It may be a bit late for an year ender, what with virtually every publication worth its newswprint having done with it, but there are virtues in procrastrination. A leading Indian news agency, for instance, had to recall and redraft two of its year enders, written ‘well in advance’, because Modi’s victory and Benazir’s killing in the last week changed the pictures it had painted. The agency had written off BJP and forecast better times for Pak! A week into 2008, I can now be reasonably assured that nothing can change in 2007, for I know time writes its pages in indelible ink. Ripe time, therefore, for our own predictions of the past!
And predictions they are because as Journos our fraternity has the divine right to dictate the way the world sees things. So what if an event has happened in a particular manner? They can always be given a different spin so that the beholder is befuddled! If Fate’s ink is inerasable, the scribes can at the least smudge it. Haven’t we seen just that last year-end when the dime a dozen PrimeTime pundits and Print pollsters doing duty in Gujarat refused to exit even after their ‘professional prognoses’ and ‘plum perfect’ exit-polls’ fell flat, but went on instead as if their predeictions were on the dot and it was the voters who failed to live up? They are the truly triumphant tribe, for, come what may, they never declare themselves lost. And with more polls in 2008 and after, one can look for more wrong predictions and more such ‘winners’.
But that collective crowd apart, much has already been written about the various individual losers and winners circa, 2007 AD. But what about all those losers who despite licking the dust posed and paraded as winners, a la the media above, with no mud sticking on their moustaches? So we shall focus on some such conspicuous characters who have either been ignored, for whatever reason, or did not get their due. Now, I am not for a moment suggesting they are all devils and I am not responsible for such a train of thought. So derail it this instant. Of course, that does not mean they are darlings either. But acknowledge them we must for their sheer bravado and bluster even when their decks were burning.
The person who comes to mind in a jiffy is Sonia Gandhi (but do I ever forget her?). We hear she is in hospital since New Year eve. Some problems with constitution …hers, I mean, not the nation’s which has never troubled her. For Saint Sonia ‘07 was a year sans sacrifices, a surprise of sorts for such a prolific renouncer. But her party fared better at the sacrificial altar — it was routed in UP and Gujarat and was booted out of power in Punjab and HP. That makes the national party and the UPA it heads outright notional entities with hardly any presence in the various State secretariats of the country. But such ignominies would never kindle the sacrificial instincts of Sonia, the wholesale merchant of defeats. On the contrary, the All India Congress Cult (AICC) has expectedly reposed faith in Sonia & Son with the latter duo ‘bowing’ to the wishes of partymen for the n’th time. Has not young Rahul learnt the ropes, no matter if the party’s fate hangs dangerously at the end? The debacles are deemed worth that dividend. And the saviours survive to enact more such charades in ‘08.
If Sonia is around, can M.Singh be afar? There he is, sulking in the shades. But last year, the shadows were caused more by the looming Left than his Italian benefactor. Kicking off ‘07 as the pet puppet par excellence, this soft-spoken, oft broken Sardar has wound up the year as the PM of New Delhi with no kingdom to rule beyond. Of course, his writ would not run even if there was one. And to be fair, none can fault him for the electoral reverses; the voter can barely perceive him on public platforms. Besides, MSingh himself has a marked aversion for polls, preferring the RS route that would not soil his sherwani a bit. But he did make the Indo-US nuclear deal a matter of profound personal and political pride, staking his entire being on it. That was his ticket to the annals of history and he was hellbent on securing it, a saving grace after serving time as a captive PM. But the comrades have denied him even that petty privilege. Sensitive souls would have scooted in such situations, but our Sardar has quietly slid back into his ‘rocking’ chair with nary a sigh. For those who thought nuclear ‘reactions’ were all about sizzling sounds and dazzling lights, here was one that fizzled without a trace.
TN has its share of never-say-die losers too. Bridge-buster Baalu is an automatic candidate. He has assured the world that ships would be plying over the demolished Rama Sethu in 2008. Experts claim that even a paper boat would find it difficult to navigate those shallow seas. And speculation is rife that a shaken Congress at the Centre is not keen on fishing in those troubled waters again. But an unfazed Baalu is all set to dredge and dredge till he probably resurfaces from the other side of Earth’s sphere. Now, one does not know if shipping companies would prosper, but dredging firms are certainly bound to. Dig deep and we may hit some scandalous pay dirt too. But his pipedreams of ships doing nautical miles in the Palk straits this year itself apart, doesn’t the Highway minister see the denizens of Chennai inching their ways on packed roads? Now whatever happened to those bridges on land, say for instance, the one at Kathipara? Why not Baalu take time off from busting and do some building too so that buses ply as smoothly as ships? Or is the common man less lucrative than cargo in his scheme of things?
Ramadoss is a champion loser. This self-styled moral guardian has absolutely no qualms about his live-in relationship with the DMK. He would walk in and walk out at will, not bound by marital knots. His bluff raged through 2007 and just when everyone thought the spat and split were final, the Doctor alias Maruththuvar vanished from public view at year’s end. Official rumours have it that K’s recent Delhi sojourn did the trick. The Doctor-son too apparently stepped in to silence the indiscreet dad and thus save his own ministerial post which had reportedly slipped into ICU. But bet on the fun staging a come back in 2008.
Who said history is written by the victors? Really, with such gallant losers are we enamoured of winners at all?
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