Rahul Gandhi was caught napping in parliament yesterday . As expected the ruling BJP spokesperson Shaw Nawaz Khan tweeted on this and the video footage has gone viral in the social media and all sorts of comments are made on poor Rahul Gandhi . As expected BJP was trying to get political mileage out of this . Especially so when the debate was on price rise ,Shawnawaz used Rahul's snooze to tweet " this is how congress slept on Price rise for last 10 years " . This shows he is politically shrewd.
Congress defended that Rahul was not sleeping and he "had merely shut his eyes". Praful Patel of NCP also defending Rahul said ,many people do this in parliament . Congress spokesperson Rajiv Shukla said even Vajpayee used to sit in parliament with his eyes shut and listen to speeches . But the most celebrated sleeper in parliament was India's former PM Devegowda . Because of his habit of napping in parliament he was even nicknamed as 'sleeping Gowda ' . But Devegowda used to sleep even in government functions he attended as PM .
Unfortunately Rahul Gandhi is not the only person caught napping . I don't agree RG being singled out and blamed for a nap.Many MLA's were also caught napping in legislature assemblies. Recently when Kejriwal was making his maiden assembly speech .many MLA's ( not one, many ) were caught sleeping in the video . Interestingly Dr.Harshavardhan the present central health minister ,who was then an opposition leader in Delhi assembly was caught sleeping in the video, when the CM was making his speech .Click here to watch the video .Curiously some of Kejriwal's Cabinet colleagues like Rakhi Birla were also caught sleeping in camera when the assembly was discussing serious issues .
In Meghalaya a congress MLA assaulted a photographer who caught him sleeping not long ago . In Karnataka during the last regime congress MLA's led a novel protest by sleeping in the assembly .It was a symbolic protest against government sleeping over illegal mining . See how innovative our MLA' can be when it comes to protests !
.But watching MLA's yawn, sleep and snore during Assembly sessions in India is nothing new .May be to keep awake during assembly sessions ,two Karnataka ministers watched porn in their mobiles when the assembly was in session,sometime ago.
Karnataka forest minister Ramnath Rai slept during a debate in the legislative council very recently on 2 July 2014 .His loud snoring irked opposition members. "Please provide our minister a bed. Let him sleep properly. He is very tired," said B J Puttaswamy.
In 2011 ,during a speech by a renowned nuclear expert in Maharashtra Assembly many MLA's including chief minister Prithivraj Chavan was caught napping . The scientist was addressing the assembly about the safety concerns of nuclear plants .
In Rahul Gandhi's case the video shows he dozed off for just 30 seconds and then he wakes up and thumps the desk for the speech made by his party colleague on price rise. Why do members sleep ?Is it lack of interest ? .Not at all .The common cause for daytime drowsiness could be merely insufficient sleep . Every person needs 6 to 8 hours of sleep per day .If one doesn't get the required amount of sleep the previous night ,it will surely reflect in the next day's activities of that person . The ideal thing is to get more sleep .But in today's stressful busy society it can't be a viable solution to many people . Everywhere you find people sleeping,in schools,buses ,offices etc . People should learn to schedule their sleep also along with the many other activities they schedule . When one can't manage to get enough sleep , the natural consequence would be short duration naps or doze .The body forces you to take such naps . Scientists say after a short sleep session, especially during the day, our mind regains focus and we can better tackle those tricky mental challenges. May be RG was preparing himself to focus better . Jokes apart,I personally feel sorry for RG ,and this shouldn't have been raked up as a big issue by the ruling party and the media . More over this happens the world over .
I am not justifying the nap of Rahul Gandhi in parliament . After all Rahul Gandhi is also a human being .
Well said .You are absolutely right .Rahul Gandhi is also a human being .Many of us would have experienced this dozing at some point of our life in schools,colleges,office,auditoriums and meetings . And we are not supposed to sleep at those occasions , But the body yearns for a nap and involuntarily one slips in to a momentary nap .
ReplyDelete