Mera Bharat Mahaan

The last two weeks has been a roller-coaster ride for "the world's largest democracy".

You might have caught glimpses of the 'debate', which had all the makings of a prime-time soap opera series; with friends turning foes, men going hysterical with rage, a grand old man trying to maintain peace and women enthusiastically beating down on the desks (instead of their chests as portrayed in serials being churned out by the dozen by the Ekta Kapoor production house).

One could easily focus primarily on the negative aspect of our democracy that was brought to light during the course of the show. I would much rather choose to dwell on the positive aspects that I took from the experience. Somewhere in the middle of all the chaos, I felt that all hope was not lost and that the future of Indian politics may not be as bleak as I had earlier thought it to be. There were a few 'leaders' who stood out based on the content of their respective speeches.

I have to admit I did not understand Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav's speech entirely at first. It was simply amazing to watch the entire house listening to his every word and laughing along with him instead of interrupting his every word. A glance at the newspapers the next morning showed me that even though his speech was quite humorous, he managed to counter-attack every single point that had been brought up by the Opposition. For an Opposition who seems extremely eager to oppose a motion for the sake of opposing it, it was a pleasure to see them actually listening to someone else's point of view for a change!

The Prime Minister showed that he was a man of his word. He seems to have proved yet again why I have always thought of him as a politician with a difference. He isn't getting any younger but he sure is getting bolder with his speeches! I don't think that the Opposition realized it at the time but they were only making it easier for the man to make a much bigger impact on the nation with his speech by not allowing him to speak.

However I think the highlight of the proceedings were the speeches of Omar Abdullah and Rahul Gandhi. They both seemed extremely sincere, passionate about the issue at hand and the choice of words in both cases was almost impeccable. Some people likened Mr.Gandhi's speech to that of a school head-boy. I think his point about it being "time for India to start thinking like an emerging super-power by taking into consideration how we may impact the world and now how the world may impact us" may be slightly premature but definitely the attitude for the future. But if he hoped for the speech to be inspiring and thought-provoking, I have to say he did a pretty good job out of it :D

And after all this drama had unfolded, terrorists decided to strike in both Bangalore and Ahmedabad. As if we needed any more excitement in our lives. These people have sick minds. It shakes you up especially when they strike close to home. But life goes on. The Indian spirit has proved that it can take a lot of beating time and time again, only to spring back with renewed vigour. We've seen it with Mumbai and Udaipur. Life goes back to normal eventually because you can't really put your life on hold just because of these trouble-makers. You can only hope that the next time they strike, not many innocent lives are lost in the process.