Cats & cat-calls during President’s speech

Perhaps getting a cue from Yadavs and Natarajan, the independent MP from Assam, Bishu Muthia, decided that shouting would be the best thing to do. As stunned MPs from both Houses watched helplessly, Muthia, dressed conspicuously in a crimson north-eastern dress, shouted thrice: “Bodoloand Zindabad; India Zindabad. No Bodoland; NoIndia.”

Even before Narayanan could start his address, Mulayam told him to tear away the speech prepared by the Government and instead speak on his own. Laloo, not to be left behind, said it was not President’s rule but RSS rule in Bihar.

It was during the concluding portion of the President’s address in English that the cats parked themselves in front of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s seat. Security personnel went into a tizzy but could do little to drive the cats out when the President was speaking.

While Vajpayee and other members of his government pretended not to notice the uninvited guests, Mulayam Singh Yadav tried several times to attract the attention of the cats. He even made a “noose” from the headphones on his desk to entice the cats who refused to budge.

The animals sat through the entire proceedings, moving about freely as securitymen watched helplessly. It was only after the President rose to leave and the MPs began filtering out of the central hall after him that the catswalked out too.

Narayanan, meanwhile, hailed the “Lahore declaration” as a landmark for the peace and security of India and Pakistan and termed Vajpayee’s recently concluded trip to Pakistan as a historic initiative. “It is our hope that the historic initiative for the welfare of the people of the two countries and his reiteration that a secure, stable and prosperous Pakistan is in India’s interest will mark a new chapter in our bilateral ties,” he said in his address.

At the outset, Narayanan said that the coalition Government’s national agenda for governance was being implemented faithfully. “In the past 11 months,” he elaborated, “my Government has acted decisively on many fronts to promote people’s welfare, accelerate economic development, strengthen internal and external security, and develop deeper bonds of friendship and co-operation with India’s neighbours and other countries.”

Hitting out at imposition of technology restriction on India in the wake of the last year’s nuclear tests,Naryanan, maintained that the nation was meeting this unwarranted action with determination and self-reliance. “I would like to felicitate the armed forces, our nuclear scientists, the Defence Research and Development Organisation and the defence production units for their concerted efforts in developing indigenous capabilities to meet the requirements of advanced technology and equipment for our defence and development needs.”

But the President made it clear that India’s nuclear doctrine was based on minimum deterrence and it was firmly opposed to an arms race in the region. Justifying President’s rule in Bihar, Narayanan heldamidst slogans by Laloo that the state had witnessed a series of massacres of innocent people in recent times, many of them targetted at Dalits. “These mass killings have brought immense pain and anguish to all of us,” he said.

Central rule justified

The President today justified dismissal of the Rabri Devi Government in Bihar and the Faleiro regime in Goa saying “inboth cases, situations had arisen in which the government of these states could not be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution”.