Refreshingly Good

Yesterday I casually tuned in to Lok Sabha Channel. Ms. Jayanti Natarajan, Minister for Environment and Forests, was replying to a debate on Saving River Ganga. It was a highly technical subject encompassing the subjects dealt by several ministries. I admire at the grasp of the subject, homework done in preparing for the debate and the sincerity displayed by the honorable Minister. She is a senior politician, no doubt But contrary to popular perception about politicians, she displayed propensity for hard work, depth of knowledge and more importantly, statesmanship qualities. Whenever she was interrupted, instead of shouting down, she was resuming her seat which had a salutary effect on others an made the Hon'ble Speaker's job easy. I also liked the way in which honorable MPs Sharad Yadav and Lalu Prasad intervened even while silently acknowledging the Minister's ability, sincerity and poise. It is heartening to see adversaries not crossing swords. Even when pointing out state governments; failings, she was not churlish but apologetic. On a different plane, her reply underlined the intricacies in decision making, difficulties in implementation of decisions taken, ground realities where a critical impediment can bring a juggernaut to halt. Personally, the only jarring thing was her tribute to her political leaders at the end which could have been mandatory like a Designer putting on show his weird creation knowing none will buy it (pun intended). Keep it up Hon'ble Minister. You definitely have places to go. ...ponder