(Image source from: How goonday MPs are terrorizing the country)

13th of February, 2014 will indeed go down in history as a black day for Indian democracy and a new low for Indian politics.

Shards of glass broken, spritz of pepper sprayed, lawmakers rooting out microphones, waving banners, shouting slogans, landing blows, vandalizing the House - Indian Parliament turned into a pandemonium after rebel MPs from both sides (supporters and detractors) broke into mayhem and brought down the house yesterday.

What's worse is that it wasn't just a heat of the moment act, but a pre-meditated one, as hinted by the expelled MP who had clearly indicated that he would not allow the Telangana bill to be tabled in the Parliament at any cost. “You will see that...when they introduce you will see,” he had said making it clear the pepper spray was not just a heat-of-the-moment act, but something well thought-out.

Condemning the act, Minister for parliamentary affairs Kamal Nath said MPs are never frisked for weapons and pepper spray as India's founding fathers never imagined that the men and women the country elects to uphold their constitutional values could ever desecrate the Lok Sabha itself.

As the guardians of our public morality gun for foreign hands they think desecrate our cultural and religious traditions, the real hooligans march freely into the parliament with pepper spray and knives and assert that they are attacking for the love of freedom and democracy.

Our political parties have time and again overlooked their supporters ransacking and vandalizing anything which they do not approve of — an art exhibition, an academician's office, a magazine’s headquarters, toll plazas. So how can we expect the political master of those goons to be lesser goondays?

In 2001 terrorists attacked the Indian parliament from outside. Yesterday politicians attacked it from within.

If you may remember, this isn't the first-of-its-kind-of-a-case to desecrate the Parliament. Mamata Banerjee once dragged out a Samajwadi MP by his collar of the Lok Sabha to stop him protesting against the Women’s Reservation Bill. A couple of months ago, another MP shocked the country after he tore a draft of Lok Pal Bill.

The 15th Lok Sabha, which has been on for two-and-a-half years, is the most disrupted and misutilized so far. Surely L Rajagopal understood that tearing up a bill and littering the Lok Sabha was now old hat to disrupt the Lok Sabha. So he went for something novel as pepper spray to get his fifteen minutes of fame.

The Prime Minister has said his heart bleeds. Jaswant Singh said that “UPA and Congress must atone for this great sin,” said Singh.

While political parties try to extract maximum mileage from this, the fact remains that none of our political parties are exempt from this race to the bottom. The only thing remains to be seen is how Parliament will redeem itself from such attrocities in the future?

AW:Suchorita Choudhury