Disruption 2.0

This may turn out to be the liveliest Parliament session in several years

Disruption 2.0

Meanwhile, the fires burning in troubled Telangana are now threatening to singe an already badly-burnt UPA government in Dilli. Lok Sabha proceedings have been repeatedly disrupted by agitated MPs, mostly from Telangana, including those from the Congress party, to pressurise the government on the issue of statehood (complete with filmi melodrama from Telugu action heroine Vijaya Shanthi!).

The nearly daily ruckus, not surprisingly, is causing a great deal of uneasiness in the government. Since the previous winter session was a washout, the Congress floor managers are anxious to get the House function smoothly, hopefully without filmi dishum-dishum! Pipe-dream, you say?

Citizen care
Muscle and money on global display ought to be a sign of a confident global power. But these have been clearly inadequate both for rescuing kidnapped Indian sailors from Somalian pirates and evacuating Indian citizens from Tripoli.

While the government is still in "persuasion" mode 10 months into the sailors' abduction, it has flung everything it could ufffd warships, merchant vessels, chartered cruise ships, besides private air carriers and state carrier Air India ufffd into service to rescue stranded Indians in Libya.

But, despite Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao's upbeat tweets, it is clear that the evacuation exercise is far from complete. Meanwhile, the other 'global' power China quietly rescued nearly twice as many of its citizens from Tripoli and has moved on, even as Dilli debates whether the Libyan effort should be labeled an 'evacuation' or 'facilitation' or whether it should just be kept very quiet.

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