Lok Sabha blackout: Behave yourself India, the world is still watching

Behave yourself, India, the youth are watching, said a commercial for The Hindu. “Today, we’ll have a political discussion on the Rural Development Bill. Those on my left will speak in favour of the motion and those on my right will speak against it and I want proper parliamentary behaviour. So let’s start,” says the lecturer to a classroom full of students in a new television commercial for The Hindu. [caption id=“attachment_1396735” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Screengrab from a parliamentary session. PTI[/caption] The first speaker rises and begins to speak. Before he can finish the first sentence, members of the team opposing his position descend on him – and there’s pandemonium. Students are scuffling with each other, chairs are thrown and broken, papers are flung. The lecturer, meanwhile, says something, lost in the din of the shouting by the students. Those uninvolved in the fracas are busy recording the event on their camera phones. The din is muted, giving way to music. “Behave yourself, India. The youth are watching,” says a slate. Take a look at the commercial here . Today, Lok Sabha TV decided not to broadcast the proceedings in the house as the Telengana Bill was being discussed, a decision based, doubtless, on the goings-on in the parliament when MPs fought and even used pepper spray on each other. If MPs ever saw The Hindu commercial, they have decided, it seems, and sadly so, to follow the advice that the commercial doles out. If the youth are not to ape our members of parliament, the powers that be seem to have decided not to improve their own behaviour – but to prevent the youth, and the rest of the world, from witnessing how badly they behave. Today is a sad day in India’s history. And live telecast or not, it’s not just the youth – but the whole world which will be watching.