We are now being introduced to new paradigms of ministerial behaviour, courtesy, the duo of Messers Maran and Baalu. Indeed the people of the nation are now being asked to believe that trespass is very much a statutory right of the Union Ministers and that they have to be consulted and even heeded if they happen to be on hand when a political leader is arrested.
Such an act of blatant interference with the due process of law obviously also falls within the ambit of their superior federal status as cabinet ministers. And if the law enforcers are ‘ignorant’ enough not to know this, they deserved to be punched in the eye, as boxer Maran had demonstrated or pushed away, Baalu style.
The latter even displayed some acrobatic stuff by taking a few solid rolls on the ground. But that’s okay. The place needed some cleaning anyway.
‘I am a Union Minister. Let me in. Open the doors’. Baalu‘s screams at the gates (Baalu actually said’ doors’ , but one can forgive this slip of the tongue, and in any case, it was nothing compared to the slide in decency) of CB-CID offices, a wake up call, really and literally too, at those early hours of Saturday which still rings in our ears heralding a new interpretation of the powers of Central Ministers.
And Maran, true to his superior status in the party hierarchy goes one step further: He drives down in a Tata something, seated in the front and after some cursory enquiries bids his driver to move on. The vehicle promptly gate-crashes, the iron grills dangerously swinging inside and scattering cops all over the place. Perhaps this is what they call having one’ s way. But what a way to do it!
And what a trend they have set for ministerial behaviour? Lo, they also have the temerity to claim that they were assaulted by the cops and pushed around when all along it was they who were the aggressors going under the garb of Union Ministers and claiming federal immunity.
Their shameful exhibition of their ministerial status to gain illegal entry into a police premises smacks not only of arrogance wrought by heady power but also criminal ignorance. Do they deem themselves a Vasudeva for whom the Yamuna parted at his very sight or a Moses whose raising of a hand prompted the Red Sea to make way?
They are just and nothing more than specks of dust in this kaliyug, vested with power by a cruel providence, mere men of straw lofted by political winds to a position of authority. But that they regard themselves as above law only shows the depths to which the politicians of their ilk have plunged the nation into.
Who said Union Ministers should not be arrested? Pray, cannot one decipher the circumstances in which they were arrested? Are the police expected to wake up the Lok Sabha Speaker in the dead of night from the gates of the CB-CID office to seek his permission, even as the two ministers were bullying their way in? Were these two men arrested while discharging their ministerial duties?
Are gate-crashing and punching cops in the eye part of Maran’s efforts to promote Industry and Commerce, his ministerial vocation? Was Baalu enhancing the cause of Environment and Forestry, his portfolios, by pushing around cops, foul mouthing them and then rolling on terra firma?
In what capacity were these two cabinet ministers present on the scene of action? As Karunanidhi’s acolytes or representatives of the Central government? Maran merely responded to an uncle’ s cry for help and Baalu’ s was a pavlovian response to His Master’ s Voice. Each of them, on that occasion were either member’ s of the arrested family or simply partymen, like the scores of others present there.
In what way is their ministerial status relevant here? On the contrary, does not their quoting their cabinet position in such threatening tones bring disrepute to the cabinet itself? Did the President of the country swear them in as Union Ministers only to defend and prevent the arrests of their uncles and thalaivans?
Baalu’s behaviour, though the most vocal, was of less damage potential when compared to that of his senior party and cabinet colleague. If anything Baalu’ s bleatings only gave the impression of a desperate person seeking to reassure himself in the face of humiliating impotency. But the role of the wily nephew from start to finish was as sinister as it was singularly senseless.
Maran clearly was the agent provocateur as also the master of the ceremony. In this context, I beg the readers’ pardon for a slight indulgence into smug satisfaction for having suggested in these columns yesterday that more clippings will only reveal more truths. But let me keep the trumpet aside and get back to the matter on hand. It is pretty obvious that it was Maran’ s sudden advent on the scene that created all the ruckus and and it was he who instigated a violent atmosphere in that room which till then was filled with cordiality.
His belligerent demeanour was all too apparent even as he entered, though one can only guess what inspired this aggression in him – anger, hurt, lack of sleep or a’ cocktail’ of all these and more! But the point is that he strode in with a purpose and from the word go started displaying his anger and indignation, rightful or trumped up, most vociferously. The kalaignar and his family, who till then were smiling and chatting with their’ tormentors’ , seemed to pick the cue and then the place started resembling our Parliament!
Of course, the new clippings also give the lie to the Sun TV campaign of calumny that Karunanidhi was yanked out of bed in the dead of night after his room was broken into and then dragged away. The Kalaignar in fact looked ship shape and from the smiles of those faces in that room, I would not be surprised if he had even delivered some of his wise-cracks on his arrest, proving his form even at mid-night.
His gait then was like a smooth moon-walk that would have imparted some inferiority complex to even Miss Beauties on the ramp. All the stumplings and careenings started only after the nephew breezed in and then suddenly discovered something amiss in the script.
This was certainly not why he had brought in all the cameras for. Was not the cabinet minister also the owner of a powerful visual media? For him, his TV channel and his political agenda are symbiotic and this naive uncle of his was now seeking to deprive him of the scoop, both political as well journalistic.
This is where Maran’srole is more culpable than everybody else‘s. More than the arrest of the former CM it was the Sun TV campaign that seemed to shock the senses of the entire nation. The entire edifice of the Jayalalithaa government‘ s indictment stood on that single foundation of the Sun TV’ s footage which was beamed endlessly despite the fact that it was not the whole truth, with the sole intention of ingraining the collective national psyche with the’ wretched act of vendetta’.
That the mischief succeeded, albeit temporarily, was apparent from the widespread condemnation of the manner of arrest by not only the gullible but also the intelligentsia. Though the latter are now sheepishly cursing themselves for wearing blinkers, the damage has been substantially completed. Now fatigue has taken over and the general public are not certainly as receptive as they were on Saturday.
But is not this powerful cabinet minister, who can gatecrash at will not only into police premises but also into people’ s mind with an even more powerful vehicle called media that he owns, guilty of grossly deceiving the nation? By beaming selective footages on his TV channel and letting loose a frenzy of falsehood, which is what half truths are, has he not misled the public, the PM and even the President? No one is saying that what his TV showed was not true, but it certainly was not the whole truth and when that has come out, despite his best efforts, do not the scales now seem more balanced?
Now let the nation ponder whether this man was behaving like a cabinet minister, or a loyal nephew or worse, as the master of a monstrous monopoly mass media. Blessed indeed is Uncle Karunanidhi for possessing a nephew, who is a minister, magnate, minion and muscleman, all rolled into one!