The Authorised Version

What Friendship might Subsist between the Hammer and the Anvil? Asks TS Eliot in Murder in the Cathedral.

An elected parliament, with diverse members of diverse political parties; most members with access to money-making ways; and an electorate comprising people whose money goes into making the parliament members’ wealth at least moderately enviable—

What friendship might subsist between the hammer and the anvil?

As of last evening, irreconcilable differences continued to plague the Lokpal drafting committee.

Now is the time for MPs of all parties, whatever their ideologies, to demonstrate solidarity.

Keep out the MPs.

Keep out the PM.

Keep the powers to appoint and remove the Lokpal.

Keep jail term to the minimum.

Keep it simple, silly!

How can people and parliament be friends? People elect the members because it is statutory to do so. MPs will then rule people with an iron-hand. The relationship is inevitable So is the beating people must take. What is the noise that Anna, Kejriwal and the Bhushans are making? They must relearn the art of silent suffering and show the people they believe they represent how one must take a beating with dignity. When Bills are drafted and eventually enacted as laws, they are meant to be obeyed by the people.

Members of different political parties are but governments in waiting! How can they accept the people’s irrational demands which have the potential to curtail their possible power? Keep people out of this sacred law-making business.

But there is a problem all right. The current Prime Minister has long nurtured the reputation for transparent honesty and a disdain of power. . He has gone ahead and called a meeting of the UPA for this evening. Don’t know whether he took the blessings of the presiding deity; but he has called a meeting. What if… in an attempt to sustain his reputation he agrees with the Civil team instead of Team Sibal? What if he persuades the allies to go along with the brothers rather than the Keepers?

This is where the sagacity of Digvijay Singh comes in handy.

Baba Rahul has just celebrated his 41^st Birthday. Now he is definitely primed for the top job, opines Digvijay. If Manmohan does not sing the right tunes, The young Baba can always be promoted to the highest post. That would be consistent with the unexpressed wish of the party president, the unvoiced demand of the youth of India, and very importantly, the dynastic tradition of Indian Parliamentary Democracy.This young man, like his father , will make an ideal makhauta for the party.

Then we can have a nice authorised version of the Lokpal bill

The Lok Bal bill.