Send In The Clowns

"The idea had been growing in my brain for some time: TRUE force. All the queen's men cannot put it back together again”. That little quote from a famous movie is the rephrase of the simple lines from a nursery rhyme. A Prime Minister who has been humiliated over and over again by others yesterday had to face the ultimate insult from his own party member. Two terms wasted in overlooking so many scams and so much corruption had to end in dishonour. The mindless ordinance attempting to overturn the SC ruling on convicted legislators was the last straw for the public. There were wild guesses that even the President would send it back for reconsideration. We can forget all that now. A long time ago I wrote the post “The tears of a clown prince”; that post was about Rahul Gandhi’s silly utterances on corruption and black money. In a burst of stupidity the same RahulG not only re-established his clownish tendencies, he also reduced the PM, the Cabinet and the entire media to nothing but a bunch of clowns.

In the afternoon of September 27, 2013 RahulG walked into the Press Club where the Congress spokie was defending the Ordinance. RG was kind enough to give a warning to Ajay Maken that he was “arriving”. He first called Maken and then at the dais made Maken look absolutely dumbfounded with what he uttered. I quote the priceless gems from RG:

“I am not going to get into a long drawn press conference. I will make some of my opinions heard and then I'll go back to work. I called up Makenji and he said he was meeting the press, speaking about the ordinance. He gave me the political line that everyone will give you. My personal opinion about the ordinance on lawmakers is that it is complete nonsense; it should be torn and thrown away. Everyone does this and there is a time to stop this nonsense - and I really feel this is time political parties stop making such compromises. When we make small compromises we compromise everything. If we actually want to stop corruption then we cannot make these compromises. I am not interested in what the Opposition is saying; I am only interested in what our government is doing. What our government has done as far as this ordinance is concerned is wrong”.

Complete nonsense? The guy does love tearing things, doesn’t he? He tore that SP manifesto last year. He watched the Lokpal Bill of his party being torn in clever drama. Now he wants to tear the Ordinance. The tears of a …. Oh never mind!

And all this while the PM is away in the US! Not knowing how to respond MMS just said he was aware of RG’s statement and that RG had written to him about his opinions too. Really? So even after receiving a letter from RG the PM went ahead with the ordinance? That’s quite unbelievable. As that bomb exploded our media clowns didn’t know what to do. All these years of sucking up to MMS and RG had come undone in one single stroke. They didn’t know what to do. Even RG’s “evoluter” Barkha Dutt dropped everything else early morning in Washington DC and stuck to politics back home. The free junket wasted! Here are initial responses from some of the media clowns:

Now RG will steer the party? Well Barkha, that depends if you consider he has completely evolved or if he’s work-in-progress. The Category5Moron gleefully jumps to point at some minister in the Gujarat govt under Modi. Well, to Numero Unee it doesn’t occur that the two people most affected by RG “tearing” the Ordinance are Rasheed Masood of Congress, and, of course, Lalu ‘fodder’ Prasad. The entire Cabinet which approved the Ordinance were running around like headless chickens trying to figure out to say. The man who has a “happy-tongue” and blabbers about a lot of things also explained how he was wise not to comment on the Ordinance. Of course, he doesn’t tell us why he didn’t object earlier as part of the Cabinet. Meet Shashi Tharoor, the flip-flop man again:

The ministers and other members, sycophants that they are, crawled behind RG and kept saying PM wasn’t “snubbed” by his stupid outburst. All through last evening TimesNow, NDTV, CNN-IBN and other channels somehow tried to pin the Ordinance tragedy on BJP by twisting the chaos into some imaginary role of BJP supporting it by seeking the parliamentary route. Nonsense! Only yesterday the BJP leaders met the President to reject the Ordinance. The Congress members and spokies, even side-kicks like Sanjay Jha, were totally caught with pants and skirts down. The ministers tried to hide in the nearest hole possible. The last few days and even till RG’s presser all the Congis and some crooks in the media were defending the Ordinance. RG’s order was clear: “send in the clowns”. And I quite like the way this theme expresses it (video 2.49 mins):

The Congis and media make quite a pair. One in mid-air one on the ground. One who keeps tearing around, one who can’t move… Where are the clowns? Making an entrance at a presser with his usual flair. Sure of his lines. Don’t you love farce? The clowns were right there at the press club. Isn’t it rich? Isn’t it queer? Losing the timing this late, in their careers? Where are the clowns? Well, maybe next year!  

What the media doesn’t tell you is the awful truth that for the last few months Narendra Modi has been running away with the political agenda with his block-buster rallies. In contrast, the Congress heir RahulG has had nothing to show but usual blabber about poverty being lack of self-confidence or a state of mind. RG’s rallies have drawn poor responses. The Congress is even scared to allow media to live-cast his speeches. He is that blooper-prone and his nonsensical utterances a delight for cartoonists and the butt of jokes. Terrorism in J&K even as PM goes abroad and wants to hold talks with Pak PM. The SC made mincemeat of the bogus Aadhar card scheme. And public opinion against the Ordinance protecting convicted legislators was abundantly evident. A caller from Hyderabad on Times Now, on September 26, spanked Sanjay Jha severely and the latter still kept defending the Ordinance, as did other Ministers and spokies. They have to realise they’ve been made to look like idiots.

But here’s the dangerous part. Even if all the sycophants line up behind RahulG and MMS is made a scapegoat and many are now demanding the resignation of the PM they miss something. Imagine, when Modi was nominated PM candidate the same clowns were asking if it wasn’t a snub to a senior statesman like LK Advani. Now the same clowns are suggesting RG’s silly outburst is not a snub to MMS. Sanjay Baru, former media advisor to PM, was harsh enough to immediately seek his resignation and slammed RG for not following the Indian culture of respecting elders and insubordination. Funny, isn't that? If your junior commits insubordination you sack him or you yourself resign? Where do Baru and Rajdeep get their wisdom? The truth they won’t acknowledge is that RahulG doesn’t respect anyone or anything. He thinks people are fools and he can go around making silly statements and be a hero. RG has a wrong set of advisors. The other awful truth is nobody has any sympathy for MMS either. He has lost the halo of “honesty” and people see him as a man who condoned scams and corruption right through the last 9 years. Nobody will weep for him over his political death. MMS may even go down as the worst PM India ever had.

And the real danger is that anyone who can barge into a presser when he normally never speaks to media and makes tall claims and makes a damaging outburst against his own party member who is PM is seriously psychologically damaged. Neither RG’s language nor his cruel dismissal of his PM and entire cabinet in public reflect any diplomatic skills. Such a man is really unfit for any senior position in any govt. Far from having reacted to public sentiment or trying to prove he is a leader or outspoken, RG only gave proof he is a bigger clown than we so far imagined. He dunked the Congress into a deeper hole than they already were. This is a man heavily drunk with power without the slightest bit of responsibility. With a man like this you can never know what he might utter anywhere, including on economic issues or matters of foreign affairs. Imagine the man suddenly having a fit at the UN or a G-20 summit. The media who clowned around all along and many still believe RG’s act was a brave one or heroic need to have their head examined. These are the clowns they sent in.