What I saw recently in the parliamentary proceedings reminded me of nursery students often found sleeping in the class as they have to wake up early. Like them, our two elderly MPs were caught napping, unmindful of the finance minister who was speaking on the economic slowdown.
Delhi: Opposition MPs walk out of Rajya Sabha during Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's reply on economic situation of the country. pic.twitter.com/5Jm9koh5g5
— ANI (@ANI) November 27, 2019
Were they so fatigued that they were unable to control their sleep which was captured by the prying camera? Some think our leaders do not take issues seriously, and divert their attention from them, and focus on problems only during election time. If they had an iota of concern towards the poor economic scenario, their sleep would not have ‘appeared’ at that moment.
Melatonin is a hormone that regulates the sleep-wake cycle, and it is primarily released from the pineal gland. Dominated by this natural body secretion, the two MPs, including Union Minister for Skill Development Mahendra Nath Pandey, were seen dozing off while Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Finance Minister, was busy in her speech on economic slowdown under the dome of democracy.
Sitting next to them, Anurag Thakur, Minister of State for Finance, tried his best to wake them up from their deep sleep. Both the elderly members of parliament seemed to be least eager in hearing the very important oration.
However, this will have an adverse effect, and that is what has bothered so many people. These tendencies promote a weak attitude, that the minister’s speech on such a vital matter is not heeded to attentively by the elected members of the Parliament. Was napping an effort of their to outshine each other at being wrong? Such behaviour completely fills one’s mind and takes one’s attention in the opposite direction. In fact, it is the exact contrary to what their attitudes should have been during the session.
In the meantime, the official data released on Friday, November 29, said India’s economic growth slipped further to hit an over six-year low of 4.5% in July to September 2019. The previous low was recorded at 4.3% in the January-March period of 2012. The Indian economy grew by 4.8% from April to September 2019.
The RBI has also lowered the GDP growth projection to 6.1% for the year 2019-20. Might it be because of our responsible leaders prefer to sleep rather than taking apt action? Former PM Manmohan Singh said that India’s economic condition was deeply worrying and that the latest GDP figures were clearly unacceptable. He also said that mere changes in economic policies would not help revive the economy.