“Foot in the mouth”

Sunil Gatade
The actions and statements of politicians of all hue have always been a matter of intense public debate, sometimes in good light, sometimes bad, sometimes provoking anger and sometimes becoming not just a matter of fun but also ridicule.
But with the focus of the media, especially of the electronic variety, on the look out for the absurd and out of the ordinary, the controversy is bound to be more on what a leader does or says.
The emergence of the social media like Twitter has intensified the race for reaching out and on ‘who says what and when and how’ and has added to the action in the media scene with politicians going the extra mile to be in the limelight.
It is said that one should use soft words, lest you may have to eat them tomorrow, but today’s political class appears to be generally oblivious of that.
There are leaders like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who rarely speak, especially on matters political and are being dubbed “maunibaba”, while there are others like Digvijay Singh who lose no opportunity to interact with media day in and day out.
This has invariably given rise to the spread of ‘Foot in the mouth’ syndrome never seen in such proportions in Independent India.
Leaders of Congress and the BJP are not only to blame as the syndrome is widespread.As the political discourse gets heated up ahead of the Lok Sabha polls which is less than a year away, leaders are being seen increasingly eating their words, denying their statements, issuing clarifications or even taking penance. Some have even lost their jobs for out of turn statements.
The latest to be affected by the syndrome may be Raj Babbar and Rashid Masood of the Congress, Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference and Chandran Mitra of the BJP, but the list is long.
Babbar’s innocuous claim as Congress spokesman that a hearty meal could be available for as little as Rs 12 in Bombay was bound to raise controversy.
Rashid Masood and Farooq Abdullah may have gone a step ahead of Babbar, the actor-turned politician, claiming availability of food for as little as Rs five and Rs one respectively, but were quick to retract and regret.
The “hearty meal” controversy in the back of the latest estimates of poverty made Prakash Karat, the Marxist leader with a serious bent of mind, to wonder whether Congress is projecting all milk and honey in the country in the time of backbreaking prices.
BJP chief Rajnath Singh’s comments about English causing a great loss to India as it has eroded Indian culture and language sparked a heated controversy with political leaders and intellectuals rebuking him for being obscurantist. Shivsena chief Uddhav Thackarey too sought to disapprove.
The biggest controversy in recent times, was, undoubtedly the one over the “puppy” remark by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP’s campaign committee chief for the Lok Sabha polls.
“Another thing… someone else is driving a car and we’re sitting behind, even then if a puppy comes under the wheel, will it be painful or not? Of course, it is. If I’m a chief minister or not, I’m a human being. If something bad happens anywhere, it is natural to be sad,” he said, while defending himself in the wake of the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Modi, who has been dubbed as the “most polarizing politician” by his detractors, later clarified his ‘puppy’ analogy, saying people are the best judge.”In our culture every form of life is valued and worshipped….People are best judge,” he tweeted after a huge uproar by his detractors.
Modi is a cool calculating politician who uses words with precision to deliberately raise controversy and force his detractors to react in a particular manner. Congress is seeing an intense internal debate on how to respond to the controversial leader who has become the face of the BJP in the next Lok Sabha elections.
Rashid Alvi, who has been an effective Congress spokesman, does not know why he lost his job. It is being said that one of his remark that implied that
Modi is a “yamraj” (god of death) did him in while another theory is that his warning to Pakistan “not to try India’s patience” while reacting to beheading of Indian soldier, cooked his goose.
Apparently worried by the spreading “foot in the mouth” syndrome, Congress recently organized a two-day workshop of its spokespersons and tv panelists across the country. An interesting sidelight was that Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, who had landed into controversy due to several of his tweets including the “cattle class” remark was fielded by the Congress to teach the spokespersons on how to use the social media.
May it be Batla house encounter or the phone call from slain Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare to his tweet following blasts at Bodh Gaya temple, doughty Digvijay has been battling his detractors.
“I have the rare privilege to be the most abused person on social media by the sanghis and the paid professionals hired by Modi operating from sanskar dham in Manipur Sanand near Ahmedabad. I have been called Dogvijay Singh some time Pigvijay Singh, by the….’gang’ who would probably be younger than my grandchildren!” said Singh recently.
Only recently, Madhya Pradesh Police have registered a case against Singh for his alleged ‘insensitive’ tweet on children posted while the sodomy charges against former Finance Minister Raghavji came to light recently.
The complainant has underlined that the tweet of Singh in which he allegedly wrote ‘Baccha Baccha Ram Ka, Raghavji Ke Kaam Ka’ has hurt the majority community.
In April, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who had been in the centre of a raging controversy over his “should we urinate in the dam” comment, sat on a day-long ‘atonement’ fast in Satara district that had drawn jeers from the Opposition. The NCP leader had said his act was an attempt at “penance”.
“If there is no water in the dam… Should we urinate into it?,” Pawar had asked in an insensitive comment that kicked up a controversy for mocking farmers reeling under severe drought.
Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma has also landed into problems repeatedly with the AICC expressing displeasure over some of his comments against SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
A friend-turned-foe of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Verma leaves no opportunity to take pot shots at the SP supreme. Recently, he created a flutter by saying that Yadav has ambitions of becoming the Prime Minister but he should “first try to get the job of a sweeper at the residence of the PM.”
The latest remark came at a time when Congress is seeking to keep Samajwadi Party, a key outside supporter of the UPA Government, in good humour.
Mulayam Singh’s close associate and senior U P Minister Mohd Azam Khan is also known for raking up controversies.

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