The jury is still out on whether the UPA Government will survive the current crisis, or, even if it does, how battered it will emerge from it. But spare a thought, meanwhile, for the institution of marriage, which has been delivered such a nasty blow. The Left’s champion headline-hunter A B Bardhan started it with his rather curiously stated, “The honeymoon is over, time to file divorce papers” assertion to Arnab Goswami of Times Now. And that started the confusion.

First of all, Comrade Bardhan must get his notion on the longevity of a marriage from Hollywood. For, in real life, neither does a marriage end with honeymoon, nor do people file divorce papers the moment the initial rush of hormones runs out. But nobody stopped to ask this question. Karat then said the honeymoon is over, but marriage can go on for some more time. TV channels, newspapers, all took their cue - marriage, after all, is such a wonderfully convenient expression for headline writers.

As this drama unfolds, I can imagine many other variations on the theme. Marriage on the rocks, estranged bedfellows, separation plans (which goes nicely with the idea of separating civil and military facilities under 123) and so on. But the question we need to ask, first of all, is whether a marriage had taken place at all, to begin with? And before we talk of a honeymoon, let us ask whether there was ever enough chemistry even for a torrid one-night stand?

The answer is no. May 2004 produced a Parliament where only one coalition was possible. And so the Left and the Congress entered into some sort of an alliance of the hostiles. This was not even a marriage of convenience, just a cynical coming together of two sworn enemies to keep a common enemy, the BJP, out. There was never any warmth, trust, shared values or affection, history, psychology, philosophy, physics, chemistry, endocrinology, nothing.

... contd.