May I crave
your attention to the following ‘burning question’ troubling us all right now?
“Why is it
that our Parliament and Parliamentarians are NOT being looked upon for
inspiration & guidance in leading this Country?”
Let me now
try to explain my own analysis, conclusion and a possible solution for the same
in my own simple way:
First let’s
understand the origin & history of the creation of the Parliament Building,
the Sansad Bhavan (with some help from Wikipedia & history books).
The British Government in India enacted the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms with a view to introduce self-governing institutions gradually to India. These reforms were
later reenacted in the Rowlatt Acts introduced in 1919, with the sole objective that the
Government would work towards "increasing association of Indians in every
branch of the administration and the gradual development of self-governing institutions
with a view to the progressive realization of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British
Empire."
Gandhiji launched a
nationwide protest against the Rowlatt Acts with the strongest
level of protest in Punjab. An apparently unwitting example of violation of rules
against the gathering of people led to the massacre at Jalianwala Bagh in Amritsar in April 1919, which
bore testimony to the mindset of the British Rulers then.
The parliament house
was planned by the Britishers in 1919 in accordance with the Montague-Chemsford
reforms. The foundation stone for the ‘Sansad Bhavan was laid on February 12,
1921 and the building spread over nearly six acres was inaugurated on January
18, 1927 by theGovernal General of India,Lord Irwin.
I believe strongly
that it is this desire to keep India under it’s thumb forever, that the
Britishers approved the present circular
designed colonnaded verandah architecture with a “top-down seating arrangement”
just like the Colosseum. The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, is an elliptical Amphitheatre in the centre of the
city of Rome and was used for
gladiatorial contests and public spectacles such as mock sea battles, animal
hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical Mythology.
Is
it any rare coincidence then that the Sansad Bhavan is witnessing scenes very
similar to the Colosseum (fight-to-finish, executions, battles etc.)?
Ideally
speaking the British should have developed a design for the Parliament House
based on a ‘Desi’ architecture that they were very familiar with due to their
constant intermingling with the
Princely
State Rulers for more than 100 years. We are all aware that the Indian Durbars
always
had
a bottom up approach, where the King & his Ministerial Colleagues (as well
as the Chief Adviser-Guru) would be seated at the top most level, followed by
other Princes & Scholars in a descending order with the public seated in a
large area at the floor level. However the British Rulers, well known for their
smartness & deceitfulness then, had purposely selected a colosseum like
(top-down) where the public are seated on top and the Prime Minister & his
Senior Colleagues are required to sit at the bottom (correctly called the
‘Well’ of the House), thus making the general public to look down upon the
‘Rulers’. This has only led to a feeling of low expectation from the Policy
Makers & hence a constant reduction in the respect for them over a period
of time.
And the telecasting of the proceedings of the House by Doordarshan
over the last few years only hastened this process of ‘falling from grace’ for
our Netas, since the whole Country got the opportunity to “look down” upon our
Netas in Sansad Bhawan. And as an example of this deterioration, we can sight
the steep decline in the image of our honourable Prime Minister, whose past
record has been viewed with awe by one & all – in fact his CV had been
voted as the ‘Best CV of any person on earth” just a few years back in the social media. And among
our Freedom Fighters, Gandhiji continues to hold the highest respect, love
& awe from everyone in the World even today, perhaps (also) because he
never made the mistake of joining the main stream politics that would have required
him to sit in Parliament. For him, ‘Swaraj’ meant that “the value system and
life style of the British Raj should be done away with and totally replaced by
a simpler, more spiritual, communal life”. I believe that he would have
refrained from commenting on the flaw in the Design of Sansad Bhavan, as that
definitely would not have been the ‘top priority’ job for him at that crises ridden
time (in 1947 – 48).
Proposed
Solution:
So
with ‘malice towards none & friendship towards all Netas’, may I humbly
request that we start a social movement to exert pressure on the Govt for the
reconstruction of a new Durbar in the original Indian Style (& not a Circular
Well shaped building where all Bills will be in perpetual motion !), so that we will start
‘looking up’ to our Policy Makers once again resulting in a positive environment
leading to better governance & higher respect for our Country in the comity
of Nations. The cost of such a building (Durbar) should be met by deducting the
Salary (& perks) of our Netas for the days that they did not come to or perform
their duty in Sansad Bhavan, until the Durbar is readied (which would take 2 to
3 years to get ready). You may call this a ‘Vastu solution’, but this is much beyond Vastu & hence I would like to call this simply as the 'common sense' solution.
