Since this man has entered the Indian polity, he has been exhibiting a high degree of penchant to be in the news – all for the wrong reasons. He is, no doubt, a damn good writer. As long as he remained a writer, his analytical acumen exhibited on the pages of literature that he produced commanded respect and people had no doubt that his is a brain to watch out for. People will remember for a long time his magnum opus “INDIA FROM MIDNIGHT TO MILLENNIUM” for its correct and succinct commentary on the Indian political life since the nation was freed from the Imperial Raj to its entry into 21st century. For those who are interested in the aesthetics of language, this piece was a feast. One could understand the caliber of this man as a writer – his prose establishing properties of high-class narrative discourse.
Everyman, on coming to know of this gentleman from the headquarters of UN, was proud to know that he is from India, and he is from Kerala and he is from Palghat. Reading certain lines from his magnum opus, one could not miss the tone of subtle sarcasm and cynicism about the leaders of this land and their polity. No doubt, he is an elite supreme whose tastes and range of intellect had few match here in the subcontinent.
With all the support that was apparently coming his way, he dared to contest the UN Secretary Generalship elections only to know that it is still a long way from him. Bitten by the failure and with the burden of one broken marriage and another ruptured relationship, he entered India with offers for his intelligence and affluence at international political spectrum. Congress, headed by Sonia, negotiated with this formerly UN official and struck a deal that sent the man to Trivandrum to contest parliamentary elections on a Congress ticket.
These Malayali voters were a frenzied lot over his candidacy. In fact, there was euphoria in the Malayalam media about this man choosing Kerala to go to Delhi and most of them thought that it would be so great to be represented by none other than - unarguably the best Malayali brain of the age. Voters of Trivandrum parliamentary constituency exercised their franchise strongly in the favor of this man from UN and the corridors of Indian parliament were excited to receive a high-ranking world-famous bureaucrat.
Everybody thought that he would be the next Cabinet Minister of External Affairs. Media, both print and electronic, predicted his political ascendency that would stand unparallelled in the recent times. But, somebody, in the highest rung of decision-making bodies in the Congress, was incredibly clever cum prognostic and invited the wily old warhorse from Bengaluru to head this sensitive portfolio. This man from UN and Trivandrum was curtly asked to be the deputy of this Bengaluru man. Considering SM Krishna’s experience and street-smart strategies, many felt that this UN gentleman would find it difficult to flaunt his cumbersomely accrued intercontinental diplomatic acumen.
Curtailed by gargantuan stature of his Cabinet senior and suffocated by the hullabaloo of Indian political rhetoric that is nothing short of third class, this gentleman from UN & Trivandrum started looking for smarter platforms to air his rare wisdom and, in a little while, struck gold at twitter.com. The hangover of having been one of the best non-fiction writers of these times was still lingering in the cerebral cortex of this alumnus of St.Stephen’s and he started to vent his frustrations over the alleged abysmal standards of murky Indian political theater over twitter.
His twitter on political probity in matters of spending public money and calling the so-called champions of Indian politics derisively as ‘holy cows’ did not go well with his bosses and they reprimanded him. But he appeared to be basking in the publicity his twitter line brought him rather than decrypting the unmistakable cues his bosses emitted. Before this one cooled off, the Congress had to take, once again, a defensive position owing to the comments made by this Minister of State for External Affairs on certain Nehruvian policies. The political opponents of Congress, primarily the Communists and the Right Wing, were bemused to find an ‘enfant terrible’ in this UN bureaucrat who often provided ammo to their rhetorical cannons.
It is true that he is nowhere near the likes of Pranab Mukherjee whose survival instinct and exemplary astuteness have ensured their unassailable presence on the political scene for over five decades. But he could have sustained on the political theater if he had aped, at least, the lesser mortals like PC and Ghulam Nabi Azad.
The latest episode of this “enfant terrible” could very well be his last one. That he could have promoted the cause of his ladylove from the valleys of Kashmir in the IPL auction for the Kochi team sounds plausible and convincing. All the information that has come out so far in this connection unmistakably points to this “Elite Supreme-turned-Enfant Terrible” from the parliamentary constituency of the capital of “God’s Own Land”. In case he is in a relationship tangle with one Sunanda Pushkar and if it is to be proved that he is the one whose political clout and ministerial stature brought home certain percent of stakes in the IPL deal for this Kashmiri lady, then these are not the standards that he advocates for Indian politician in his magnum opus. This is, surely, way below the standard that he proposed to set.
And he has to go. Or else, he should be shown the door.
You could have been there - of a very different kind, Mr.Sashi Tharoor!
