So to speak

After an unusually lengthy address as chief guest at the India Health Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) last week, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad jokingly revealed why. “These days I don’t get an opportunity to speak in Parliament,” he said, an oblique reference to the concentrated Opposition disruption that prevents any work from being done. He was used to making two or three speeches a day when the House was in session, he added, but still hopes to answer questions in Parliament and hadn’t exhausted his quota at the CII event.