Stumbling Into The Moral High Ground...

The ordinance to keep convicted elected representatives in power pending appeal in a higher court has been withdrawn, though the diktat was to tear it up and toss it into the trash can. The bill, the cabinet notes, will be rescinded in an appropriate manner when the Parliament is back in session. Welcome moves, both. The spokespersons continue to joust in the media, claiming that it was the arrow shot by their tribe that killed the beast, though other arrows might have indisputably impaired its charge. One arrow, in particular, has been hotly debated - the one fired rather unceremoniously by the scion of the ruling tribe.

While his motives are questionable - he is a politician, and politicians are to be treated with a certain distrust, if only to play Devil's Advocate - his expression of displeasure, a theatrical and capricious eruption, are unbecoming of a Prime Ministerial candidate.Agreed, the scion is not a saint - and is actually projected as an over-grown youth - but, irritation can always be channeled into discourse that is strong but not strident. An editorial in the Hindu talks about Nehru and Patel, and their disagreements that never disobeyed civility. But, the scion does not have to jump into an ice-cold pool of history, one whose waters he possibly hasn't yet tested. He only needs to look at living examples in government and his own party. Bapu maintained that violence was a weapon of the weak; violent speech in a raised pitch and agitated tone, in my opinion, is an out-of-date spear from an impoverished arsenal of words. Members of the current cabinet, particularly the finance minister, should be able to enrich the material that should help the scion's verbal ability gather critical mass, lending his words the threat of a nuclear deterrent. 

Be that as it may, since the rash that the scion suffered, the cabinet certainly has moved in to assuage his itch. Meanwhile, two MPs, one from the scion's own party and another - the leading lamp of a party clinging to the outer garb of the government as a paan stain on crisp khadi that is ostensibly lending support to the fabric - have been sentenced to prison, potentially vacating their seats in Parliament. The MP from the Grand Old Party of India, though not antiquated enough to be dispensed with, is perhaps ripe to be martyred for the greater good of the party. It must have been tricky to put out the leading lamp - the wick was young, and there was much oil yet to burn. Yet, what must have worked against him was that the GOP, in the sun, does not have much utility for the small flame he offered - a mere 4 MPs in the Lok Sabha. And, if the GOP were to be in the twilight after the next round of polls, the candles that now illuminate the Bihari homes could always be relied upon, especially at the right price. 

You cannot but wonder if the GOP would have found it as easy to dispense with the Uttar Pradeshi darned patches on the government's cloak. They certainly can't be washed off with even the most powerful additives and bleach - not even the dust from the moral high ground; nor can they be dyed spotless, for the colours they have long been soaked in will always run in the rains.

As for the GOP rediscovering its democratic mojo and allowing members to dissent, it is nothing less than "nonsense" as confirmed by the inadvertently frank tweet of a former UN diplomat who belongs to the party:  “But now that my party VP has broken ranks, I’m delighted. I’d declined numerous invitations to defend the Ordinance. Let me say: RG (Rahul Gandhi) is right.” The GOP is but a hive of sterile organisms animated by a senile inherited intellect that can only be termed undead.