Meetings Archives - understand-culture

The Boy Who Spoke

In the Sabha Parva of the Mahabharata, Draupadi asks the assembly whether she has been lawfully lost at dice. Nobody answers. Vikarna, a younger son of Dhritarashtra, asks why Bhishma, Dhritarashtra and Vidura say nothing, and why Drona and Kripa are silent. “Ye kings, answer ye the question,” he says, in the Ganguli translation. The kings answer him “not one word, good or ill.”

Vikarna then gives his own view: “I regard Draupadi as not won.” Karna answers. “Though but a boy thou speakest in the assembly as if thou wert old,” he says. He tells Dussasana that Vikarna “is but a boy.”

The First Honor

At Yudhishthira’s Rajasuya sacrifice in the Mahabharata, the first honor goes to Krishna. Sisupala, the king of Chedi, objects before the assembled kings. In the Ganguli translation, he names the men who have been passed over. “When Drona is here, how hast thou worshipped him of the Vrishni race?” He goes on through Vyasa, Bhishma, Aswatthaman, Duryodhana, Kripa and Karna.

“How doth he of the Dasarha race, who is not even a king, accept worship before these kings?” he asks. Then Sisupala rises from his seat and leaves the assembly, accompanied by the kings.

Sitting Near

The word upanishad is commonly understood as “sitting near a teacher.” It is built from upa, by, and ni-shad, to sit down. The student sits down beside the teacher to receive what the teacher knows.

Not every reading of the word is about the seat. The Monier-Williams dictionary also gives a traditional explanation: “setting to rest ignorance by revealing the knowledge of the supreme spirit.”

The Seat of Power

Gaddi is the seat of a shop owner or merchant. The Rekhta dictionary also gives its wider meanings, power and the seat of authority. Gaddi par baithna, to sit on the gaddi, means to take the place of a senior or an elder, a pir or a guru.

Bada sahab, the big sahib, is the head of a department. Rekhta’s Urdu entry for bade sahib names the chief officer of a district, and also the senior member of a household.

Second to Take the Oath

On June 9, 2024, Narendra Modi took the oath as prime minister for the third time. His ministers followed him one by one. Rajnath Singh was second. Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari came next. The Week wrote that J.P. Nadda “was the fifth to be sworn in, thus deciding the pecking order in the new cabinet.”

The Fifth Row

On August 15, 2024, Rahul Gandhi attended the Independence Day ceremony at the Red Fort as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. He sat behind the Olympic hockey team. Business Today described his seat as being in the second-last row. The Congress said he had been put in the fifth row and called it a sign of pettiness.

According to unnamed sources, the Defence Ministry had given the front rows to Olympic medalists. Business Today noted that the rank of the Leader of the Opposition is equivalent to that of a Cabinet minister.

Views Given in the Meeting

The Cabinet Secretariat’s Handbook on Writing Cabinet Notes sets out how a proposal reaches the Union Cabinet. Where a proposal affects other departments, “the concurrence of Departments whose business is impacted, must be obtained.” Their comments “are required to be incorporated in the main note.”

A department may not leave the disagreement for the Cabinet to settle. A note suggesting that a ministry’s views “may be given in the meetings” would, the handbook says, “normally be an unacceptable departure.” The rule is stated plainly: “Vigorous and proactive efforts are required to be made to obtain the views of the Departments concerned.”

The Resort at Bidadi

On July 29, 2017, 44 Congress members of the Gujarat assembly were flown to the Eagleton Golf Resort at Bidadi, near Bengaluru. Six Congress legislators had left the party in the days before. A Rajya Sabha election was due on August 8, and the party’s senior leader Ahmed Patel needed their votes.

The party said it wanted to stop the BJP from winning them over. The legislators stayed at the resort for more than a week. They flew back to Gujarat on August 7, the day before the vote.

A Contest for the Chair

On June 26, 2024, Om Birla was elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha by voice vote. The opposition had put up its own candidate, Kodikunnil Suresh. Several news reports called it the first contest for the post since independence.

The fact-checking site Logically Facts found that claim false. Speakers had been elected after a contest in 1952, 1967 and 1976. India Today called 2024 the first Speaker poll “in nearly 50 years.”

Krishna Takes Karna Aside

In the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata, Krishna comes to Hastinapura on a mission of peace. After the talks, as he leaves the city, he takes Karna with him. King Dhritarashtra later asks what Krishna said after he “took Karna upon his car,” in the Ganguli translation.

In private, Krishna tells Karna that he is a son of Kunti, born before Yudhishthira. He offers him the throne. “Come, be a king,” he says. Yudhishthira would be his heir.