And Now... The Ordinance Drama

(28 Sep 2013)

The Union Cabinet showed a never-before type of a hurry in overturning the Supreme Court’s verdict against convicted lawmakers. While the intent behind bringing this Ordinance was clear as a crystal, the timing was seen as just appropriate to save UPA’s long-standing ally Lalu Yadav who faces conviction by a court in the multi-crore fodder scam. The Ordinance, however, had to be signed off by the President. Pranab Mukherjee is a man of high political acumen. While he may still have affection for a party he dedicated his life to, he reportedly expressed his discomfort with the legalities of the Ordinance. Some of the tall leaders within Congress too quietly opposed the Ordinance.

And then this happened. Our heir apparent, Congress number two, Rahul Gandhi para-dropped on a press conference originally not organized for this crash landing. In an utterly foolish display of lack of understanding of and respect for the democratic system, he urged in rather unusually strong words that the Ordinance should be ‘torn and thrown’.

While it’s obvious that most of the party leaders now will applaud Rahul’s charisma and hunger for a corruption-free political system, the fact is, Manmohan Singh, despite being repeatedly dubbed as a dummy PM, has never been so openly rubbished by his own party. Dr. Singh and his government now have egg on their face, thanks to a statement that originally was a photo op PR exercise, at a time when it was almost widely understood that the President was set to return the Ordinance. Not even the dumbest of the voters will believe that an Ordinance of this gravity was passed and sent to the President without prior consent from Sonia and Rahul. Isn’t Congress a party that for every silly matter keeps referring to the High Command?

Manmohan Singh, despite being used to the style of functioning of his party, will find it difficult to explain to the country how the Vice President of Congress openly dares the Prime Minister of India and pretends prior ignorance!

Rahul the kid obviously doesn’t understand what he has said, or why how he has done what he has done is immensely laughable. He talks of a utopic India but does not tell us how he plans to join the dots with the real India. Rahul, shall we the people of the country bring in an Ordinance that mandates you to grow up?