Much Too Muck

The Congress defence that they are only replying to the politics of vilification is specious. Tactically, it would have made more sense to allow Messrs Fernandes and Mahajan to make the running in this contest. Sonia Gandhi's team could then have claimed the moral high ground exposing the campaign of indecency. However, once Monicaji and national contribution in terms of child-bearing became 'issues', Ghulam Nabi Azad and foolish Rajesh Khanna could not resist the temptation of responding in kind.

Where does that leave the world's largest democracy? In the gutter, I am afraid. That a third of our population lives below the poverty line, that 40 per cent of the people can neither read nor write, that the billionth baby has just been born.... Yawn! Swadeshi vs Videshi and Atal Behari Vajpayee's slightly unorthodox living arrangements are the real issues.