The Glad Tidings Cacophony
Do you get the feeling that things are falling apart, that the Centre cannot hold? The country appears to be directionless, rudderless, on the verge of collapse. Each day, our democracy suffers a further indignity, not in the here-is-one-more-crisis sense, but in the sense of all-round dysfunctionality. In these long, hot days, with tempers short, the nation seems to be in free-fall. When our rulers tell us “the fundamentals of the economy are still strong” or “the India story is still intact”, one doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. They tell us: don’t worry, in six months, we will be back to double digit growth and inflation will be under six per cent. The rupee will recover to Rs 45 vis-a-vis the dollar, pending reforms will be swiftly ushered in, the new finance minister will restore investor confidence.
Perhaps, some of these good things may happen. That is not the point. What seems to have vanished is faith, the conviction which reassures the citizen that the situation is retrievable. Hope is the biggest casualty. The Congress is convinced that if it can stay in office till the very last day, some miracle will occur—in other words the BJP will self-destruct. That is the solitary expectation they are riding on. The BJP is convinced the Congress is unpeeling—which it undoubtedly is—and will hand over power on a platter. In the meantime, the name of the game is obstruction.
Take the ongoing presidential poll. Every party proclaims we should pick a person who best represents the whole country, an individual who is beyond party politics, a man/woman who is a symbol of national cohesion. Yet when someone close to the specification is found, the BJP insists on a contest because it is in their short-term interest. Then, a frantic search begins to find their Rashtrapati. When they claim they have found such a person, he politely declines to become the sacrificial lamb. A new name is conjured up and put on the table. Alas, he belongs to the other side and is under threat of expulsion from his own party, if he continues with his indiscipline. If somehow God agreed to stand for the NDA or UPA, the alliance He is not promoting will find some reason to oppose Him.
Sorry for these dark thoughts, but I can’t come up with any cheery ones!
A Streetfighter’s Wont
Ever since this “kaun banega Rashtrapati” tamasha began, I’ve been trying to get inside Mamata Banerjee’s mind, wanting to discover why she is behaving the way she is. Even for someone who responds to crises emotionally, there has to be some logic, some calculation of self-interest. Of course, politicians like Mamata are in their element when they are in the attack-dog mode. By instinct, they’re breakers, not builders. (Raj Narain, George Fernandes, Subramanian Swamy are others in the distinguished list.) If you think back to the 48 hours after Mamata, along with Mulayam, announced Kalam’s name, she was beaming, in top form: sardonic, self-assured, voluble, the ring-master. The Congress, on the other hand, seemed stunned and speechless.
Yet, when the inevitable happened and she was “betrayed” by Mulayam, many must have felt a bit of schadenfreude: she’d got a taste of her own medicine. Mamata, understandably, has sensible and urgent priorities: destroy the Congress in her state, try and force a mid-term poll, keep the CPI(M) permanently unsettled. In this task, how does it matter if Pranab or Kalam or someone else is on the President’s chair? Can someone please explain?
Low Country Bleus
The French are no believers in bourgeois morality. And rather proud of it. Still, the sleeping arrangements of the new President are bizarre and complicated. Francois Hollande lived out of wedlock with Segolene Royal, 58. She was his ‘partner’ for 30 years and his boss in the Socialist party till recently. Thirty years in anybody’s book is a long time. The partnership resulted in four children, the eldest is 27. Meanwhile, Hollande’s present partner Valerie Trierweiler, 47, has three children from a previous marriage. So, altogether Hollande is father to as many children as Laloo Prasad Yadav. President Hollande came to office on the promise of being Mr Normal. At the moment it’s his predecessor who seems normal.
Hollande has enough problems, but the hot topic in Paris is whether he’ll marry his mistress or continue with this unusual set-up in the Elysee Palace. I believe it was a wise Frenchman who said, “When a man marries his mistress, he creates a vacancy.”
Flawed Stone
A lovely story I read during Elizabeth Windsor’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations concerns the only time Elizabeth was seen quarrelling in public with her mother. “Who do you think you are?” the Queen Mother was overheard saying. “I’m the Queen, mummy, I’m the Queen,” replied the daughter.
Last Week:
Thanks to the scorching heat in Delhi, I spent some quality time with Editor
Vinod Mehta is editorial chairman, Outlook, and its founding editor-in-chief; E-mail your diarist: vmehta AT outlookindia.com
