Thursday, April 9, 2009

Sho(e)w me the law!

Shoe hurled at Mr. P. Chidambaram.
(Photo courtesy
www.ibnlive.com)
It had to happen some day. Someone somewhere had to let his frustration get the better of him and decide to 'Just do it'. (I wonder if it is easier if you are wearing Nike - its their tagline anyway!)
The shoe was badly aimed - both literally and symbolically. It may have missed PC in the literal sense, but its real target was the sit-tight-till-you-can-and-do-nothing attitude of the Congress. It may have made a dent in the Congress' armour, but only a dent. Political parties are amazingly thick-skinned and are adept at finding the right things to say. No wonder that such statements are called "politically correct".
To put it in perspective, the press conference that PC was addressing was NOT about this topic and that is exactly what PC was telling Jarnail Singh. In true Gandhian tradition, PC promptly said 'I forgive him', and Jarnail himself too admitted that it was a wrong act. But when asked whether he could have used any other means of protest, he articulated his anguish simply by commenting "we have waited for 25 years, how much more should we wait?" Gandhian principles of non-violence are getting 'shooed away', surely.
Through all this mayhem, the person in focus (Jagdish Tytler, who else) is amazingly unflinching in his statements. Let the law decide, I will not do anything that creates problems for the party, blah blah blah....
More than 150 years ago in 'Oliver Twist', Mr. Bumble made the classic comment -'Law is an ass'. If that is so, then less said the better about our lawmakers.

1 comment:

Canonical Cacophony said...

Nice post..more so..ur name reflects the one with my my title... ;)

http://somnath-is-here.blogspot.com/2009/04/shoemans-show.html