New Delhi: Politicians are known for shooting from the hip.
At times their comments are directed at political rivals to run them down or score some brownie points with the boss by taking the art of sycophancy to another level.
While those suffering from foot in mouth disease have always existed, the list is growing at an alarming rate due to media explosion as many politicians think making controversial statements can get them free and easy publicity — so necessary for their survival.
They are, however, not to be confused with the rare and now endangered breed of those with gifted with funny bones and witty remarks. The late socialist leader Piloo Mody tops the latter list as his witty remarks would often break the monotony of boring speeches inside parliament.
On the other side of the spectrum are the modern day socialist leaders who never tire of displaying that either they do not have minds or simply never apply them while making headline-grabbing comments — often ending up making fools of themselves and putting their feet in their mouths.
“These loud mouth politicians as I term them are rustic and unsophisticated and take pride in remaining so, so that they are identified with their voters. They are not necessarily uneducated but behave like one purposely and in their bid to appeal to their voters in their rustic style end up making improper and thoughtless statements,” said Saurav Luthra who teaches political science in an Uttar Pradesh college.
Nothing can beat two members of the Congress party, namely Shashi Tharoor and Mani Shankar Aiyar — both highly educated. What they thought was funny turned out to be very embarrassing for their party.
Tharoor, who served in the past as deputy secretary general of the United Nations, was serving as a junior minister in 2009 when one of his tweets created stir.
His, “absolutely, in cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows!” tweet landed him deep trouble and embarrassed the party no end.
He was referring to his next proposed visit to his constituency Thiruvananthapuram on an economy class ticket. It was seen as mocking the party’s decision to promote austerity and looking down on the middle class who fly economy.
Aiyar in 2014, in his bit to get into the good books of the party chief Sonia Gandhi, was compelled to eat the crow due to his controversial remark.
“I promise you in 21st century Narendra Modi would never become the prime minister of the country ... But if he wants to distribute tea here, we will find a place for him.”
Aiyar was referring to the incumbent Indian premier Modi who was then the prime ministerial candidate of rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the venue of the All India Congress Committee meeting, mocking Modi’s background as a tea vendor. Many felt his remarks alienated the poor, already reeling under the burden of inflation and price rise from the Congress party’s policies.
In all fairness, the penchant for predicting future of top leadership of the rival party though did not start with Aiyar.
The incumbent foreign minister Sushma Swaraj was simply lucky that she saved her hair and did not have to shave it off in 2004.
“I will shave off my hair, sleep on floor like a bhikshuni [mendicant] if Sonia [Gandhi] becomes the prime minister,” Swaraj had said while campaigning during the 2004 general elections. She was serving as a cabinet minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government them.
She heaved a sigh of relief when the Congress party with allies managed to come to power and Sonia, despite having been elected leader of the Congress parliamentary party, opted out of becoming prime minister in dramatic style, nominating Manmohan Singh for the post instead.
Swaraj’s ministerial colleague Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti created a stir by making unsavoury comments against Indian Muslims in the run up to this year’s Delhi assembly elections, terming them illegitimate children of India.
“Aapko tay karna hai ki Dilli main sarkar Ramzadon ki banegi ya haramzadon ki. Yeh aapka faisla hai” (you have to decide whether Delhi will get a government of those born of [Hindu deity] Ram or those born illegitimately). Prime Minister Modi chided and forced her to apologise publicly in wake of criticism by the opposition parties.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav invited the furore of all sensible Indians, especially women, by suggesting amendment to the anti-rape law.
Referring to a Mumbai court sentencing thee men found guilty of raping two women, including a photojournalist, Yadav sided with the convicts. “Boys will be boys. They commit mistakes. Will you hang them if they commit rape?”
Samajwadi Party’s Maharashtra unit president Abu Azmi took Yadav’s senseless statement a notch further by blaming women for rape.
“Any woman if, whether married or unmarried, goes along with a man, with or without her consent, should be hanged ... Rape is punishable by hanging in Islam. But here nothing happens to women, only to men. Even the woman is guilty,” Azmi said, adding the only solution lied in hanging both.
It is not that only rustic male politicians are insensitive to incidents of rape. The then Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, an educated and sophisticated woman politician, surprised everyone by giving Quixotic advice to women in Delhi after the infamous Nirbhaya rape incident in a moving bus.
“One should not be adventurous being a woman,” was Dikshit’s solution to growing rape incidents in the national capital.
Another Yadav, Lalu Prasad, the chief of Bihar’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, known for making funny remarks and his buffoonery, raised many an eyebrow recently when he sided with those accused of cheating in examinations.
Rocked by televised incidents of mass copying in secondary school examination in his home state, Lalu advocated free hand to cheaters.
“The current government says it cannot control cheating ... During my time as chief minister, I used to handout books to everyone and said fine, write from the books,” Lalu, accused of running a jungle raj in Bihar for 15 years, said.
Two senior leaders of the Maharashtra-based Nationalist Congress Party also landed their party in embarrassment with their ridiculous remarks.
The then deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s crass humour failed to impress anyone and he was later forced by his uncle and party chief Sharad Pawar to tender apology in public.
“What can I do if there is no water in the dam? How can I release it? Should I urinate into it? If there is no water to drink, even urination is not possible,” Pawar said in 2013 while referring to hunger strike by a social activist.
Pawar’s predecessor as the Maharashtra deputy chief minister R.R. Patil who died recently, was notorious for making senseless statements like “small incidents do happen in big cities,” while referring to 26/11 Mumbai terror attack and “should I give protection to all journalist” while facing tough questions about rape of a photojournalist in Mumbai, showed his senseless side of mind during last year’s Maharashtra assembly polls.
“If he wanted to contest and become an MLA, he should have committed rape after the elections,” Patil told supporters of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena rival who was in jail on rape charges at that time.
“If anything, these statements indicate a rotting decline in standards of public debates. Statesmen have long vanished from Indian politics and intellectuals are far and few. If leaders are promoted and elected based on considerations other than their qualifications to lead, this is what you get when win at any cost is the mantra of all political parties. You can see how levels of debates in even parliament have declined over the years,” reasoned political analyst Vinod Mehta.
Some politicians have been caught lying to the public to boost their credentials only to regret later. One such politician is federal Human Resource Development minister Smriti Irani who once boasted of having a degree from the prestigious Yale University.
“In the kitty of mine where people call me anpadh [illiterate] I do have a degree from Yale University as well which I can bring out and show how Yale celebrated my leadership capacities,” Irani said while addressing a summit.
The HRD ministry later had to officially explain that the minister “got a certificate for her participation in a Yale University programme,” which was not a degree.
