Banana republic!!!

There is jubilation on one side. 'Corruption, rigging, horse-trading' cries another. The former says India will prosper with the deal. The latter screams that democracy is dead and that 22 July 2008 is the saddest day in the history of Indian Republic. Well, one group, unholy as it may seem, has won and the other, equally unholy if not worse, has lost. So much of talking and debating in the parliament for the last two days about who's right and wrong, about how many crores of rupees changed hands, if the price was okay considering the high rate of inflation, blah, blah, blah- and sadly no one really debated the nuclear issue - for the purpose the parliament was convened. What is the issue and whether it is useful or detrimental to the common man? Who knows and who cares? The common man is in the same place where he began -ignorant, confused, uncertain, undecided. Of course our leaders have decided for all of us, as always they have acted on our behalf, very responsibly. What perhaps will keep the common man going are the goings on in the parliament - the unruly scenes, wad of currency notes tauntingly shown to the public, the diction of our honorable parliamentarians, charges vociferously made without proof, stories of kalavathis and sashikalas - in short, there was no dearth of entertainment and it had all the making of a popular television serial. So much for democracy and so much for our banana republic.