The Hindu Business Line : Applause appraised

INDIANS watching Dr Manmohan Singh address the joint session of the US Congress must have felt proud of their Prime Minister. His dignity of bearing, clear enunciation, effective communication, flawless delivery — all together made it a pleasure for the audience to listen to him.

There was no need to prop up his credentials as a sophisticated speaker by taking a count of the number of rounds of applause he received from the audience assembled in the high-domed hall of the Capitol. Media commentators unversed in the ways of the Hill, as the US Congressional complex in Washington is called, have gone overboard doing precisely that.

The Congresspersons resemble the Rotarians, the Lions or any civilised group, in being generous with encouraging the speaker from time to time with both clapping at rhetorical assertions and laughing at presumed jokes.

Indeed, Congresspersons are one step ahead in construing it their duty to applaud the speaker at regular intervals whatever the content or the context. They may even startle him by suddenly giving him standing ovations now and again for no apparent reason. These are mere polite rituals and do not signify any great admiration for, or approval of, the speaker's views. Some of those applauding sometimes turn out to be aides and janitors brought in to fill the hall! Actually, the number of times the Congresspersons burst into applause for Dr Singh was less than what I have noticed in other cases from my time on the Hill in 1966. There was no standing ovation during the speech unlike in some other instances.

However, Congresspersons were seen clapping at statements which were inconsequential or even went against their grain. For instance, they vociferously applauded when Dr Singh referred to resort to unchecked nuclear proliferation in the neighbourhood (clearly pointing to Pakistan and Dr A. Q. Khan), when one would have expected them to let it pass in silence.

Similarly, they also cheered when he talked of restructuring the UN and the need for "the voice of the largest democracy" to be heard in the Security Council. At other places in the course of Dr Singh's speech, the initial applause subsided quickly when the Congresspersons realised that it was out of place and untimely. All in all, there is more to applause than meets the eye.

B. S. Raghavan

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