THE GREAT INDIAN CIRCUS
Hitting democracy below the belt
It is high time we drew a distinction between Congressmen and gentlemen. You tell a gentleman to get out he would oblige unhesitatingly. But try telling a Congressman that, he would also promptly walk out, only to stage and unobtrusive backdoor entry. They can never reconcile themselves pelf to a life without power and would steadfastly refuse to accept that it is neither their birthright nor they are now back at their game, trying to make the most of a ‘slightly’ fractured verdict, notwithstanding the fact that their party has been rejected wholesale by the people in successive elections. And in this detestable wheeling-dealing, they have found willing partners in the equally characterless rump, ironically called the United Front.
The political pimps in both these outfits are now on in full swing, though we are not sure if a marriage of convenience that is being sought to be part through, in the name of secularism, would pass the test of presidential scrutiny. Yet unmindful of propriety and morality, the two rejected fronts have now joined hands to elope with power for a one-term-stand and deny the most eligible suitor his due. The political prostitution on parade is perhaps the most blatant and shameless exhibition of lust for power and pelf.
You can see the glint in their eyes. The depravity is manifest in their demeanour. And you can certainly perceive a marked absence of any norms of decency or accountability in their words as the Congressmen brag in one TV channel or the other about their illegitimate claim to form a government by even sleeping with the partner they divorced just a couple of months back. That their sole target is power and power alone is quite evident in all their deeds that followed the realisation that the BJP might fall just short of a majority. Like Arjuna, nothing except the bird on the tree is in their line of vision. They are now prepared for anything. Anyone, is welcome, even the DMK whom they were unwilling to tolerate, even for a day.
Why this elections, my dear Congressmen? You could have spared the nation the expense of a good Rs 1000 crore of people’s money if only you had managed to clinch this very same unholy marriage much earlier? Obviously such questions do not figure in their scheme of things now. Past is past, present is present, they would tell you. But then, can the people also get so forgetful as not to remember what necessitated the elections and the attendant turmoil and to give the green signal to this gang rape of democracy?
A Congress worthy now claims that even the DMK is not untouchable. And to prop up this shameless statement, he quotes the Special Court verdict on Rajiv’s, assassination to drive home the point that it has negated the Jain Commission findings as no DMK functionary was convicted. These Congressmen did not say so immediately after the verdict, but that is besides the point. Even a layman would know that only those accused can be convicted and the fact that there were no DMK men in the accused list was common knowledge and the Congressmen also knew it even when they pulled down the UF government. Who are they trying to fool now by suggesting that the trial court verdict has exonerated the DMK? On the contrary, the verdict has only established beyond all reasonable doubt the LTTE hand in Rajiv’s assassination and we all know who allowed the LTTE to prosper, thus establishing a form connection between the special court’s indictments and the findings of the Jain Commission. Instead of seeking to pursue vigorously the quest for a larger conspiracy behind their leader’s assassination they have now embarked on a high-voltage propaganda to belittle their own convictions and besmirch the memory the slain leader. And to even think that all this outrage might be taking place with the blessings of the widow of that long dead gentleman is even more disconcerting.
For the DMK could be more welcome. Besides the exoneration by their most strident enemy, it offers yet another chance for the all-powerful nephew to make it to anyone of the Bhavans in New Delhi. In fact, the nephew’s interest has been the only national agenda of the DMK and its chief, who also happens to be the uncle. They would, of course seek to parade it as a victory for their self’s respect and an opportunity to spread Tamil, by starting a few more editions of the nephew’s very own satellite channel in Oriya, Gujarathi and even Bhojpuri. And all in the name of secularism, the Al-Umma brand.
Of the monumental hypocrisy of the Left Front represented by the bearded oracle named Surjeet, the less said the better. He was the first to pounce on the opportunity offered by the BJP’s near miss, and promptly proceeded to shed all ideological attires to expose to the Congress wolves, his and his party’s sheer nakedness on the moral front. Truly, for the Left, everything seems to wither away at the very prospect of power. In fact, even a few strings to make the puppets of the Delhi durbar dance to their whims are adequate to satiate them. And once again, all in the name of secularism.
Of course it is those sickening oldies in the Congress who keep insulting the hawks by calling themselves ones, who are now itching to warm the seats in the North, South and all other sundry blocks in the capital. A young dove answering to the name Jairam Ramesh is now ruing his presumptuous talk of a Congress abstinence based on MCP, meaning moral, constitutional and political, grounds. He has been promptly cowed down by the vultures in the party who have now seized the initiative.
So, unless fate, in the form of a Rashtrapathi Bhavan missive, intervenes, these men are all geared up to enact yet another show of the great Indian circus that was on view for the last two years. The specious logic that a party has secured the people’s mandate if it crosses a magical figure but has totally lost their confidence if it falls just short of it, is indeed the ultimate test on sanity. We never realised that the distance between absolute faith and total rejection was as short as a handful of MPs. It is even more an irony that the rules of the political game can allow for two miserable losers to join hands and pass muster as the winner. Even kids have a better sense of fairplay.
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