The Miscellany Manifesto

Random Musings of a Transient Soul





Sadha Soudha

We went to the Vidhan Soudha to view the sessions yesterday. Despite several warnings from classmates who had already been, I was actually looking forward to it. "It can't be that boring I thought."
Which only proves that I should listen to people with more experience. It pays.

The day was jinxed right from go. I missed the damn bus. So had to go all the way in a rickshaw, which, I kid you not, made 12 consecutive traffic stops. WTF? After paying the rickshaw-wallah a bomb, I made my way through the garishly painted portals of adminstration waving no pass, no letter- only my College ID card. Mighty easy. My bag was checked only once and that too after I was almost inside the sessions chamber.

Now for all you common souls who haven't yet been there, the Vidhan Soudha doesn't just sport that weird peppermint colour on its facade, it's splattered all over the interiors as well. It's like DannyBoy's Licorice Factory in there- Fuschia, Lemon Yellow, Azure and Peppermint are painted on every possible surface. The overall feel is so overdone and so non-political. I'd imagine (Chandler's) Janice would love a home in those shades, know what I mean?

Into the Legislative Assembly we go and this is the funny part, my collegemates and I (58) outnumber the MLAs (28). Beat that.
Question hour was in progress. Now here's where the day suddenly dipped in the fun ratings. The whole jhol jhamela was in Kannada and thus I was absolutely clueless about most of the proceedings. And there's only so much polite/curious observing that you can do. So after noticing the weird fashions of MLAs (furry Nehru topi, Khadi and Rolex), their complete lack of discipline (they can roam even as others discuss- only so long as they namaste the speaker when they leave their seats and return) and their healthy somnambulism (even as farmers' suicides were being discussed by the lot awake); I decided to take a leaf out of their books and napped a little myself. Though I hope think I looked a little more fetching than this:


Now the Assembly was dull, but the Council was genuinely interesting. No, really. We heard a rather acerbic discussion about the state budget. Finance minister Yediyurappa was present, but HDK was no where to be seen as his camp took a righteous beating from the opposition. Professor Chandrashekhar had a fantastic go at the budget, sarcasm and all. He pointed out glaring mistakes and several appallingly hypocritical comments from HDK's ministry. For example, the introduction to the budget congratulates the Krishna and Singh governments for doing such a wonderful job with infrastucture and agrarian development (haha) and promises to continue the same. This, after years of rivalry and criticism about the very same issues. Strange...

The best part was the way in which the Prof took charge. He never raised his voice, never pointed fingers, was dignified (and sarcastic) throughout and totally blew the budget to pieces. Yediyurappa never said a word.

What was truly interesting though was the contrast between the conduct and composition of the Assembly and Council. Striking differences.

I don't mean any of this to sound offensive, but this is the way it was. The Assembly was larger as per size, smaller as per attendance (and attention!) and did seem to have a largely rural membership. The discussion was conducted, in general, at very high decibels and very low standards of respect. At several points the debate was so heated that the Speaker actually had to stand and shout for order. He wore the distinct look of a harangued babysitter.

The Council was smaller, had a higher comparative attendance, more organised representatives, a calmer speaker and much higher levels of decorum. Not to mention the discussion, lead by Professor Chandrashekhar, which was far more dignified and if one can say so, intelligent. Quite predictably, the Council had a far more learned group in attendance, who in their dress and mannerisms seemed very urban.

All in all, the whole thing was both very interesting and very boring. I wish we had some sort of translation aids, but then again I should keep dreaming. Whatever it was, it was very surprising in many ways. Legislation was at work. Very contentious issues were being discussed with great enthusiasm. The effectiveness and outcome of the debates is very debate-able though. Also we weren't the only audience there. The seats were filled with many people, several groups of farmers, a few noted NGO representatives. Yes, we got a taster of the heated arguments that the Soudha is infamous for and we saw some sleepy MLAs and it was very disappointing because they proved the stereotypes right. But it was heartening to see our elected representatives concerned about the very issues we worry about, it was good to see them take up issues with genuine passion. I suppose somewhere deep down I believed they'd all be asleep.

In retrospect, it was an illuminating visit. I'm glad I went.

This entry was posted on 25.3.06 at 2:52 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.

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