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Whether Parliament is a palace or thatched shed, what is it to the people? Even after eighty years, is there even a chair in the home of the people like the ones in the Parliament?
P. S. Remesh Chandran
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
Article Title Image By Adobe Stock. Graphics: Adobe SP.
Whether Parliament is a palace or thatched shed, what is it to the people? Even after eighty years, is there even a chair in the home of the people like the ones in the Parliament?
P. S. Remesh Chandran
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
Whether the Parliament is a palace or a thatched shed, what is it to the people? What do the people care? Even after eighty years, is there even a chair in the homes of the people like the ones in the Parliament? Today, all those in the Parliament are the representatives of the people from one constituency or another, starting from the Prime Minister. Apart from the representatives of the people, there is no one in Parliament except the Parliament Secretariate. Why should the members who are their mere representatives have the comforts that the people who have elected and given power to them do not have? Today they are all sitting hugging those chairs as if they are theirs!
If his party fails and does not give him a seat to contest and win in the elections, he will force to give the seat to his wife, daughter, son or sons and daughters-in-law compulsorily by putting pressure or threatening to leave the party. But when were these seats in the Parliament even made? Chairs have been used by people for only the last two or three hundred years, isn't it? Because the hierarchy of power must be displayed, the MPs sat on the floor of the British Parliament, ministers, nobles and princes traditionally stood in their designated spots, and senior members of the royal family sat on chairs, so there was no place for the king to be sat in honor. So, the king was brought and laid reclining on a bed in front of all in the parliament, ceremoniously!
The world's first known legislature, called Ukkim, dates back to 2800 BC in Uruk in Iraq. The name Parliament was used for the first time in the world in 1241 in England, in the official royal record of King Henry III, sending a summons for him to attend the Parliament. The name of India's Parliament, which today consists of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, was Sansad Bhavan.
The world's first parliament was at today's Althingi, which is only forty-five kilometers away from Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. This Parliament, which has existed for 1073 years from A. D. 930 to today, met as an outdoor assembly in the agricultural plains. The session was held in front of a rock called the Law Rock. That rock was the seat of the parliament chairman. Members of Parliament stayed in temporary sheds until the end of the session. The sessions of Iceland's first parliament became the country's biggest social festivals-actually carnivals- also, for the obvious reason that they were opportunities for people to gather, bring produce and livestock, and sell and buy. It means that the people who chose them were there with them to watch everything!
And today? If the same people who elected them went and waited there with cattle, goats and chicken after raising tents like that and stood watching to intervene whenever they wanted, the MPs in the Indian Parliament will tremble, their knees will weaken, their words will falter, their speech will break. They will not be able to pass any laws for any corporation, not even for Reliance Corporation, helmets can't be made compulsory and seat belts, people's vehicles can't be banned and condemned for car companies saying they are old, people living for generations and years in a place can’t be jailed or expelled from the country citing new citizenship laws, and subverting the system completely cannot sabotage elections and democracy even before polling by replacing ballot paper with electronic voting machines. The democratic society of the past could not sit by and watch the servant go to parliament for them and carry out his wayward will and intentions- they surrounded, stood, and watched, ready to intervene anytime!
We had MPs who sat squatting and cross-legged on the floor. They were the ones who wrote and said all the good laws that we have today and until the dawn of the modern world. Later, raised mud slabs were added on the floor along the walls of the shed for the people's representatives to sit on. Then they also came into people’s homes- these mud seating. Even after that, even after a long time, were chairs devised! Even when they were devised, they were only in the houses of the kings. That's why all old chairs look like thrones! Chairs came to people's homes and became common only after the industrial revolution and the feudalism of the local governors was over and equality, democracy, and a kind of socialism came on.
Under the feudal system of society it was not possible for the people then even to think of making a chair and sitting on it. You don't know when the feudal lord will come up, and if you are sitting on a chair you can't immediately stand up, and if not, it will be disrespect. When the local governor- Naduvaazhi- travelled, his chair also travelled with him. As time passed, in Kerala and India, if a chair was found lying in the village yard, it was sure the Naduvaazhi- the local governor- had come, to collect taxes. Do not the people's representatives in India think that they always had a chair to sit on and this power to wield! Do not play with Parliaments, building them as the world's gargantuan buildings!!
Because the comfort of sitting and lying down is not enough, a new parliament building has been built by spending thousands of crores of rupees. It is a few mean Reliance-devotees who trampled and trod upon the constitution that are going to sit inside it! It will be operational in May 2023. When India's hypnotic independence day- August 15th- is just two months away, the government wants it to be inaugurated on 28 May, the birthday of some malevolent religious factional leader whom no one except them has even heard of! And when the Indian President who appoints the members of Parliament, swears them in, administers them the oath, and is the head of the nation, is there, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is just the representative of only one constituency, wants to inaugurate the new Parliament building, take pictures, and tour the world to show them around! An acrimonious and acerbic war of words is going on, as to if it is the President or the Prime Minister who is to inaugurate the building. It is heard that the Supreme Court has been appointed as the umpire! What to call them anything but clowns?
If his party fails and does not give him a seat to contest and win in the elections, he will force to give the seat to his wife, daughter, son or sons and daughters-in-law compulsorily by putting pressure or threatening to leave the party. But when were these seats in the Parliament even made? Chairs have been used by people for only the last two or three hundred years, isn't it? Because the hierarchy of power must be displayed, the MPs sat on the floor of the British Parliament, ministers, nobles and princes traditionally stood in their designated spots, and senior members of the royal family sat on chairs, so there was no place for the king to be sat in honor. So, the king was brought and laid reclining on a bed in front of all in the parliament, ceremoniously!
The world's first known legislature, called Ukkim, dates back to 2800 BC in Uruk in Iraq. The name Parliament was used for the first time in the world in 1241 in England, in the official royal record of King Henry III, sending a summons for him to attend the Parliament. The name of India's Parliament, which today consists of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, was Sansad Bhavan.
The world's first parliament was at today's Althingi, which is only forty-five kilometers away from Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. This Parliament, which has existed for 1073 years from A. D. 930 to today, met as an outdoor assembly in the agricultural plains. The session was held in front of a rock called the Law Rock. That rock was the seat of the parliament chairman. Members of Parliament stayed in temporary sheds until the end of the session. The sessions of Iceland's first parliament became the country's biggest social festivals-actually carnivals- also, for the obvious reason that they were opportunities for people to gather, bring produce and livestock, and sell and buy. It means that the people who chose them were there with them to watch everything!
And today? If the same people who elected them went and waited there with cattle, goats and chicken after raising tents like that and stood watching to intervene whenever they wanted, the MPs in the Indian Parliament will tremble, their knees will weaken, their words will falter, their speech will break. They will not be able to pass any laws for any corporation, not even for Reliance Corporation, helmets can't be made compulsory and seat belts, people's vehicles can't be banned and condemned for car companies saying they are old, people living for generations and years in a place can’t be jailed or expelled from the country citing new citizenship laws, and subverting the system completely cannot sabotage elections and democracy even before polling by replacing ballot paper with electronic voting machines. The democratic society of the past could not sit by and watch the servant go to parliament for them and carry out his wayward will and intentions- they surrounded, stood, and watched, ready to intervene anytime!
We had MPs who sat squatting and cross-legged on the floor. They were the ones who wrote and said all the good laws that we have today and until the dawn of the modern world. Later, raised mud slabs were added on the floor along the walls of the shed for the people's representatives to sit on. Then they also came into people’s homes- these mud seating. Even after that, even after a long time, were chairs devised! Even when they were devised, they were only in the houses of the kings. That's why all old chairs look like thrones! Chairs came to people's homes and became common only after the industrial revolution and the feudalism of the local governors was over and equality, democracy, and a kind of socialism came on.
Under the feudal system of society it was not possible for the people then even to think of making a chair and sitting on it. You don't know when the feudal lord will come up, and if you are sitting on a chair you can't immediately stand up, and if not, it will be disrespect. When the local governor- Naduvaazhi- travelled, his chair also travelled with him. As time passed, in Kerala and India, if a chair was found lying in the village yard, it was sure the Naduvaazhi- the local governor- had come, to collect taxes. Do not the people's representatives in India think that they always had a chair to sit on and this power to wield! Do not play with Parliaments, building them as the world's gargantuan buildings!!
Because the comfort of sitting and lying down is not enough, a new parliament building has been built by spending thousands of crores of rupees. It is a few mean Reliance-devotees who trampled and trod upon the constitution that are going to sit inside it! It will be operational in May 2023. When India's hypnotic independence day- August 15th- is just two months away, the government wants it to be inaugurated on 28 May, the birthday of some malevolent religious factional leader whom no one except them has even heard of! And when the Indian President who appoints the members of Parliament, swears them in, administers them the oath, and is the head of the nation, is there, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is just the representative of only one constituency, wants to inaugurate the new Parliament building, take pictures, and tour the world to show them around! An acrimonious and acerbic war of words is going on, as to if it is the President or the Prime Minister who is to inaugurate the building. It is heard that the Supreme Court has been appointed as the umpire! What to call them anything but clowns?
Written on 25 May 2023 and first published on: 20 June 2024
Original article in Malayalam written on 25 May 2023 and first published on: 26 May 2023
SM1306. പാ൪ലമെ൯റ്റു് കൊട്ടാരമായാലും ഓലപ്പുരയായാലും ജനങ്ങളു്ക്കെന്തു്! എണു്പതുവ൪ഷമായിട്ടും പാ൪ലമെ൯റ്റിലുള്ളതുപോലെ ഒരുകസേരയെങ്കിലും ജനങ്ങളുടെവീട്ടിലുണു്ടോ?
https://sahyadrimalayalam.blogspot.com/2023/05/1306.html
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