Just before 10 am on May 30 last year, my phone was set abuzz with messages about an extraordinary “Statement to the People of Goa” that had just been posted on Twitter by Dr. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, the brand-new finance minister of Tamil Nadu. Switching screens to look, I found myself stunned, then chortling aloud with surprise and amusement. I’d never read anything like it before. Many others went on to agree. A few days later, no less than Shashi Tharoor tweeted, “I’m delighted to say that in the annals of contemporary Indian political invective, this statement by @ptrmadurai has not been bettered.”