Throwback to a politer era

A British minister resigned after apologising for coming to the House of Lords about a minute late, but Lord Bates’ resignation wasn’t accepted by Prime Minister Theresa May. What this reveals is that there are still people in these busy modern times — when a sincere apology is sufficient for coming late to work — who take their jobs so seriously. It’s also his punctiliousness in following parliamentary conventions that should serve as an object lesson. In contrast are our own MPs, whose punctuality is observed more in what is derisively called “Indian” standard time. Besides, they are also prone to hurling the choicest invectives at opponents, of throwing all handy things in Parliament, torn papers possibly being the least harmful.

Lord Bates, UK’s minister for international development, was only around 60 seconds late, but then he serves in the world’s oldest Parliament — that dates even earlier than the 1707 Act of Union which unified England with Scotland. It used to be said punctuality is the politeness of princes. Today’s leaders seldom lay much store by the clock. Also, frequent absence from Houses is a huge problem in India, though the payscales and perks of our leaders see fantastic hikes at periodic intervals. India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, used to sit through every minute of Parliament. Once, incensed by something that had gone awry in the government, he had declared on the floor that, had he been in the Opposition, he would have demanded that the government resign. It’ll be futile to yearn wistfully for those halcyon days, but we can try to learn some lessons from the Bates episode.