The American Wild West

WHAT shame we felt at the infra dig antics of Rajniti Prasad when he blew the Lokpal Bill in the last session of Parliament. Indeed every time we see our legislators get physical in our halls of democracy we feel the shame magnified many times over. But guess it’s a phase every democratic system passes through.

The nineteenth century America of the Wild West genre had duels as a system of settling disputes – even corruption charges, as also beatings and drunkenness as part of regular Parliamentary conduct.

During much of the 1850s that coincided with Abraham Lincoln’s rise through the Whig and Republican ranks to presidency, debates were marked by personal attacks – both verbal and physical. In the 1854 Senate debate on the pro-slavery Kansas-Nebraska Act (that lasted for over 24-hours on the trot), many of the senators were observed to be “beastly drunk.”

An argument on the Senate floor between Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri and Senator Henry Foote of Mississippi gave what would be called dramatic visuals for present day TV to be run over 20 bulletins. Benton called Foote a coward with the latter retaliating with similar complements. This was enough provocation for Benton to charge towards Foote menacingly, who ducked and brought out a pistol cocking at his attacker! The melodrama was brought to a peaceful close only after Foote was persuaded to handover his pistol to a fellow senator and Benton returned to his chair.

Senators got into fights not only on attacks of personal nature, but even on issues of policy. During the same period, South Carolina’s Preston Brooks savagely bludgeoned fellow Congressman Charles Sumner on Senate floor with a cane in return for Sumner’s incendiary antislavery speech.

Similarly, an argument between Edward Bates and Congressman George McDuffie of South Carolina on the floor of the House turned ugly as McDuffie ridiculed Bates personally. Bates impulsively challenged the South Carolinian to a duel which might have led to loss of life but for McDuffie preferring to decline and agreeing to apologize for his offensive language.

But it was not rare for the duels to indeed take place. Bates’ partner Joshua Barton found proof of corruption in the office of Missouri land surveyor-general William Rector. Rector challenged Barton to a duel in which Barton was killed. An equivalent of this perhaps would be A Raja challenging and then killing CAG Vinod Rai in a duel! But it happened in America. In fact people thought that as the practice subsided, vulgar public behaviour increase in absence of restraint, or fear!

But then those were interesting times. It was just before the American civil war and America had annexed much of south from Mexico declaring war with no United Nations present to mediate. The battle itch was so great that against a call for 50,000 men by the Congress, 300,000 volunteers poured intro recruiting centers. That included practicing politicians! John Hardin, a Lincoln rival for example, enlisted from Illinois and was elected colonel of his regiment. He would die a hero at the Battle of Buena Vista. Edward Baker, still retaining his seat in Congress, would raise a regiment of his own for the fight. The question is can we expect any of our Rajniti Prasads to enlist and pick up arms for a border clash. The answer is a no brainer.

Refresh@10 - VI

THE flow of time can leave the past unrecognizable. The same Modi who left rally dais at Vadodara in a huff as Vajpayee began speaking, would in Lucknow dash and dart for an opportunity just to get the stalwart’s eye. This must have been mid 1990’s. According to a senior hanger on in the Lucknow BJP, a bunch of whom I interacted with during recent Assembly verdict (March 2012), Modi would find out where Vajpayee was headed or stationed and then reach that place just to get his face registered with the old man. Mid-1990s was the exact time of Vajpayee’s ascendance in the BJP and across the country, just ahead of his premiership. Just a nod of the aging war horse was enough to change careers in the party. The ever ambitious Modi already on a Vanvaas from Gujarat knew all the difference it could make. Advani was still in the shadow of Hawala. There was no Modi clique in Delhi at that time like it was in 2002 led by Jaitley. Modi himself was a mere General Secretary.