P
A Sangma because in its
50th year of chaos, the Lok Sabha deserved a smile.
Conviction
has seldom worn such a cute face. As Speaker of perhaps the most ill-behaved Lok Sabha
ever, this was his year of test: one golden jubilee session, two confidence votes and
multiple crises. India's MPs resolved to do its most raucous fishmongers proud. The
Speaker bore it all, imbued with the spirit of the Church which reared him. Unresting,
unhastening, as silent as the night, he strived for the triumph of institutional pride
over individual prejudice. In the end, this ever-smiling child of Meghalaya's Garo people
failed. His plan for a national government -- which some interpreted as an attempt to
project himself as prime minister -- too proved a non-starter. Even so, he remains the
common man's candidate for Speaker of the next Lok Sabha: a polite keeper of the House to
match a copybook President.
Conviction
has seldom worn such a cute face. As Speaker of perhaps the most ill-behaved Lok Sabha
ever, this was his year of test: one golden jubilee session, two confidence votes and
multiple crises. India's MPs resolved to do its most raucous fishmongers proud. The
Speaker bore it all, imbued with the spirit of the Church which reared him. Unresting,
unhastening, as silent as the night, he strived for the triumph of institutional pride
over individual prejudice. In the end, this ever-smiling child of Meghalaya's Garo people
failed. His plan for a national government -- which some interpreted as an attempt to
project himself as prime minister -- too proved a non-starter. Even so, he remains the
common man's candidate for Speaker of the next Lok Sabha: a polite keeper of the House to
match a copybook President.
