India – a peculiar country:

A member of parliament while in service must not hold a post in an office of profit. We have all studied in 8^th standard basic civics. Whether this rule is right or wrong, sensible or unnecessary is not what I want to stress upon. Recently, actress Jayapradha, a Rajya Sabha MP was dismissed because she was holding an honorary position in the Boolywood Actors Guild. There was a huge uproar from the Rajya Sabha MPs. There were allegations that Sonia Gandhi, Somnath Chatterjee etc. were all holding offices of profit. What would one normally expect to happen? If it were a country where law was given greater importance than the lawmakers, all those found guilty would be immediately dismissed. If it were a country, which was obviously corrupt to the core, there would be an immediate amendment in the law to remove this idiotic clause. These two are the only sensible options and I would have appreciated if India had taken either of the two decisions. But as I said, India is a peculiar country indeed. It was decided that MPs could hold certain offices while in power and the specifications about the types of offices acceptable would be brought about in the next amendment. Our beloved speaker Chatterjeeji gracefully accepted that since he was an accused party in this case, he would decline from presiding the parliament till this amendment is brought into effect by his proxy. What an open mind and a generous heart!!!