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| Image 1: The Parliament from across the street |
If my review on the guided tour of the Indian parliament could be summed up in one word, it would be 'circle'. Me and my friends kept going around in circles trying to secure a visitor's pass to an institution of those we elected, and we
adjudged the visitor friendliness of some
of the staff we encountered to be a colossal zero. On the positive side, we
appreciated the symmetry of the complex, which much like New Delhi as a whole,
is made up of circles and semicircles (just see an aerial photo), and we
admired how closely knit a circle the security and staff are, unified by their
committed to their work and still in remembrance of those whom they lost in the
terrorist attack of 2001.
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| Image 2: An aerial view of parliament and some of New Delhi's many round-abouts |
We had already seen
the conventional tourist haunts in Delhi, and were looking for unique
experiences when the idea of Parliament and Rashtrapati Bhavan came to mind
(read this post for the latter). But ideas are only step 1 - execution was not
that straightforward in case of the Parliament.
I would love to know
if there's any other way, but as far as I'm aware, the only way us
non-connected, cattle-class janta can visit the parliament is if we have a
letter from an MP. That too only when the parliament is not in
session or there's no important national holiday on the horizon. Expecting a
long wait, each of us wrote to our respective MPs. All I got was a wall of
silence to email after email. My friend
was more fortunate, there was a positive response with clear instructions on
how to go about it, and to collect the permit the day before our visit. Problem
was, that the person who so nicely answered all the emails, wouldn't answer
their phone the day before our visit.
The long anticipated
wave of disappointment was racing ahead to hit our shores, but an unexpected
turn of events kept the tide at bay. Our saviour was my friend's ex-classmate
who happened to work for a company which in turned worked for the parliament secretariat.
At the absolute last minute, she got a permit issued for us, proving that
sometimes, you just can't bypass connections in this country.
The security
procedures at the gates were strict, as was expected - but manned on this
particular day by rude staff who kept giving us vague instructions and losing
their temper whenever we did something wrong because of those vague
instructions. Thereon, we passed into a waiting room, detached from the main
building. Here, we waited to be organised into groups of around 30 and to be
attached to a guide. This waiting room was circular as well and inaugurated in
the late 1970s as per the information board, and not renovated since from the
looks of it. It was dark, cheap and ugly, a fitting aesthetic to our
decades-long Soviet love affair. Along one side was a sales counter for
mementos, which exuded the aura of Harry Potter's dementors
having recently picnicked there. Compared to the plush and polished feel that
we got at Rashtrapati Bhavan, this seemed to be a complete letdown. Luckily,
things started to look up.
Our names were
called out by a young and enthusiastic guide who masterfully
transformed our experience. As
we walked along the circumference of the building, we encountered offices of
familiar MPs. The corridors were quiet and echoing. Paintings accompanied us
almost constantly through the ground floor. I wish we could have stopped and admired
them more closely, but there were more important things to see in this strictly
time-bound tour. Up one level and we were behind the towering colonnades, a
very recognisable feature of the building.
Through an unassuming door we went, and emerged into the Lok Sabha (the Lower House).
It was an unbelievable feeling.
While we weren't in the well of the house, we got a panoramic view from the
visitor's gallery on the mezzanine level. Our guide proceeded to explain to us
how the decision-making process takes place one level below. She even pointed
out the seats of the Prime Minister and other eminent MPs.
The most interesting bit of information we gathered was about the voting process.
Each seat comes
equipped with a series of buttons. When it's time for an MP to vote on a bill,
two buttons need to be pressed simultaneously, one to accept or reject the motion
and another to register the vote. Note that these two buttons are on opposite
ends of the desk. It may seem cumbersome, but it's actually serves to prevent
bogus voting. At any time during the process, the MP will have to use both
his/her hands, thus preventing any attempt to reach out to a neighbouring,
possibly empty desk and voting from there to bolster numbers. If at all someone
manages to miraculously circumvent this safeguard, large screens display not
only the total number of ayes and nays, but also the vote cast by each seat.
Very much like the
gallery where we were seated, were other galleries lining the mezzanine level -
one for visiting dignitaries, members of state assemblies and Press. MPs can
address the house in either English or Hindi. Should they choose to speak in any
other Indian language, prior intimation needs to be provided. Nevertheless,
there is a special room dedicated to interpreters who render the proceedings
into India's many official languages, in real time, and MPs can tune into an
audio feed of their preference.
After the Lok Sabha, we also spent a few minutes in Rajya Sabha (the Upper House).
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| Image 3: Rajya Sabha |
Since the house
consists of only indirectly elected MPs, it has always maintained a somewhat
lower profile. Even the audio-visual facilities provided here seem to belong to
the pre-digital age. The reason we enjoyed this chamber was because we were
seated in the gallery for visiting dignitaries! One tip to identify the
chambers (apart from the size difference), the Lower House is carpeted in green
and the Upper House in red.
These aren't the only two chambers in the building. The largest is the circular hall safely ensconced right at the heart of the complex - the Central Hall.
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| Image 4: Former US President, Obama addressing MPs in the Central Hall |
This hall is
considerably grander than the two houses and is used for joint sessions of both
houses - which is usually the first session at the start of each year, and the
first one after each general election. Foreign Heads of State are also invited
here to address the parliamentarians - former U.S President Obama being the
most prominent recent visitor. One of the stand-out features of the hall are
its vintage 'up-side down fans', perhaps the only ones in the country right
now.
In the days before
independence, there existed three houses of the Central Assembly (as it was
then known) instead of two - the third one being the Chamber of Princes, where
representatives of the Princely States convened to discuss matters relevant to
them. Merger of the states into India (and Pakistan) upon independence meant an
end to this chamber and it currently houses the parliament library.
Unfortunately, the library was not a part of the tour.
Leaving the massive
chambers behind, we stepped into the gardens, and the mood suddenly turned
sombre as our guide educated us about the infamous terrorist attack in '01.
While she was obviously too young to have worked here then, she was visibly
moved as she told us from where the terrorists infiltrated the complex and how
the security team bravely thwarted their attempts to break into the main
building. 6 Delhi Police personnel, 2 Parliament Security Service personnel and
a gardener were martyred, and a memorial stands to remind us of their
sacrifices.
Parliament's raucous
functioning has always been much debated and criticised. The system and its
safeguards are admirable, but many a times we question the sense of entitlement
that some of our MPs feel as against the work that they do (or don't). But doing
away with it would only be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. On the eve of our
independent nation's 70th birthday, I only wish that
this institution realises its full potential in the decades to come and that
because of it, India@100 is a much better place!
Also Read:
Note about the images:
Photography is strictly prohibited in parliament. I do not own any of the images used in this article. The sources of the same are mentioned below. Should anyone have any objection to their use, please let me know and I will take them down.
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/New_Delhi_government_block_03-2016_img3.jpg/1280px-New_Delhi_government_block_03-2016_img3.jpg.
- https://cryptome.org/eyeball/india/in-parl-002.jpg
- https://i0.wp.com/factly.in/wp-content/uploads//2017/08/The-Math-of-Rajya-Sabha-elections_factly.jpg?fit=1390%2C776&ssl=1
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Barack_Obama_at_Parliament_of_India_in_New_Delhi_addressing_Joint_session_of_both_houses_2010.jpg
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