Perhaps I am old fashioned, but having followed all the general elections in free India since 1952 and participated in at least 10 of them, I find the sort of language being used in the ongoing general elections is grossly inappropriate. Surely there can be sharp differences without using sharp language. The whole concept of the cut and parry of the debate seems to have disappeared, perhaps reflecting the sort of scenes that we have witnessed in Parliament over the last few years.
I recall that when I stood against Atal Behari Vajpayee in Lucknow in 1999, the only point I made was that Mr Vajpayee had promised not to contest again from there for the fourth time and it was my duty to see that his promise was not broken! During the crucial post-Emergency 1977 general elections, my opponent Om Saraf and I used to give compliments to each other personally before beginning our speeches. Incidentally, I was the only minister in the Indira Gandhi government to have won at that time from north India.
There are many ways of saying the same thing. Winston Churchill, for all his imperial attitudes, was a consummate debater. Once he called someone in the House of Commons a “liar”, immediately the Speaker intervened and said that the word was unparliamentary. Chur-chill apologised and instead accused his opponent of indulging in terminological inexactitude. He also called the Labour Opposition “sheep in sheeps’ clothing” and described their leader Clement Attlee as “truly modest person who has a great deal to be modest about”.
Such humour unfortunately seems to have evaporated from our country. Instead of the scalpel, we use the axe. Violent and extremist language not only sully the atmosphere of our magnificent general elections — the largest ever held anywhere in human history, it creates hostility and bad blood which inevitably spills over into Parliament and state legislatures.
I have long felt that one of the main reasons for the erosion of our parliamentary democracy is the fact that not only is objectionable language used, the whole phenomenon of members walking into the well of the Houses and forcing repeated adjournments is steadily eroding the image and dignity of our entire parliamentary democracy.
Is it too much to expect leaders of all sides to kindly lower the pitch, at least in the period that still remains?
The writer is a member of the Rajya Sabha
