You don`t say!
Darius Nakhonwala
If there is one lesson I have learnt in life, it is this: you can get away with murder if you do it politely but you can`t get away with a yawn during a prayer meeting if you do it rudely.
So it came as no surprise that leader writers in all major newspapers were ready to wag their censorious fingers at Mamata Banerjee for throwing a file at the presiding officer of the Lok Sabha before stomping out and resigning her seat. Since she has record of bad behaviour, no one asked if this time round at least she had just cause. But the truth is, she did.
It was left to Swapan Dasgupta, a columnist in The Pioneer to point out what exactly had happened. And what he revealed was quite appalling.
"Statistics collected by a concerned MP are revealing. In this Monsoon session, the Speaker has so far permitted 34 Calling Attention Motions. Of these, 16 have been initiated by Left MPs and another six corresponded to Communist concerns. Gurudas Das Gupta, leader of the 10-member CPI, has had 10 of his motions discussed. In addition, 14 of the 21 short duration debates under rule 193 have been initiated by the Left. Perhaps, Mamata has reason to feel aggrieved."
In the instant case, too, Speaker moshai had done his bit. He had rejected an adjournment motion Ms Banerjee had sought on the issue of influx of Bangladeshi nationals. She alleged discrimination by Mr Chatterjee and threw the papers at the Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, who was in the Chair.
Without bothering to find out, all leader writers went into high dudgeon. The Hindu, which never feels obliged to criticise the Left, wrote " As a habitual offender, Ms. Banerjee certainly deserved the strictest punishment. However, Speaker Chatterjee showed grace as well as shrewdness in rejecting her offer of resignation; he also seemed in no hurry to admit the flood of privilege motions seeking to censure Ms. Banerjee on her `wild behaviour,` presumably on the reasoning that it is her normal state of political being."
The Telegraph, which doesn`t love the Left but looks down its nose at the likes of Ms Banerji, sniffed that " seething with excitability have been the hallmarks of her career… Throwing a shawl at a minister or simply dragging a couple of colleagues by the collar in the Lok Sabha or even threatening a public suicide in the middle of a meeting were all part of routine. Ms Banerjee has resigned again, ignoring protocol even in the submission of her resignation, and has had her party, the Trinamool Congress, bring out its forces in her support. " But unlike the Hindu it did admit that the problem she wanted discussed was a real one, namely of migration of Bangla Deshis who vote for the CPM.
The Indian Express, which can be expected to do a bit more homework, was not much better. " Mamata Banerjee must be held accountable for Thursday`s uncivil drama in Parliament", it mumbled before going on to utter dire warnings about the future of Parliament.
The Tribune was no better. "Ms Banerjee`s disorderly behaviour is a flagrant violation of both parliamentary norms and decency. By all accounts and any standard, her fit of fury in the House is highly objectionable."
If you ask me, this is editorialising of the worst kind. What is worse, it happens all the time.
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