The Middle Finger Salute!

On Monday, Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma, in his attempt to extend support to Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid over allegations of misappropriation of funds of Khurshid’s family run trust, told media persons that “Rs 71 lakh is a small amount for a Central Minister. A person like Salman Khurshid will not do any scam for Rs 71 lakh…had it been Rs 71 crore, I would take it seriously.”

Couple of weeks ago, Union Coal Minister Shriprakash Jaiswal, at a function at a girls’ college compared the joy of a new victory to a new marriage and said that “as the years go by, the celebrations become old, just as the wife loses her charm as she grows old.”

Three months ago, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s brother and UP’s PWD Minister Shivpal Yadav literally gave official sanction to state PWD bureaucrats to indulge in corruption, when in a meeting he told them, “If you work hard, you can steal a little, but don't behave like dacoits.”

These are some of the most atrocious, arrogant, insensitive and disgraceful statements in recent times made by senior ministers, who as democratically elected representatives, are expected to act in a responsible manner and maintain a certain degree of decency and discipline in public life. So are these statements are purely gaffes arising out of the proverbial Freudian slip? Don’t think so. After spending years in public life (read ‘in power’) they seem to develop a ‘devil-may-care attitude’ about the consequences of their actions or lack thereof. In each of the above instance, the minister concerned was fully aware that the proceedings were being video recorded by TV channels. 

Despite the statements being captured in entirety on camera, the ministers adopted the standard but ridiculous defences of being ‘misquoted’, ‘quoted out of context’, ‘their statements were distorted’ and ‘it was not what they meant’. When everyone can clearly see and hear all on the tape, where is the question of being misquoted or quoted out of context or distortion? Another standard defence is that the tapes are ‘doctored’ and should be sent for forensic analysis or crying foul of the opposition’s conspiracy to malign. Nothing but lame excuses, desperate face saving exercises and delaying tactics!

The statements by Verma and Yadav are open and brazen endorsements of corruption and in fact, Verma’s statement almost carries a reprimand for insulting a person of the stature of Salman Khurshid by an allegation of a petty amount of Rs 71 lakh! On the other hand, the coal minister’s comments were outright derogatory and disrespectful towards women. But when questioned by the media, none of these ministers showed any remorse for their statements, but all of them made politically correct (and sensible) statements, which were diametrically opposite to their original statements which created the ruckus. Funnily, Yadav even said that media was not allowed in the meeting where he made that statement! So does he mean that the same instructions to bureaucrats in a secret and closed door meeting are just fine?

Neither the Prime Minister nor the UP Chief Minister thought it fit to crack the whip and seek immediate resignations of the concerned ministers or even admonish them for making such outrageous and shocking statements which hurt public sentiments. Did they think these statements were not significant enough to merit any action or even attention? In such situations, politicians with strong mass base are absolutely sure that nothing will befall them and very soon some other high impact event would divert attention of the media and public and the present episode would be obliterated from public memory, which in any case, is very short. That is why they summarily dismiss demands for their resignations. When too much media and public pressure – and consequently, party pressure - builds up and they realise they cannot get away, they offer pathetically lame and highly qualified apologies purely as a formality. Sample this useless apology from Shriprakash Jaiswal... “IF anyone is upset because I was misquoted or because my comment was taken out of context or because some part of my comment was deleted, THEN I apologise.” How considerate! And once the formality of the apology is over, the person happily continues in office and it is business as usual.

What does the common man feel about all this? Corporators, MLAs and MPs which the people collectively elect to represent them in corporations, state legislative assemblies and the parliament not only show utter disregard to him but also fleece them while getting work done in government departments. The common man has no access to his own elected representatives and has to spend time and money even to have an audience with them. And all this arrogance when the Union and State Governments are regularly embroiled in corruption, scams and scandals! On top of that, irresponsible and shameful statements like these add insult to the common man’s injury. Coming to think of it, since we the people elect our representatives, it is indeed our fault if we end up with such poor and sub-standard leadership. But in the next elections, even if we want a change, we have to make a choice between ‘bad’, the ‘worse’ and the ‘worst’ candidates. Quite a choice that!

It confirms the belief that democracy is a system in which citizens, after dutifully casting votes in elections proudly show their middle fingers on TV channels and the elected representatives show their middle fingers to the citizens for the next five years!