April 2, 2012

Fiction: How A Maid Servant Got Elected To British Parliament without any Money, Political Support or Muscle Power

The day before yesterday, I wrote Part-1 to show you how an ordinary man could got elected as Member of Legislative Assembly, without any money, without any political support and without any muscle power.

And this ordinary man continues to be elected term after term till NOW.

This was above a Real Man. So I gave his name Mahendra Mashru and said he could be traced on Google and Facebook.

 ABOUT THIS MAID SERVANT

I first read about her, somewhere around 1972 to 1977, in an imaginary fiction published in one Indian Magazine called IMPRINT.

The story got imprinted in my mind. It disclosed how Big Political leaders enter into "DEALS" before party tickets are distributed for contesting elections.

It looked to me that the author had, hidden real names, and had tried to disclose these unspeakable DEALS to public by writing a fiction, so that he may not have to suffer consequences of exposing such DEALS to public.

I  searched on Google, and searched history of Women Parliament Members of British Parliament, known as House of Commons \, to see if any woman of that British Parliament had ever been a Maid Servant described in the novel.

I came across a woman , who was not a maid servant, but she was truly Used by her political party in some similar way like this fiction based Maid Servant.

Side by Side I came across a 1977 article in The Economics Lodndon, which made it clear to me that whatever we are watching in our Parliament today, are the same things which people of Britain went through in 1977.

I will try to place these things before you as briefly as possible.

Story of Maid Servant

One Week before ....the political parties were to distribute tickets to their party workers for contesting election......,

Two leaders of main political parties, met secretly in back seat of a big soundproof car. The car was so made, that the driver of car cannot hear what was being discussed.

But somehow, some vent remained open and the Driver of the car heard everything.

One leader said to another, "Look, from this constituency my son is contesting. So your party should give ticket to a very weak candidate, so that he loses election and my son wins. In return I will do same favour to you. In constituency where your son is contesting, I will give ticket to a weak candidate so that your son can win."

Another leader said, "Deal.  In the constituency, you are asking, I will give ticket to my one ex-maid servant who used to work for me some years back. She will be so weak and without any money power, that your son will win. You also see that my son wins in your constituency."

Next week, both political parties declared lists of their candidates for election of Members of Parliament.

Party-workers of both parties were angry. They broke chairs, shouted, threatened to break away from party and lots of shows happened.

But both parties refused to change names of candidates. And asked party workers to maintain discipline.

In the list of one party, name of this maid servant was shown. She got ticket to contest election though she had no money power, no knowledge of national and international policies and no knowledge about how the the parliament functions.

Little did she know, that she was being used just as pawn in games of big political party leaders.

But the Driver knew about the conspiracy. He took pity over the maid servant. He went at her house and tried to persuade her not to accept ticket. Without disclosing conspiracy, he tried to persuade this woman as much as he could. But without success.

She was now dreamy. Suddenly so many desires to do good four country had started boiling in her. She said, "I will accept ticket and will contest election."

The Driver was upset. He was in knowledge of a political conspiracy. The maid servant was set to become a victim.

Driver thought, "I just cannot watch this silently".

He went to the political leader whose car he used to drive, and requested him to accept his resignation as now he wanted to ply a public taxi. His resignation was accept.

The driver was now free to do whatever he chose to do.

What Driver did?

He called his few trusted friends cabbies and said ,"I want to see that this ordinary maid wins the election. Let us start campaign  for this maid servant."

A group of small taxi drivers, began to tell passengers that they should vote for this maid.

However, no one noticed this maid. No one noticed campaign of  few taxi drivers. They were too small to be noticed.

Then one day a taxi driver asked a TV channel reporter if he could to take interview of this maid.

Next day, a reporter of a little known TV Channel knocked at door of the Maid, to take her interview.

Reporter, with TV Cameras rolling, asked maid, "Madam, what will you do if you get elected to Parliament?"

"First of all, I will ask all members of parliament and Prime Minister to learn to make up their beds in morning when they wake up. Why all the time, it is for poor maids like us to keep making their beds. Can't they learn and do such a simple thing like making up bed when they wake up" The maid replied.

The camera kept rolling. Reporter asked another question.  "How should they make their beds?"

The maid swiftly pulled out a bed sheet and showed how one should make one's own bed when waking up in morning.

The camera captured everything.

By evening, the TV interview got a "Hit". It captured attention of almost every woman in the country....... Here was a lady who had guts to tell members of parliament and Prime Minister to learn learn manners and to learn to make bed first. Yes.... We want this type of fiery people in Parliament!

The women class of the country instantly started talking about the Truth of what maid had said.

Next day morning, there was a queue of TV Reporters of leading national channels, outside house of Maid. Every one wanted to take her interview.

She told them everything from her heart. She said she will clean up Parliament with a broom. It has become very dirty.

She gave simple replies. And she became popular star overnight.

In TV Talk shows, she gave simple house keeping tips to women viewers of TV.

She could not reply questions on foreign policy. But no one also wanted to ask her such questions.

The Women Organizations in country, woke up from their slumber. They started supporting maid.

The maid said in one interview, "A woman has to spend most of her life in kitchen. If I will be elected than, I promise to bring Building bye laws to insist that size of kitchen should not be smaller than size of bedrooms and drawing rooms".

Her words rang in the heart of every woman who was feeling suffocated is small kitchens.

Her popularity grew by leaps and bounds.

This was the Power of  TV media, when they are focused on simple and universal truths.

That Political leader who had made a DEAL with other political leader, rang him up and said,

"What have you done by giving ticket to this maid? You have ruined chances my son to win election. Now I will see that your son also does not win election. The DEAL is off."

Maid got elected to British Parliament, but after one year, she resigned.

When she entered Parliament, she realized that there is nothing which a member of parliament can do in parliament. The Acts were passed by PAID WHIPS. The members of Parliament were driven like cattle by Party Leaders.

She had not come here for all these. She resigned and went back to her dignified life of a Maid Servant.

Here this story ends. As told, in a fiction.


Haresh Raichura

2/4/212

To find out whether there was any similarity with any Woman member of British Parliament with this Maid, I searched history of Woman Members of British Parliament" on Google. Found nothing similar.

But instead, I came up on a History of A woman who had been USED by her political leaders to gain woman votes.

I also came across an Archive article in  The Economist. Dated Nov 5th 1977 titled,

"Blowing up a tyranny".  The article described  culture of PAID WHIP prevailing in Britain and how Tyranny of Elected was replacing Democratic appearances in Parliament.

In another biographical article on Trudeau, Pierre Elliott, on "Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, I read a reference about how a Woman was "Used" by politicians to catch massive woman-votes. The article described a dozen dirty tricks politics.