June 05, 2009
 

Farce and symbolism

Meira Kumar's election/nomination as speaker of the Lok Sabha has so much farce and symbolism around it.

For starters, what exactly transpired in the 9 days between the time she was included in the ministry as the Water Resources minister and her resignation being accepted by the president? Surely, it wasn't as though her latent talent for being a presiding officer of the Lok Sabha (to conduct business, moderate debates, announce voting results, pull up MPs who're misbehaving, etc.) suddenly exhibited itself in those 9 days.

Or did Manmohan Singh realize that she'd make a pathetic minister? If so, why didn't that realization dawn during the 5 years that she was a Cabinet Minister for "Social Justice & Empowerment" and insisted that it was the duty of corporates to agree to and implement the UPA's agenda for social justice?

Maybe, just maybe, Manmohan found out that he had to accomodate an ally in the ministry. So he moved Meira Kumar to the role of speaker.

So now India has a woman president, a Sikh PM (twice), a Muslim Vice President, a Dalit woman as the Lok Sabha speaker and a woman as the deputy leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha.

For starters, I guess this automatically means that there will no longer be any atrocities on Dalits, women and, in particular, Dalit women in India. Now that isn't a bad thing, is it?

Labels: lok sabha, speaker, symbolism