Friday, August 19, 2005

Our indirectly-elected representatives hard at work

From IE:

How the Rajya Sabha spends it's time at work :

1.> Demand banning of a motion picture because you do not agree with how it is picturized.

2.> Express concern over the abuse of the National Emblem by a London-based alcoholic beverage company.

3.> Express concern over the photographs of Gods and Godesses printed on lingerie and ladies footwear.

4.> Express anguish over decline of the Hindi language in the country.

5.> Break for lunch.

5.5.> Express anguish over the quality of the food while preparing for siesta.

6.> Siesta.

5.> Demand a new urban transport policy.

6.> Demand that trishuls henceforth only be used to slay actual demons and not be used in movies to show the vindictive hand of God.

7.> Demand a law explicitly forbidding people from entering temples without removing footwear.

8.> Demand interlinking of rivers and developing of roadways.

9.> Demand that movies always contain at least one recitation of the national anthem integrated into the story.

10.> Go over next days demands and anguishes to be put forth, making sure none of them is remotely constructive.

11.> Break for the day.

My proposal for all you Rajya Sabha members : How about we do this. We only require you to come in for lets say 2 hours a day, process items (5) and (8) and then leave, to spend the rest of your day as you wish. If nothing else, the country will at least save money on the air conditioning bill. Oh, and bring your goddamn lunch with you. We cannot afford to feed you for just 2 hours of work a day.

7 comments:

Sujatha Bagal said...

I may be wrong (been a long time since I studied any civics), but I think the Rajya Sabha members are nominated, not elected. Am I wrong? But your point still stands. They are still working on taxpayer money.

gawker said...

They are elected by the state legislatures, so indirectly elected by the people. Some are nominated by the president.

gawker said...

There ... the title states it explicitly now ... no more confusion heh.

Anonymous said...

eh, whatever happened to good old walk-outs? or does that happen only in the higher houses?
or did our elected reps suddenly figure out it was too much like exercise?

gawker said...

Nowadays, they probably just express a walk-out verbally ..you know, just a desire, not the actual act itself. And then maybe they stop talking till they verbally walk back in. As you said, its too much like work to be actually walking out.

Sunil said...

what's interesting is that Rajya sabha mp's also get pots of money to develop their constituencies, and are supposed to develop them.

If so....shouldn't they also be involved in actually talking about serious development issues?

Or may be they're just displaced Corsicans and can't work without a Siesta (see Asterix in Corsica).

gawker said...

heh sunil .. note to self : buy the entire asterix collection when i go to india this year.