Ulta pulta
Kissing goodbye
Jaspal Bhatti

I came to know that Russian politicians have been banned from kissing each other at official meetings. The reason given is that the ceremony takes too much of time. To save time, they have been advised to shake hands.

In India, politicians do not waste time in kissing each other. But still a lot of time can be saved if we can do away with a number of other routine ceremonies.

* There should be no speeches on ribbon cutting ceremonies.

* Speeches while presiding over functions should not be more than five minutes.

* Walkovers in Parliament or the Assembly should be quicker. We should, therefore, elect healthier and robust politicians who can move faster while staging walkouts.

* Striking poses before the photographers should be done in a quicker way. A number of times in the video clips shown on the TV, when two dignitaries meet they continue shaking hands for an endless time just for a photograph.

* Politicians should be allowed to criticise each other only three times in a day. This will not only save lot of time, but also great energy of the politicians.

When my wife heard about this, she was worried. She asked me what will the Indian politicians do with so much spare time on their hands. I told her, "They can probably try political kissing."

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