Harkishen Singh Surjeet amended a good Christian precept by virtually saying: "Do unto others what they did to you!" He says the NDA government replaced incumbents in various posts with BJP favourites. He accused the BJP of launching a "witchhunt of the meanest kind". To redress matters, he therefore launched a counter witchhunt of the meanest kind. He wants to prove that the BJP and CPI(M) are made for each other.
Alas, other UPA ministers traumatised by the Surjeet assault seem to have lost their bearings. Poor Jaipal Reddy! One recalls his days as a beneficiary of the JP movement when he was a minor MLA in Andhra. Now he is the Congress cabinet minister for information and broadcasting. So when a film on JP is made, he wants to censor it not just by cutting scenes but also adding some the director doesn't want. It's not enough to say the Emergency was unjustified, the director was advised. Take the other side too, say the Emergency was justified.
Jaipal's sycophancy is horribly misdirected. Both Indira and Sanjay Gandhi had admitted that the Emergency was a mistake. But Rahul Gandhi took advantage to remind pressmen that indeed there had been excesses during the Emergency. Yep! Daddy had always been unhappy with the Emergency anyway. But as for Uncle Sanjay, ahem! Want to add anything, Varun? Poor Jaipal! While seeking Sonia's pleasure, he might have earned her displeasure.
Before 1975, Laloo Prasad Yadav was president of the Bihar student union. With Morarji Desai's tacit encouragement, the students of Gujarat launched a movement against Chimanbhai Patel and Indira Gandhi. It caught on. The Bihar students wanted to follow suit. To attract attention, they approached JP to address them. Now on JP's birth anniversary, Laloo said he helped build up JP by mobilising crowds for him. He praised the Emergency for having instilled discipline in society.
Laloo is a UPA central cabinet minister while wife Rabri is CM in Bihar. Without Congress support, Laloo's party cannot rule the state. Can't Sonia Gandhi jail Laloo to instil some discipline in him too? Sonia must be wondering what's going on. Rajiv Gandhi had frowned on the Emergency and tried to dissuade Indira Gandhi from persisting with it. Seldom have courtiers behaved as foolishly as they do in the palace politics of the UPA government.
But this palace has jesters too. There is the Left saying one thing to the government and the opposite to its cadre. The UPA has an opportunity. It prefers to seize opportunism.
(Puri can be reached at rajinderpuri2000@yahoo.com)
