action. He said he presented some of them to the leaders concerned, much to their delight at possessing an original Hussain! Lata Mangeshkar, too, similarly refrained from participating in the proceedings even on the rarest of rare occasions that she descended on the House.
But, in contrast, our group was highly productive. Bimal Jalan and K Kasturirangan, former RBI and ISRO chiefs respectively, participated in debates with great dedication. Later appointees, C Rangarajan, Shyam Benegal and Shobhana Bhartia were also active speakers and questioners. Kapila Vatsayan, despite her frail appearance, was a powerful, down-to-earth interventionist while MS Swaminathan, the doyen of agricultural economists was called upon to clarify many issues raised by members. Dara Singh, Hema Malini and Narayan Singh Maneklao (a social activist from Rajasthan) formally joined the BJP. Despite my publicly known political leaning, I did my best to separate my role inside the House with that outside. In my interventions, I focused on non-political issues, particularly those related to the environment.
Nominated Members nurse a grievance in terms of the time allotted to them for speaking. I remember battling with the Chair on many occasions when told “Dr Mitra you have 2 minutes to make your submission.” Fortunately, other members were always supportive and pleaded with the Chair to extend the paltry time allocation. Frustrated by this “discrimination” against small party or independent Members, Rahul Bajaj even attempted to form a block of 12 to officially get a segment of time allocated. Predictably, the authorities refused to entertain the idea.
Trying to combine the roles of Editor and MP did lead to occasional conflicts of interest. One came to know so much by informally discussing matters with Ministers, party leaders or from proceedings of Standing Committees. I had to restrain my instinct for carrying “scoops” in my paper because that would not be the ethical thing to do. In fairness, neither did other owner-editors like Ms Bhartia, Mahendra Mohan Gupta (Jagran) or Vijay Darda (Lokmat) breach the line. But Rajya Sabha was a huge learning experience nevertheless. Otherwise unassuming MPs often startled me with the depth of their knowledge, perspicacity, articulation and passion. One moment they would be screaming their guts out but at the very next deliver a most erudite critique on a complex subject.
Perhaps my most productive contribution as MP was made in the Standing Committee on Rural Development. Considering I am a purely urban being (I don’t recall spending even one night of my life in a real village), it was challenging to be appointed to a body concerned with law-making for rural people, especially the poor. I can say with some satisfaction that our Committee diligently examined the NREG Bill over 19 sittings and later the Land Acquisition and Relief & Rehabilitation Bills over 26 (although the Government has now decided to frame these two pieces of legislation afresh).
The Committee was headed by then BJP leader Kalyan Singh and its seriously active members were only CPI(M)’s Hannan Mollah, Congress’s Sandeep Dikshit and, I daresay, yours truly. Whenever Kalyan Singh or Hannan Mollah could not attend, I was asked to chair the deliberations. The meetings were fascinatingly productive and cordial and we came out with unanimous reports on every occasion. I hope Standing Committee proceedings are never opened to media coverage for that would destroy one of the finest traditions of non-partisanship in our parliamentary system.
I am sad to step back from the Rajya Sabha just when experience was beginning to help me contribute more effectively. Besides, after a long time the just-concluded Session was almost disruption-free and a great deal of serious work got done with the Opposition, now led by friend from University days, Arun Jaitley, cooperating with the Treasury Benches. That enabled me to make four major speeches in this Session alone. Last Friday brought forth a great deal of emotion from the retiring members and I take this opportunity to share with readers Sahir Ludhianvi’s poignant poem, with which I ended my last submission in the House:
Mujhse pahele kitne shayar aaye aur aa kar chale gaye
Kuchh aahein bhar kar chale gaye, kuchh naghme gaa kar chale gaye,
Woh bhi ek pal ka kissa thay, main bhi ek pal ka kissa hoon,
Kal tumse juda ho jaoonga, jo aaj tumhara hissa hoon…
Kal aur aayenge naghmon ki khilti kaliyan chun-ne wale
Mujhse behtar kahne wale, tumse behtar sun-ne wale…
Main pal do pal ka shayar hoon, pal do pal meri kahani hai.
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