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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Netaji sees red

Netaji sees red

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published Published on Oct 25, 2012   modified Modified on Oct 25, 2012
-The Indian Express

But in this year of the scam, the political class must refrain from lashing out at the messenger

To shoot the messenger while simultaneously shooting yourself in the foot is a feat of marksmanship that politicians are performing with agility. The achievement is being recorded by the pitiless gaze of the camera — which is also the cause of all the excitement. Former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh threatened to break the cameras of journalists who were trying to get a rise out of him over the “VBS file’’ (for which he apologised later). Within 24 hours, Natwar Goel, vice-chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Khadi and Gram Udyog Board, tore his clothes to shreds on camera. A photographer who was taking pictures of his properties had accused him of assault, and Goel was trying to demonstrate that the complainant’s condition could have been self-inflicted. It cut no ice and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav expelled him from the Samajwadi Party.

The heat is getting to the political class, which seems to have forgotten how to turn down the thermostat. The politics of the scam year is picking up momentum as parties begin to prepare for a general election that is likely to be about corruption, corruption and corruption, though the UPA will attempt to highlight welfare. What began as a limited series of explosive allegations about big ticket corruption and wrongdoing has given way to the rattle of small-arms fire as politicians suffer drive-by shootings. The rate of fire is now so high that public attention is being drawn to the next victim before it had come to grips with the last one. Leaders are getting hit across the board, all of them are open to a probe, but there is no time to probe anyone because the crosshairs are already on the next target.

Allegation versus counter-allegation — this could be the format of the coming electoral contest. It is good news for voters, who can sit back and enjoy the discomfiture of the powerful and those who aim to upstage them. It could also be bad news for voters, because it draws everyone’s attention away from issues like development, the economy and welfare. But one thing is clear. Shooting the messenger is scarcely the way to deal with it.

The Indian Express, 25 October, 2012, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/netaji-sees-red/1021580/0


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