An edited version appeared in the Indian Express on December 23, 2010.
Chinki Sinha
New Delhi, December 13, 2010
This one's for the Members of the Parliament, by the members and of the members.
A magazine, due to be launched next month by the Constitution Club, will map the unknown side of the members, their quirks, their hobbies, and spread them across 28 pages.
This will be their space where they can write about what the other mainstream media won't explore, or cover, officials said.
Because even under the constant public stare, the eye, the representatives always had the other side, another dimension to their public life.
The magazine will make them more human to the public at large when the magazine, at some later date, starts selling at the stalls. Tucked into these pages, their personalities will span out beyond the tag of the policy maker.
In his own time, former Union Minister of State Vijay Goel likes photography. And that's a lesser-known fact about his life. South Mumbai MP Milind Deora strums the guitar in clubs because that's what he is passionate about.
Called the Central Hall, the magazine's editorial board will have journalists, editors and members, including HT Media's Sobhana Bhartiya, The Pioneer's Chandan Mitra and Rajiv Pratap Rudy, the BJP spokesperson and secretary of the Constitution Club, who will take turns to write columns.
“The purpose is to cover what media doesn't cover,” Rudy said.”This is the first of its kind. For 60 years in the history of the Constitution Club, we never had our own publication.”
In the works for more than six months, the magazine will be circulated among the members at first. But the officials plan to make it accessible to the public later.
The first issue of the monthly magazine will include an interview with Sharad Joshi, as well as a feature on Prakash Jadavekar’s wife Prachi, an academician, and how “an MP’s wife can make a difference to society in her own way”.
The reporting and writing will be done by the Club's research cell, Rudy said.
Each issue will consist of 5-6 features, including one on the Constitution. For instance, the lead feature for the first issue is on how does a bill become an act.
Members can write about their own experiences as well. Rajya Sabha Member Shahid Siddiqui has written a personal account of his experience of staging a play on the occasion of Children's Day and his take on the laws regarding child welfare in the country.
“We thought there needs to be a publication where parliamentarians can write about themselves rather being dependent on others. They together will own it,” a Constitution Club official said.
The cover has been designed by Anando Dutta, a visual designer who has designed logos for Tata Infotech using the cover of the Indian Constitution.
When it launches for the public, the cover will be redesigned, officials said.
“We are still in the decision-making stages. It took 50 years to come out with a magazine so we are taking it slow,” the official said.
The magazine also seeks to provide a forum where families of the members can interact and know more about each other by featuring them in its pages. Features will also cover their spouses, their children and their activities.
Besides adding a gym and a spa to the Constitution Club and organizing a car rally of the Parliamentarians, the magazine is the latest edition to the club's offerings to its members.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Thursday, December 02, 2010
Love in the times of war - Parliament members come together for photo shoot
Since we didn't get the permission to witness the event, we tried to reconstruct the scene here through people's memory and description of it. An edited version was published in the Indian Express on December 3, 2010.
Here is the full story.
Chinki Sinha
New Delhi, December 2, 2010
In the nine rows, as they sat or stood according to their designations, the hundreds of Members of Parliament and the ministers looked like school children posing for a group photo. They giggled, adjusted their clothes and poses, and smiled often.
Only the camaraderie that was infectious at the moment just before the session and the chaos that has been disrupting the work, was fleeting, only captured through the lens of a special camera.
Dressed for the photo shoot, a tradition, a ritual that would capture them in one frame, a visual record to be hung in the inner lobby of the Lok Sabha, the members reached before time, smiled too often, and cracked jokes.
The shoot was scheduled for 9:30 a.m.
No 2G scam was going to come in the way of their smiles as they looked into the camera that rotated, and clicked, capturing the moment for eternity.
For the South Mumbai MP Milind Deora, the session was bitter sweet, a reminder that all of them should take the sense of pride that they felt at the moment when the shutterbugs clicked farther than the stands.
“In a school photo shoot, you have different houses but you still come together for a larger purpose. That was missing. It didn't manifest itself in this session,” Deora said. “Last time, when it was my first photo shoot, it was not in the backdrop of this unproductive session. Why can't this happen everyday, why can't we let our sense of pride in belonging to this institution precede our differences and have constructive debates?”
As newly elected members, one of the first things they see are the photographs, hundreds of representatives smiling out of one frame, the sense of unity superseding the diversity, of the differences of political agendas.
It was the former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who first commissioned the group photo in 1956 and since then it has been a ritual, an institution in itself.
Gopal Krishan Datt, the photographer and son of late Anant Ram Dutt, who Nehru had asked to click the group photo way back in the 1950s, stood on the stone platform and dictated the photo session to the hundreds of ministers and Members of Parliament and ministers who teased him and in turn were made to smile by the photographer who has been shooting the group photos of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha members since 1967.
“People dress up. It is a special moment. I spoke with Farooq Abdullah and he was asking me when the photo would be ready,” he said.
It was a colorful frame, too.
Arjun Ram Meghwal, an MP from Bikane in Rajasthan, wore a multicolor turban saying he wore it to represent the hues of his state. After all, the photo is an expression of the people, too, and who they chose to represent them, an MP said.
Farooq Abdullah wore a black achkan, and a traditional Karakul topi, to showcase his Kashmiriyat, and Satabdi Roy, All India Trinamool Congress MP from Birbhum in West Bengal, veered away from her traditional churidars and kurtas to a saree for the shoot.
Many young MPs wore Nehru jackets like Varun Gandhi who wore a peach colored one, and Rahul Gandhi, who wore white kurta and pajama with a sombre Nehru jacket.
Among some of the best dressed for the occasion, according to a Parliament official who was present for the session that is done once every five years and for every Lok Sabha composition, were Dinesh Trivedi Trivedi, All India Trinamool Congress MP from Barrackpur in West Bengal who wore a formal bandh gala suit and Supriya Sadanand Sule, Nationalist Congress Party MP from Baramati in Maharashtra who wore a green silk suit.
Shiv Sena MP from Kalyan Anand Prakash Paranjpe chose to wear a suit complete with a tie for the occasion. It was his first photo session, a ritual he was looking forward to. In 2008 when he was elected, he didn't have the “privilege” to stand in the temporary stands, hidden from public view by boards put up in between the enclosures to give the moment the sanctity it deserves.
“I wear suits very often to corporate meetings. It is a really a privilege to be there among the 543 members. Everyone was there. It was a precious moment, everyone was happy, and it was one of the most memorable moments,” he said.
When he arrived at 9:15 a.m., the stands were already full. UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi in a blue and green saree and opposition leader and BJP member Sushma Swaraj in an ochre yellow saree were already seated in the front row meant for the cabinet ministers. There was excitement, buzz, and amity.
“People fight on the floor. But they are friends outside,” he said. “I thought suit was better. I don't wear typical politician dress. To stand in the photo gallery, it is really a privilege.”
There were new faces, too like Putul Devi, wife of Late JDU Leader Digvijay Singh, who contested on her own from Banka in Bihar and is now an elected independent member, one of the eight independents. She took the oath on Thursday and wore a cream saree for the occasion.
But as the photographer downed the shutters of an Eastman Kodak which Anant Ram, who was a photographer to the British officers and Indian royalty, b ought for Rs 100 in 1914 and has used since Nehru asked him to shoot the members in one frame, the members got off the stands, walked to their seats in the house and the scams and differences took over. But then, the moment, a rare one of smiles and handshakes, had been preserved.
Here is the full story.
Chinki Sinha
New Delhi, December 2, 2010
In the nine rows, as they sat or stood according to their designations, the hundreds of Members of Parliament and the ministers looked like school children posing for a group photo. They giggled, adjusted their clothes and poses, and smiled often.
Only the camaraderie that was infectious at the moment just before the session and the chaos that has been disrupting the work, was fleeting, only captured through the lens of a special camera.
Dressed for the photo shoot, a tradition, a ritual that would capture them in one frame, a visual record to be hung in the inner lobby of the Lok Sabha, the members reached before time, smiled too often, and cracked jokes.
The shoot was scheduled for 9:30 a.m.
No 2G scam was going to come in the way of their smiles as they looked into the camera that rotated, and clicked, capturing the moment for eternity.
For the South Mumbai MP Milind Deora, the session was bitter sweet, a reminder that all of them should take the sense of pride that they felt at the moment when the shutterbugs clicked farther than the stands.
“In a school photo shoot, you have different houses but you still come together for a larger purpose. That was missing. It didn't manifest itself in this session,” Deora said. “Last time, when it was my first photo shoot, it was not in the backdrop of this unproductive session. Why can't this happen everyday, why can't we let our sense of pride in belonging to this institution precede our differences and have constructive debates?”
As newly elected members, one of the first things they see are the photographs, hundreds of representatives smiling out of one frame, the sense of unity superseding the diversity, of the differences of political agendas.
It was the former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who first commissioned the group photo in 1956 and since then it has been a ritual, an institution in itself.
Gopal Krishan Datt, the photographer and son of late Anant Ram Dutt, who Nehru had asked to click the group photo way back in the 1950s, stood on the stone platform and dictated the photo session to the hundreds of ministers and Members of Parliament and ministers who teased him and in turn were made to smile by the photographer who has been shooting the group photos of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha members since 1967.
“People dress up. It is a special moment. I spoke with Farooq Abdullah and he was asking me when the photo would be ready,” he said.
It was a colorful frame, too.
Arjun Ram Meghwal, an MP from Bikane in Rajasthan, wore a multicolor turban saying he wore it to represent the hues of his state. After all, the photo is an expression of the people, too, and who they chose to represent them, an MP said.
Farooq Abdullah wore a black achkan, and a traditional Karakul topi, to showcase his Kashmiriyat, and Satabdi Roy, All India Trinamool Congress MP from Birbhum in West Bengal, veered away from her traditional churidars and kurtas to a saree for the shoot.
Many young MPs wore Nehru jackets like Varun Gandhi who wore a peach colored one, and Rahul Gandhi, who wore white kurta and pajama with a sombre Nehru jacket.
Among some of the best dressed for the occasion, according to a Parliament official who was present for the session that is done once every five years and for every Lok Sabha composition, were Dinesh Trivedi Trivedi, All India Trinamool Congress MP from Barrackpur in West Bengal who wore a formal bandh gala suit and Supriya Sadanand Sule, Nationalist Congress Party MP from Baramati in Maharashtra who wore a green silk suit.
Shiv Sena MP from Kalyan Anand Prakash Paranjpe chose to wear a suit complete with a tie for the occasion. It was his first photo session, a ritual he was looking forward to. In 2008 when he was elected, he didn't have the “privilege” to stand in the temporary stands, hidden from public view by boards put up in between the enclosures to give the moment the sanctity it deserves.
“I wear suits very often to corporate meetings. It is a really a privilege to be there among the 543 members. Everyone was there. It was a precious moment, everyone was happy, and it was one of the most memorable moments,” he said.
When he arrived at 9:15 a.m., the stands were already full. UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi in a blue and green saree and opposition leader and BJP member Sushma Swaraj in an ochre yellow saree were already seated in the front row meant for the cabinet ministers. There was excitement, buzz, and amity.
“People fight on the floor. But they are friends outside,” he said. “I thought suit was better. I don't wear typical politician dress. To stand in the photo gallery, it is really a privilege.”
There were new faces, too like Putul Devi, wife of Late JDU Leader Digvijay Singh, who contested on her own from Banka in Bihar and is now an elected independent member, one of the eight independents. She took the oath on Thursday and wore a cream saree for the occasion.
But as the photographer downed the shutters of an Eastman Kodak which Anant Ram, who was a photographer to the British officers and Indian royalty, b ought for Rs 100 in 1914 and has used since Nehru asked him to shoot the members in one frame, the members got off the stands, walked to their seats in the house and the scams and differences took over. But then, the moment, a rare one of smiles and handshakes, had been preserved.
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