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Abuses and rudeness instead of puns and humour

By Lalith Sethi. Dated: 9/21/2017 12:31:18 AM

Have the politicians, if not the political class, lost their sense of humour, spirit of fun and puns? Have some of them, or rather several of them, taken to a show of even plain rude and rowdy conduct in public places? Do they now even resort to the use of un-parliamentary expressions at times? They might invite the ire of the chair, but they take the reprimand in the stride. Who are the victims of this drop, steep drop, in what might be called plain sexist verbiage, revealing that the less or least educated of them all are denigrating women and showing near total lack of rectitude, but a high degree of male chauvinism?
It has to be noted that most of them remain silent, some rarely go to a legislative chamber, but mark their presence in the lobby where the register of attendance is kept and go back home; yet others go to the House, bow to the presiding officer, sit in their allotted place, but are silent spectators who rarely make a contribution to the proceedings, except voting at times in response to a party whip, but Independent members, a few of them, are free from being heir to the whip.
When members of a legislature, sitting in the august chambers that make and unmake laws; when they try to take rulers, be they Ministers or officials, to task for their administrative failures or invite the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers to punish those slipping up or failing in their duties, what else are they doing?
Are they dozing off for a little snooze to overcome their lack of sleep because they are overworked, or have they been engaged in what might be called extra-curricular activities in the absence of a better expression? They have at times, if not a number of times, been caught not just napping but glued to a video on a most expensive electronic device called the mobile phone, with what might be described as pornographic content.
Have they felt sorry for their apparent misdemeanours? Have they been hauled over the coals? Or have they been reprimanded verbally or in writing by the Speaker in the open chamber or privately in the Speaker's Office? None of this has come to light. Does that mean that they are a law unto themselves because there is as yet no listed punishment for video gawking because it is the members' personal and private business in their allotted seats, which are their own imperial domain and cannot be violated even by the Chairperson of the House?
In view of this, much else goes on in legislatures, including shouting, uncalled for interruptions, walk-outs and display of countless other ways of anger, including fisticuffs, hurling of microphones and easy to lift pieces of furniture and paper and files, tearing of Bills. Do these activities take the sombre sheen of democratic institutions in the absence of good conduct and correct behaviour?
In the light of this, the unflappable, if rather uncontrollable, Diggy Raja ~ Mr Digvijaya Singh ~ has raised a hornet's nest by re-tweeting an "abusive" tweet, yet claiming that he was not endorsing it, but just trying to be funny. BJP and RSS people have been up in arms on TV channel after channel to denounce him, but he refuses to yield ground? Would it be gracious, if for once he decided to offer an unqualified apology for the offence he has caused the Prime Minister of the nation, in an effort to let bygones be bygones? Could he not try to be the gentleman he seeks to be and project his image as one?
He has apparently been naughty on this score several times by trying to call Mr. Narendra Modi as an icon of the fashion world when he was riding a horse in a visual. Yet it is a given that the Prime Minister has to dress well and look good because his job as the head of government requires him to be well turned out at most, if not at all times, as is the norm the world over. Even Diggy Raja has to do that most of the time in spotless white clothes in summer, though he is now a recently elected member of the Upper House, apart from being one of the general secretaries of the Congress and at one time the mentor of Mr. Rahul Gandhi.
But leaders like the elderly Mulayam Singh Yadav have in their time tried to defend rapists by making the shocking statement that "boys will be boys" and their crime should be overlooked. He tried another unpardonable barb at his all-time political rival, Ms. Mayawati, by using the expression in Hindi "par kati" (clipped wings) just because the lady had been to a hair dresser's parlour. In this day and age, dhoti-wearing men, who could be ridiculed as effeminate, have the audacity to use such expressions as they dare not wear trousers or pants, but pyjamas and dhotis in keeping with the Indian ethos.
The "par kati" jibe was used against a woman anchor by Mr. Sharad Yadav, who has himself lost his wings and position as leader of the Janata Dal United in the Rajya Sabha. He might have undergone thorough dress sense courses or codes even in dhoti-wearing styles, facials, pedicures and manicures as well as well-designed eyewear from the days when he was Civil Aviation Minister for a short duration in a short-lived government of a passing by Prime Minister of a coalition of sorts.
It was during that Ministerial tenure that he was appalled by a strong perfume wearing high level lobbyist by the name of Mrs. Nira Radia. The fragrance was then said to be a little excessive, to put it mildly, for him to let the lady get to his high office. The Scroll.in website lists chapter and verse the words politicians use without realizing the implications of their statements, but they continue undisturbed. Have the contra temps come to such a pass that the elected members have taken to fake god men so vigorously that they seek divine blessing as these ochre-robed men have hypnotised thousands of people all over India in the expectation that these self-appointed agents of god have been promising the moon to their devotees, who go on bended knees before these men pretending to be endowed with spiritual powers, which they use to dispense favours and unheard of rewards. If the rewards come anyway because the "Netas" already have some political clout, they give the credit to their "guru" and take bags or sacks full of cash and goodies to earn goodwill of saintly characters. It is this blind faith of the lay men, down-trodden low-caste poor, that builds up the reputation of these fun-loving god men that gives them an aura of grandeur around them. One of the greatest and grandest of crimes has come to light, rather centre stage, with the Sirsa dera called Sacha Sauda, with 70 acres of land, and part of it forest, that projected the owner, Gurmeet Singh, to the front rank of allegiance through a web of lies and open conduct of hoodwinking all comers, high and low, through verbal deception or trickery adding up to one word in the dictionary, that is chicanery, and potions of perceived magic. Behind this smokescreen of goodness, names like Ram Rahim and Insaan were added to plain Gurmeet and topped up with the calling of "Doctor" to bestow an aura on a roly poly man. Has he earned his deserved desserts of 20 years of hard labour in jail? Not just that, his dera became a perfect cover for engagement in orgies of sex in special tents and caves by day and night and enslaving teenage girls, or older good looking women.
This became a perfect setting for alleged brutality if certain disciples dared disobey their lord and master. It flourished like a private kingdom with "deras" galore in different towns of Punjab, Haryana, and even Ganganagar in Rajasthan in the name of bogus spiritualism.
Supplicating political leaders seeking his blessings for electoral benefits were not far behind. They brought bounties of cash in return for rewards of vote banks controlled by the deras.
It has become a gruesome story, still unfolding, from Haryana where the fiefdom was attached by an order of a court of law to compensate for the mayhem and murder and damage to public property, believed to be roughly at Rs. 5 crores at a preliminary count under the supervision of a retired judge.
Gory details of plunder and death are slowly emerging, but have the 30,000 residents of the Gurmeet dera been evicted, as ordered? Is enforcement of court orders easy or far from easy? Even the Union Government is awaiting the outcome and reports from the Chief Minister of Haryana about action taken. But the affected politicians continue to sleep soundly in the hope that the long arm of the law will not reach them; if it does, they could cause several heads to roll, and the powerful may not escape the eye of the storm.
Lalit Sethi is a Journalist of long standing and a commentator on Political and Social Issues.
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