Not to be derisive, but after witnessing Wednesday's rambunctious Lok Sabha session, one mustn't point fingers at our political class; they are giving the Indian populace exactly what they want - pure, no-holds-barred entertainment. To watch two of the most experienced parliamentary debaters in Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley convincingly best the Gandhi family made for one epic treat/burn, which would even make a certain Goswami chuckle.
The Congress party could certainly function better as a more constructive Opposition but even despite Rahul Gandhi's buffoonery (See expert without knowledge), I do believe they did ask the right questions and Sushma should've put the Lalitgate matter to bed once and for all instead of being so obscurantist. Her pugnacious yet plain assertion that she'd "done nothing wrong" simply didn't lend credence to her stand.
Ever since her appointment as MEA, she has reached out to and provided humanitarian aid to many an Indian in distress and could have posited the same theory in defence of her assistance to Lalit Modi. But voila, she handed it back to the Gandhis in a language that they best understand: Accuse the accuser; turn defence into attack.
The fact of the matter is, allegations cannot be countered with more allegations. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Their scams vs our scandals, their secularism vs our nationalism, their riots vs ours, their absconders vs ours. Maybe that’s what Sushma means by “Quid pro quo”.
Every party has skeletons in its closet; none more so than the Congress, and that's probably why the Grand Old Party has been relegated to double-digit Opposition benches after ten years of misrule. Let's not forget, it was under the UPA's tenure that Lalit Modi turned 'fugitive'. Wednesday's session should not have been about what Rahul's दादी, मम्मी and पापा have done; Indians don't need any reminding. But reviving the ghosts of Congress' past provided the only egress out of the Lalitgate conundrum for the ruling party.
It's a tried and tested way - of circumventing salvos from both the Opposition and the fourth estate, which has been perfected by the powers that were, and which has been one-upped by their saffron successors.
Surely, it buys time but does little to indemnify our embattled Foreign Minister. It is clear the BJP will not force Sushma to step down, but the Lalitgate albatross shall continue to hang around her neck.
In a few hours from now, her belligerent visage will adorn the front page of every major paper. Social media will like and share snippets of her speech to death; news channels will use the same to maximise their TRPs. In a few days from now, the noise will die down. In a few weeks, all the tomfoolery will be forgotten. For as they say - public memory is notoriously short.
The joke’s on India.
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