Our political leaders would do well to heed the admonition of dear Father Bonet to the students of St. Xavier’s School, Bombay: “Think twice before you open your mouth.” Lalu Prasad valiantly announced that if he were the Home Minister he would run a roller over Varun Gandhi for his alleged hate speeches. In less than 24 hours he ‘clarifies’ that he meant a legal roller. Mulayam Singh Yadav vehemently advocates abolition of the English language but soon explains away his preposterous statement to mean that Hindi should be promoted. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi proclaims his friendship with LTTE chief Prabhakaran and disputes that Prabhakaran is a terrorist. Shortly thereafter his statement is modified with a grudging concession that some elements in LTTE could be terrorists. Our actor-turned-politician Sanjay Dutt takes the cake. In response to the show cause notice issued to him for his ‘jaadu ki jhappi and pappi’ remarks about Chief Minister Mayawati he explains that these are from a dialogue in his movie and are meant to spread love in society and his statement should be treated as affection of a brother towards his sister! These bits of entertainment though funny, are tragic because they are at the expense of the Indian electorate who are regarded as dumb spectators in this ongoing election theatricals.

Logic takes a back seat during electioneering. Advani’s caution to Varun Gandhi to observe restraint in his future election speeches after his release from jail is construed by Kapil Sibal as conclusive admission that the tapes were not doctored. BJP’s demand for measures to secure return of illegal proceeds lodged in banks in Switzerland and in other countries under the shelter of banking secrecy laws is countered by Congress spokespersons with the question “Does BJP want to re-enact Foreign Exchange (Regulation) Act (FERA)?” The insinuation is that the repeal of FERA by the BJP facilitated accumulation of illegally acquired funds in banks abroad. It is forgotten that FERA in its working had, according to our eminent Home Minister, P. Chidambaram become “a tool of oppression” and “created a flourishing black market in foreign exchange... International markets do not respect draconian laws that run counter to common sense... Mercifully FERA was buried finally on May 31, 2000.” Goldsmith’s lament that “Logicians have ill defined as rational the human mind” has compelling poignancy during elections.

... contd.