The Poetry of Indian Politics

Tired of political squabbles? The Lok Sabha – the lower house of India’s federal parliament – runs a section of its website just for you. It is called the ‘Wit and Humour, Poetry and Couplet’ section and is a professionally administered list of all funny situations and instances of poetry recitations that take place in the assembly. The section provides a table in a clear PDF format to sum up each session of the house; it also gives the context and provides categories (‘Poetry/Humour/Couplet/Repartee/Quotation’).

It not uncommon for Indian politicians to recite poetry in the Parliament. These couplets can sometimes become a weapon of criticism or self-criticism, as in the case of Indian National Congress member Shashi Tharoor who in June 2014 uttered, “कहाँ तो तय था उजाला हर घर के लिए, कहाँ चिराग मयस्कर शहर के लिए?” (“Where was light arranged for every house, where was a lamp available for the city?”). Sometimes a famous poet like Mirza Ghalib may be quoted, at other times the assembly delegates compose pieces of their own. In December 2014, Manoj Tiwari, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, described the political situation in Delhi – where the government of AAP, a rival party, had dissolved itself in 49 days – in a poem he apparently wrote himself. Two of its 11 lines said, for instance, that “the beloved ones of Delhi [the AAP party] had done nothing in 49 days; forget about the map – they had not produced a single letter.”

Poetry can become  the weapon of choice in a pitched battle, as in a noted 2013 exchange between the then Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, and the Leader of Opposition, Sushma Swaraj (now the country’s Minister of External Affairs). The usually soft-spoken Singh this time attacked Swaraj’s party, Bharatiya Janata Party, with a line that ran ‘हमको है उनसे वफ़ा कि उम्मीद जो नहीं जानते हैं वफ़ा क्या है’ (“We hope for loyalty of those who do not know what loyalty is”). Swaraj was quick to furnish a lyrical repartee: ‘तुम्हें वफ़ा याद नहीं हमें जफ़ा याद नहीं ज़िंदगी और मौत के दो ही तराने हैं एक तुम्हें याद नहीं एक हमें याद नहीं’ (“You do not remember loyalty, we do not remember disloyalty; life and death have only two melodies, you do not remember one of them, we do not remember the other”). On many other occasions, however, poetry is quoted not to confront anybody, but often unites the house in appreciation.

Puns and various instances of world-juggling also appear. When in December 2005 the question of airport infrastructure was debated, Varkala Radhakrishnan, a Communist (and now deceased) parliamentarian referred to the condition of the Thiruvananthapuram airport by saying “I would not use the word ‘infrastructure’ as there is no structure.” Another time a member from Kerala, P.K. Biju, was taking a long time presenting data before asking the supplementary question he was supposed to ask. When reminded by the Speaker that he should get to the question, the speaking politician started from saying: “Madam, I am coming from Kerala…” to which the Speaker reacted by saying: “Come faster.” More recently, the current Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty, Venkaiah Naidu, tapped words from his language, Telugu, to defend the government’s welfare policy: “Without creating wealth if you distribute wealth, it will not work. Telugu people say ‘Panchalli, Panchalli,’ which means ‘Distribute, distribute.’ I say, ‘Penchalli, Penchalli,’ which means ‘Increase, increase’ production. If you do ‘Panchalli’ without ‘Penchalli,’ you will be left with ‘Puncha,’ which means loincloth.”

At times it would seem that the Lok Sabha almost has a folklore of its own. A common problem is the existence of 12 seats that are located behind the pillars (the difficulty arose after two additional rows were added to the chamber). The assembly members seated there have to try hard to attract attention, for example by waving from behind the pillars. On the other hand, N. Shivprasad, MP from Andhra Pradesh, had seen his position as an opportunity to “make weird loud noises from his seat” during heated debates and get away with them being unnoticed. In August 2015, as the Wit and Humour, Poetry and Couplet section notes, Subhash Ramarao Bhamre, a parliament member who is unlucky enough to be sitting behind the column, described himself as a ‘खंबा-पीड़ित सांसद’ (“pillar-oppressed parliamentarian”).

These examples would seem to offer more than just a temporary breath of fresh air in a stuffy chamber. The situations described prove that Indian politicians can look at their own images from a healthy distance. They are also one of the many examples of just how much Indians love their poetry. A number of people’s representatives, including former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee or former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Ramesh Pokhriyal “Nishank” have published collections of poems. In India, it is not uncommon for social meetings to include recitations of poetry, and so this tradition is being extended to the chambers of parliament.

Moreover, the passion for the lyrical is shared across political divides. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has often supported Sanskritized Hindi as the official language of India. “Sanskritized” means infused with Sanskrit terms, a particular style of Hindi that takes it further away from Urdu. While some regard Urdu and Hindi as separate albeit closely related languages, others consider them two styles of the same language. While Urdu makes continuous use of words of Persian and Arabic origin (and is therefore linked to the history of Islam in South Asia), Sanskritized Hindi tries its best to avoid such vocabulary. However, despite all the political battles, the Hindu-Muslim tensions and India-Pakistan hostilities, it is still commonly assumed that a person versed in Hindi poetry should have good knowledge of Urdu couplets and poems (an assumption that is logical if Hindi and Urdu are considered the same language). Even Hindu nationalists make use of Urdu poetry. According to the “Wit and Humour, Poetry and Couplet” section data, the politician who most often recites lines in Urdu is actually Sushma Swaraj, a BJP politician and the Minister of External Affairs. Thus, an online resource that was likely conceived of merely to entertain in fact manages to reveal some essential elements of the Indian identity.