So what was left to argue with anybody about? Or, at least, that was my excuse for this sabbatical, and my reward, this very unfamiliar freedom from creative tension on Friday afternoons — and of course, from having the opinion page editor pacing up and down my corridor, reminding me of my very patchy record with deadlines.

So what changed now that persuaded me to give up that Friday afternoon freedom? It was change, first a whiff, then the real thing, in what had so far remained rather static national politics post-May ’04. And it wasn’t just who won Punjab and Uttarakhand.

Did you notice an unfamiliar figure in the Akali-BJP swearing-in celebrations? Inder Kumar Gujral. Okay, he, as a votary of Punjab, could justify being there. And the fact that his very amiable and urbane son, Naresh, has been helping and advising the Akalis can simply be explained away as adults being entitled to make their choices. But view this with what happened in Karnataka last year, with Gowda and his son joining hands with the BJP to form the government there, and pushing the “secular” forces to the sidelines.

So, here are two men who had the honour of prime ministership bestowed upon them between 1996 and ’98 only in the name of secularism. If both have now joined hands with “communal” forces, something has changed in our politics. Either the secular Kautilyas, led by Harkishen Singh Surjeet, were wrong in assessing their chosen leaders with secular commitment, or the definition of what is secular and who is communal is changing. Or, could it be that the ideological “untouchability” that has cursed our politics, besides making it so boring and static, is now fading?

... contd.