To think that India spends billions of rupees to elect this farce called ' parliament.' For the whole of last week not a single jot of work was done because opposition members continued to create mindless uproar over soaring prices in the country. To spare any humiliation to Congress which is responsible for the misery the speaker would not allow any vote on the topic. The opposition members, thinking that the people are stupid, saw this as an opportunity to score a few cheap points. There was no debate, no thoughtful logical speeches, no discussion of the financial situation, no detailed figures showing levels of inflation and the effect it is having on people, no offer of solution to ease the suffering of the public, just mindless noise and walk outs. The opposition could easily have called for a no confidence motion which the speaker would be compelled to grant but they did not. Two reasons why. The Congress challenged the opposition gangs to reduce prices by cutting taxes in the states they control which would be impossible. The reason is that state governments are as bankrupt as the central one, in some cases more so. Reducing taxes mean reduced income which means less money to loot and misuse. A simple example beautifully illustrates the lies. Exxon Mobil has just reported $ 7 billion in profit for the last quarter while state owned oil firms in India are going to make losses of Rs. 570 billions this fiscal. This when petrol costs Rs. 30/ lit in the US and Rs. 55/lit in India. The difference is taxes. The second reason why the opposition chickened out is because a victory would mean new elections and that is when people are waiting with chappals. Then again perhaps it is a good thing that these criminals are not working. Anything they do is bound to be terrible for the people and the country.