The 11-member panel discussion on the contentious clauses of the Lokpal Bill moderated by Arnab Goswami on his news channel led to a strange development yesterday. In the middle of the discussion, an animated, agitated Ms Renuka Chowdhary of the Congress said in her usual aggressive manner: “Yeh BJP log kuch bhi bolte hai.” Then to everyone’s surprise, an apparently irritated Ms Chowdhary challenged Ms Nirmala Seetharaman of the BJP, who was also on the panel, to take her on in a wrestling bout in the well of the House during the Lokpal debate in Parliament. She showed off her biceps and declared that if Ms Seetharaman could defeat her in a “no-holds barred” wrestling match in Parliament, the government would concede defeat and incorporate all changes suggested by the BJP in the Lokpal Bill.
Goswami, who has solved 733 important national issues till now on his show, spoke for 17 minutes of the total air time of 20. He was instantly impressed with Ms Chowdhary’s challenge and asserted there was consensus among panel members that a wrestling bout was the right solution even as the puzzled panelists looked on helplessly. He then declared he would be the referee.
This development has shocked people across the country. We contacted several people to get their reactions. Despite repeated requests, the only response we could get from the Speaker of the Lok Sabha Ms.Meira Kumar was: “Krupaya baith jaaiye, shaant ho jaaiye, krupaya baith jaaiye, shaant ho jaaiye.” Mr Anna Hazare, the face of the anti-corruption crusade said: “We want Nepal under Lokpal.” But when asked to answer our question, he said: “Wrestling is not the ideal option in Lokshahi. Maybe we can flog the two of them separately in Parliament and whoever is able to endure more lashes should be declared victorious.” He also reminded people about the Online registration for Jail Bharo. He added that there was a 1+1 free registration offer on Wednesdays. Rajdeep Sardesai expressed his displeasure with this wrestling bout development in one of his five “good night” tweets yesterday. His tweet read: “Better to spend the day with my dog and a nice book than to see this Tamasha in Parliament. Gnight.” When we asked Mr Manish Tewari of the Congress about the bout and Mr Hazare’s comment, he said: “Insofar as Anna’s comment on Nepal is concerned, I don’t need to point out the absurdity. It is against the federal structure of the constitution. Insofar as the flogging comment is concerned, it clearly exposes his feigned advocacy of non-violence. Insofar as the wrestling match is concerned, I pity my good friend Ms Nirmala Seetharaman as she has to face an extremely tough opponent.”
In spite of repeated attempts, we could not contact some people we would have liked to to seek their reactions. For instance, Mr Justice Markandey Katju could not be contacted because he was busy writing his next controversial article, after his observations about journalists and the issue of sportspersons being considered for Bharat Ratna. We also tried to contact the President to get her views on a range of issues such as corruption, food security, farmer suicides, inflation, slowing growth, widening fiscal deficit, lack of governance, mercy petitions, wrestling match, to name a few. But we were told by the security guard of Rashtrapati Bhavan that the President was not there. Apparently, the President has been missing for quite some time but no one noticed. “Even I haven’t seen her in the past eight months”, he said. We could not contact Mr Rahul Gandhi because he was visiting the families affected by Don2 in UP. He even announced a relief package for the poor Dalits who were traumatised after watching Don2. He spent a night in the hut of a poor Dalit and ate all the four chapatis that the family of five usually has for dinner. The head of the Dalit family said: “What food security Bill? We have to sleep hungry tonight. We’ll have food security if Rahul bhaiya does not visit us.”
Later, in the night, we received an SMS from Mr Rahul Gandhi saying that in his opinion, there should be a separate Constitutional body to organise wrestling matches in Parliament.
'The Statesman' link: http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=394830&catid=39
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