What the Nation Did Not See As the Telangana Bill Was Passed

New Delhi: Nothing seemed out of the ordinary when I reached Parliament at 8:30 this morning. The security cordon was like any other day. However, in less than an hour, everything changed.

I had barely finished doing my live report from the Vijay Chowk lawns, just outside the main entrance to the Parliament, when I saw busloads of policeman arriving. First, regular policemen and policewomen came in batches and then riot police, dressed in their smart blue fatigues and equipped with water jets, arrived on the scene.

Before it was 10, the area had become like a war zone. Raisina road and the Rajpath were completely sanitized as the Prime Minister's motorcade drove past Vijay Chowk. MPs and journalists were scanned and every visitor to the area was asked for an identity card or a visitor's pass.

Suspended TDP MP Venugopal Reddy's car was stopped at the gate and he had to use a ferry vehicle to go inside. "We have reports that some people may set a car on fire or even commit suicide," explained Mukesh Kumar Meena, joint commissioner of Delhi Police.

Inside the Parliament, the security protocol was no different. MPs were walking in as their cars were being checked.

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"If this government can't run Parliament, how can they run the country," said BJP's Piyush Goyal, one of the MPs who was taken by surprise by the unprecedented security.

To me, all this symbolized UPA's determination to go for the Telangana gamble. At noon, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had moved the bill for passage but the House got adjourned within minutes. The Lok Sabha Speaker's attempt to run the House at 12:45 didn't succeed either. 

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Repeated adjournments probably gave some hope to the protestors. Security personnel also looked relaxed and journalists had started their "I told you so" stories.

My problem was different - last evening, I had stuck my neck out to say the government will pass the bill in the din. That's what my sources in the government had claimed. And it almost seemed that they were proven wrong.

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Barely a minute after 3 pm, Lok Sabha TV displayed that the House adjourned again. There was no information on when it would meet again. But as the rest of India kept wondering Telangana's fate amid a TV blackout, Lok Sabha went ahead with the process of creating India's 29th state. (Read: Telangana Bill passed in Lok Sabha by voice vote, no live telecast)
 
Sushma Swaraj was struggling to make herself heard. Left MPs trooped into the well of the House, constantly protesting the way the bill was taken up.

Trinamool MPs and their arch rivals were on the same side of the debate. Saugato Roy objected to the bill being put to vote without a debate. And as Mr Roy and Hyderabad MP Assaduddin Owaisi moved amendment after amendment to be voted upon, Congress MPs formed a protective ring around the Home Minister who was in the front row, seated next to Sonia Gandhi.

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And when Mrs Gandhi stepped out for a five-minute break, Ponnam Prabhakar, a pro-Telangana Congress MP, lunged forward from his seat and touched her feet as she passed his seat next to the aisle. It was thanksgiving time for congress MPs from the Telangana region.

But there was a sense of outrage when some members in the Opposition learnt of the blackout. Few members like Dinesh Trivedi and Sharad Yadav walked out, complaining they couldn't take it anymore. Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar told me that there was a "problem" and that's why telecast had to be stopped. Lok Sabha TV claimed a "technical glitch" and ordered an inquiry.  Sushma Swaraj described it as a "tactical glitch". (Read)

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The episode raises an important question that we often debate: should one allow live telecast of disruptive behaviour of our MPs? My answer is: yes we should. Good or bad, people have a right to see how their elected representatives behave inside Parliament or an assembly, especially when technology allows and empowers them to do so.

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