Impolite and abusive language, unfortunately, has become norm rather than exception not only in the national and provincial assemblies but in the Senate too. More often than not the floor of the House is turned into a fish market with members of the assemblies trading abusive language against one another and even resorting to fisticuffs. It is worth pointing out that once Dag Hammarskjold was secretary general of the UN. He was highly educated and a very civilized person. Once he was presiding over a session of security council and the then Soviet premier Nikitia Khureschev was addressing it who was known as a very short tempered man of volatile nature. All of a sudden he lost his temper during the course of his speech and in a fit of anger removed one of his mocassin from his foot and thumping rostrum with it said abused the secretary general by saying that he is a dog. Now under the rules the secretary general had powers to expel him out of the house by asking sergeant in arms to forcibly remove the Soviet premier for his abusive action from the conference room but he looked the other way. When after the meeting was over and a newsman asked him why didn’t he take disciplinary action against him, Dag Hammarskjold replied perhaps I am better educated.
Likewise, during second world war Hitler in his speeches used to literally abuse the British prime minister Winston Churchill but he didn’t reply him once when he was asked by s news reporter as to why was he ignoring Hitler’s vituperations Churchill’s reply was perhaps Hitler’s primary education was not good.
The reason behind quoting these two examples was that the replies which Dag Hammarskjold and Churchill gave to the news reporter outweighed the abusive language of Khureschev and Hitler were befitting answers to the utterances of both Khureschev and Hitler.
It is unfortunate that despite the fact that parliamentary democracy is in vogue in this country since long a majority of our parliamentarians lack the manners to address one another or follow the parliamentary traditions of the House of Commons which is billed as the mother of parliamentary democracy in the world.
