"PRIVILEGED PIFFLE"

[Guest guest]

Dear All

Kindly read the CountDown "PRIVILEGED PIFFLE"

written by

Mr. T R Jawahar, Editor, News

Today.

For more information visit www.newstodaynet.com.

 

regards,

Balaji Prasad

 

 

19, Aug 2003

 

PRIVILEGED PIFFLE

 

The reader, pardon, leader of the opposition, Sonia Gandhi,

appears

to have had a wonderful day out

in Parliament yesterday, if national dailies are to be believed. And

at

the

end of the day it seems all the

veterans, sniggering veterans at that, were floored by her, just a

novice,

and left crawling on the floor

of the House. Probably, some even found themselves at the bottom of

the

well

of the House, we do not know.

In short, the general drift of the coverage by exalted journos of her

'performance' in Parliament yesterday

was that while Sonia was combative, punchy and did full justice to

her

speech writers and even going beyond

the script when deemed necessary, her opponents were either bemused

or

sullen, supercillious or wearing

superior looks!

 

Aah, what fawning admiration for an IMFL--Indian Made Foreign

Leader, and what unreserved contempt

for the sons of the soil! But what takes the cake is the description

of

Sonia's speech as a 'performance'.

A deadly give away, that. Of course, she is a performer pandering to

an

audience as in an elocution

contest, not a natural leader whose virtue is spontaneity. So much so

that

her breaking away from the

prepared text becomes instant news, a matter of profound importance

to

be

taken notice of as a sinister

warning to her opponents. It does not seem to appeal to her cheer

leaders in

the media, particularly that

her extempore escapades are just minor digressions and that minus the

sheaf

of papers Madam Maino would not

get anywhere and would be groping in the wilderness of ignorance on

her

special day out! It is a mediocrity

that can be unmasked in a jiffy by the discerning but is deliberately

being

ignored by those who have

pulled the wool over their own eyes.

 

And of what use is a performance without a chosen audience,

to

clap

during the pauses in the

script, cheer when the script is occasionally overstepped and applaud

heavily even when the reader, pardon,

leader was only coughing or clearing the throat? So it was that the

auditorium, sorry Parliament, was

overflowing with fans all in attendance to watch the leader in the

making.

Priyanka was there and so were

all the Congress Stall-warts, who derive special pleasure in stalling

Parliament at their leader's bidding

but are no more than mere warts in the Signora's scheme of things.

And

they

all did their allotted job

dutifully, backing her to the hilt and propping her up to their

might.

The

Congmen may not have spine, but

that does not mean that they could not become their leader's

backbone.

But

the rub is that while

experienced and respected leaders like Vajpayee, Advani, MM Joshi and

Jaswant are projected as cowering

cowards, the faceless Congressmen who have put this Sikhandi of

a leader to front for them so that they can amble to power, get to be

seen

in a virtuous light! Can things

get more perverted?

 

The most sickening aspect of the Sonia-mania is the attempt

to

groom

her and then parading the same

shamelessly as a perfectly acceptable phenomenon. Her backers, both

in

the

Congress and in the media,

obviously have no qualms in converting Parliament into a sort of

preparatory

school. Just sample this

comment in a national daily: '...out to prove to critics and admirers

alike

that her apperenticeship was

over and she was ready to take charge of the party's parliamentary

columns'.

That probably is the primary

school level from the Congmen's perspective. The Secondary level, you

can

guess, is the nation itself

whence this Student Sonia, after having survived the parliamentary

primary

to the satisfaction of her fans,

would be pitchforked into a position of power, by hook or crook or

both. Of

course, she can always learn

the nuances once on the job. That is the privilege of being wedded

into

the

country's premier family.

 

(e-mail to the writer at countdown)

or trjawahar