aravindan umashankar: Audacity of Malice

aravindan umashankar: Audacity of Malice

Audacity of Malice

“The Beauty of a man lies in the way he wields his tongue amongst masses”

“Say not what the other man dint accomplish but what you will when voted to power”

“Berating the opposition leader personally may neither belittle his stature nor elevate yours” but sure does ensure that you stoop low enough to get sullied by the muddle under your feet.

“Barack Obama won an impossible mandate with “An Audacity of Hope” Lal Krishna Advani is failing with “An Audacity of Malice”

This General Election there is an unsavory slug fest engaged between two of the largest national parties, even as the great pageantry of election in the largest democracy braces to a climax. It seems like the anointed leader of the BJP has trained his guns not on the ruling Congress or the UPA in power....but

But ..but on an assuming economist, professional , banker turned politician who has recently added to his rich basket of successful experiences as an able governor of reserve bank, chair of the planning commission , finance minister an assertive prime minister who staked his reputation on line to sign a historic nuclear agreement with the United States.

Asrani Vs Advani :

Which is why I am reminded by the “Seepahio..attention !!!“ line famously delivered by the noted yesteryear comedian Asrani in the legendary bollywood flick Sholay. In Asranis case at least his screen stars took him seriously by standing in attention.

Advani on the other hand hardly has any one faling in line ; no one including the party president Rajnath Singh or chief election strategist Arun Jaitely seems to heed to his decree. Remember the famous tantrum thrown by his disciple and protégé Uma Bharati during the 2004 BJP party meeting?

There are people taking sides in a hurry with in BJP projecting the fire brand Namo! (Narendra Modi) as the next prime ministerial candidate and face of BJP.

Advani has nurtured his prime ministerial aspiration for a long while now. By continuing his vituperative tirade at every opportune occasion at the Sardar he has turned himself into a spectacle and may damage the BJP’s standing as a responsible national party. On the other hand Mr.Singh aside being a thorough gentleman exercised amazing restraint untill now.Mr.Singh is also the present Prime Minister of the Nation. The least one could do is accord minimum courtesy & show respect if not reverence.

Even in spectacle Advani is upstaged by his wards at the BJP. How else can we contend the “Budiya/Gudiya” jab at the Congress by the saffron Namo? How about the night watchman comment by Arun Jaitely?

Namo conveniently forgot that his party’s Prime Ministerial nominee Advani is just a shade younger that the age of the Congress party. Calling Congress a budiya and alluding to Sonia as a budiya; Namo has brazenly attempted to drench himself and his octogenarian leader in the fountain of delinquent youth hood. He is swift as well to defend his sacrilege following a Priyanka comment classifying the Congress party as a “Gudiya”. If not for the clever alliteration it “Budiya/ Gudiya” will not even cheer as a slap stick humor mongering rural masses. Priyanka rightfully on her part refused to be a part of the Budiya /Gudiya tit for tat retort and prevailed to focus on Rahul and Amethi. Sensible isn't it !

As to Arun Jaitley’s remark of “Night Watchman” | Sardar not only managed to score a six with the nuclear deal by also completed five full years at office. Some thing akin to a triple century by today’s challenges of coalition compulsions. A Sardar who has scored several power play wins in the highest tables of global diplomacy and economy? India stands as a stable nation economically, a credit he can partly claim along with your last party leader Atal Behari. Even before the bloodied stains and stitches oh his chest could come off , he is off to G 20 making assertive overtures to world leaders in a fast changing global order of economy. His erst while comrades from the left too seem to agree with his effective persona apart from his foriegn policy.

By the way Arun Jaitley – Who in your view was the night watch man defending?

I am in agreement with Pranab Babu that a Prime Minister isn’t going to contest in a wrestling match? Hence he being weak isn’t a matter of concern as much as his need to be assertive. Some thing he displayed in right proportions during the nuclear issue.

Our democratic frame works also allows the Prime Ministers office to act and work in concert with several state governments, cabinet ministers and coalition partners. Decisiveness then is a consensus forging leadership activity and not a dictatorial plank to asset oneself unilaterally.

The growth of Advani as a leader has been waning. It is little surprise that the Congress does not even consider him as a worthy contender as a candidate. They may be right after all. In the midst of the ragging controversy 5 years ago Sonia Gandhi may well have asserted her self to usurp the seat of the most powerful office in India. An office that Advani so desperately craves that his ranting are almost child like. He may be well served to be reminded that Sonia elevated her self to a standing higher than most when she declined to take up the office when it was hers for the grabs.

Dare the opposition bring up the Italian connection , Quotorocchi and Bofors issues again ? Those insipid remarks of her lineage not being Indian ????

That’s the contrast we talking about Lal Krishna Advani. You keep running after the office and it keeps eluding you. Your ineffective role of a leader of the opposition during last 5 years is proof enough of your capabilities. You conceded every opportunity to engage in a meaningful debate at the floor of the parliament and yet seek a public debate akin to an American Presidential caucus. You seek an angrezi practice when you seek Swaraj from the present Raj. When you were home minister you lead the field to score self goals when you were a mere spectator of your cabinet colleague who hand delivered a wanted terrorist like a father sending off his daughter after marriage. Now that’s what I call “Being Decisive as a mute spectator”

The altar of Indian ballot tests every one and most have a possibility of being a Prime Minister.

The contenders are one to many Manmohan Singh for a second term, Mayawati, Pawar, Nitish Kumar, Prakash Karat or Yetchury, Biju Patnaik or some one else from the third front. You too shall have a chance. Until then do please focus on wooing the citizens for your vote on governance, development and fight recession and terror. Deriding g Manmohan will neither elevate your status as a contender or will win you elections. It will only diminish your aura to a pale shadow of promotion of a personal aspiration of leading India. Time that you realized the great potential of leading with out title Mr. Prime Minister in waiting.

Time you realized this and step aside and there are worthy young turks in the waiting to shore up the fortune of the second best national party. Indian democracy need a decent opposition on the floor of the assembly. Else the opposition will be fragmented in to multiple fronts threatening the very fabric of our democracy being able to throw up decisive mandates from its citizens.

Hope you will do your bit to preserve the Democracy christened by our freedom fighters and your crediting Nehru for strengthening the same !

Jest Done it !

Jest Done It!

"The slime shall prevail over the cause of the slain"

Points to Ponder –

• Want to get your point thru – Lob a shoe and it is sure to find its mark.
• Fastest way to fame – Let the shoe fly instead of walk.
• Prevail – Mob Rule still does! Irrespective of being the largest democracy.
• Never ever should any party filed persons with tainted past or questionable image.
• Protest we should but not yield to be used by opportunistic scoundrels.
• Massacre – Vehemently condemn and keep the pressure. Not by waking up after 25 years.
• Congress party has as much blood on its hand as the BJP: and both have used caste and creed to foment trouble in a heinous manner.
• Constitution must be Supreme and the Law of the Land needs to take its own course.
• The Wheel of Justice should turn expeditiously. Else delayed justice is a matter of denied justice.
• Political planks should revolve around development and enhancement of a civil society; not by misleading mob and maligning or impeding the function of public institutions.
• Civility should prevail in a civil society and civilians should adhere to the civil code of conduct to the hilt.


“Jab a bada phed girtha hai tho darthi hilt thahai” – Rajiv Gandhi.
( When a big tree falls the entire land shudders )

“Jab jootha phenkthe hai , to bade bade umeedhwar uudjaathe hai” –Your Truly.
( When a shoe is flung mighty contestants get blown away )



Call it Jarnailism, mighty shoe bite or booting your point - The leg which lent the shoe from a gentle Sardar who in a fit of momentary rage vented his disgust; found its mark with the political parties, over enthusiastic media and melee amongst a bunch of trigger happy mob who found the upraising of the 1984 massacre kindling their emotions that they scaled the court wall in protest and Won the Day.

The Sikhs prevented the yet to be proved guilty from contesting a contest he has successfully contested and never lost in the past. Every contest where a few lakhs of Sikhs voted in favor of Tytler than a few hundred and one who protested and caught on media today. The one who gently lobed his sneaker at the Union Home Minister.

The issue – Clean Chit given to the Tytler by the CBI where sections of the community and opportunistic political opponents smelt rat.

The angst isn’t the issue in contest! The delayed and opportunistic angst is the one in contest; Angst unfounded as those very Sikhs voted the man in question to power with resounding mandates in approval of these very candidates.

It was also a day when the mighty Congress turned meek, thwarted a seasoned 4 time parliamentarian to assume cold feet and step back in an effort to quell the angst, lest they lost more than their reputation for fielding two gentlemen with questionable past since 1984.

The prism of paradox is an interesting looking lens as it projects a vision of multicolor blur and keeps changing to every minute tilt in the degree of the viewing angle. Paradox of a party headed by a Sikh Prime Minister fielding its candidates for a forth time.


A 60 plus year democracy with a reasonably well articulated, functional yet in some parts sell by date constitution should and must be the yard stick to prevent, absolve, resolve and deliver justice to its citizens.

It is this constitution which when wielded by the able institution of the “SUPREME” Court, the laws of the land prevails ensuring justice. And that the person isn’t guilty unless proved so in a court of law and has his right to innocence in the eyes of public and life at large.

I am no authority of law or constitution, but the above is what I believe which should apply to a civil society we sought 60 years ago. If there is an institution of CBI, then we should wait for them to play their part with conclusive finality. A country we built brick by brick to call it our own where “We the People” “By the People” is sacrosanct.

Elsewhere in the deserts of Africa, streets of Baghdad, foot hills of the SWAT and the FATA region, mountains of Afghanistan mob rules rule the roost. A provocation and a biased view can polarize the masses to take up untoward incidents where the rule of the stick prevails over any thing else.

In that context, we as a nation stand defeated today as a man at a presser sought justice for an incident which happened in 1984, a time when he would have been a pristine toddler or a kid using an unacceptable manner of protest alien to a civil society. The reason – “the Bloodshed of his community he shed ample hatred, a shoe as protest” which triggered a frenzied media to blow it out of proposition hence influencing a bias in the people to sweep the institutions of constitution and Supreme Court under the carpet and yielded to Mob Rule dictate.

We stand defeated as Jarnailism caught the vivid imagination of the sensation loving television media bring disrepute to the profession of journalists of a free nation.

The country also failed to realize that it yielded to another theater of poll politics to an incident that regretfully took place 25 years ago. The people of New Delhi where a visible majority are the Sikh community voted a party represented by Jagdish Tytler to office every time he stood the election test after the incident.

The very folks now were made to respond with urgency that “Justice Delayed is justice denied” by the dramatics of Jarnail Singh , the SAD and BJP in concert rallying to nail the squabble of a few who may not have been born in 1984 into an outrage of the community.

Why on Earth don’t we see that these very Sikh voted the man Jagdish Tytler (who by birth is Sikh as well) to office the last three times in the past. Now I am not pronouncing Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Singh Tytler guilty or innocent but shall wait until the constitutional machinery to pronounce the verdict of them being Sajjan purush. I also hang my head in shame of being a citizen of a country where 3000 innocent brave hearts massacred succumbed to a mindless carnage a quarter century ago.

Why on earth don’t we revolt against the slow turn of the wheel of justice? Why hasn’t the carnage of Godhra not evoked the angst that the Sardars at Delhi woke up to? Why hasn’t there been angst by the lakhs of Kashmiri Pundits who bore the brunt of the ethnic cleansing drive?

Are we as a nation waiting to be triggered by another flying shoe to “Just Do it” or waiting for an opportunistic political theater to convene and trigger mob rampage and justice.

Sure the mob is supreme. More supreme than the Supreme Court? But process of exercising the mob strength is at the ballot box in a civil society. Not by scaling court walls or lobbing shoes at elected representatives.

If this prevails then the one with the loudest voice will win. The one with the strongest arm will wrestle to gain an upper hand. The one with the maximum riches will buy a decree by the dozen.