"It did not make me feel proud"

Vinod, my husband, has been a member of the Lok Sabha for over ten years. In this period, our children have been to the Lok Sabha only once each — Rahul and Akshaye to hear his maiden speech; Sakshi and Shraddha to visit when Vinod was a minister. They were either too busy, too young or in Mumbai, in school. This time, Shraddha, our thirteen year old daughter’s holidays coincided with the special session when the UPA would face the trust vote, and we thought it was a wonderful opportunity to let her experience a venerable tradition of the largest democracy in the world. We thought she would learn a lot from the exposure. Little did we know.

Shraddha’s friend, Radhika, also travelled with us. Vinod, the girls and I took the Rajdhani to Delhi. On 22nd morning, I was really excited that the girls were going to have a ringside view of history in the making. The outcome of the vote did not perturb me as I was of the view that we were better off with elections later rather than now. We planned to reach Parliament at about 4 pm so that we could hear some speeches, the Prime Minister’s response and then watch the vote.

At Vijay Chowk and then at Gate 2, we were subjected to rigorous checks by the “Watch and Ward” officers of the Lok Sabha. While I merely complied with the search, the girls were really impressed by how diligently the staff did their job.

On passing the metal detectors and scans at Gate 2, we were informed that the House had been adjourned and all the galleries cleared. The officers wouldn’t say why, they just looked very awkward and embarrassed.

I went to meet Vinod in Central Hall, an MP’s spouse’s privilege. On the way I called to Rajdeep Sardesai who was speeding along the corridor. He just smiled and said — not now, later. Central Hall was unusually packed, but without the usual banter. Everyone was extremely sombre. It felt as though a black cloud hung above. Vinod explained why the House had been adjourned. I was shell shocked. I asked friends in the UPA what they thought would happen, and was surprised to hear that they thought the vote would go ahead as planned. My instinct as a lawyer made me feel that with such serious allegations made on the floor...

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"It did not make me feel proud"

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