Parliamentary Democracy in MCC - Part I

While SACS had a system of introducing its students to parliamentary democracy it was rudimentary. Like monitors of a class, the authorities nominated a student they thought fit as what they called SPL or School Pupils’ Leader. He or she was the top monitor of the school, but what the SPL did was negligible. We were introduced to real school level parliamentary democracy at MCC.

MCC had a full fledged election with all the accompanying fanfare. Like the US Presidential elections, two people – OK let me be stop being gender sensitive at this point; it was invariably two boys from the 10th Standard – were proposed by the school by unanimous choice, and sanctified the blessings of the sisters of Mt. Carmel, for the top post of the Prime Minister of MCC for the year. On Election Day, the high school students duly cast their votes and the results were declared soon thereafter. In what could be a lesson to the Indian Democracy, while the victorious candidate became the Prime Minister, the vanquished became the deputy prime minister. Each had a say in choosing their cabinet. And thus it was, that I became the deputy minister for literary association, with special charge of Library, holding literary events etc., in April 1978, while I was in 9th Standard, in the cabinet of Rapheal. The Cabinet was real and did meet occasionally and did some good work, but it was always under the benign but compulsive gaze of the incumbent Headmistress, very much like the Pakistani Cabinet under Musharraf.

The batch of 1979 eventually passed out and we were at the threshold of the summit. The clash for the post of Prime Minister for the year 1979-80 was between Christopher Anil Rao, for whom I campaigned, and Ashok Ratnam. Chris was a perfect balance between brain and brawn. He was the nephew (or was he a cousin?) of the Indian Test Cricket player Roger Binny and was simultaneously a good student. Ashok Ratnam was all brawn and was at the bottom of the academic table.