Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
There were no angels around, of that I am sure. If Tarun Tejpal, the owner-editor of Tehelka magazine, had by choice brought so much infamy upon himself with his alleged misbehavior with a young woman colleague of his, the Bahartiya Janta Party did not exactly cover itself with glory when its senior Delhi leader, Vijay jolly chose a Thursday morning to vandalise the house where the managing editor of the magazine Shoma Chaudhry lives.
And, the BJP men led by Jolly were bent upon doing more than that, considering that they stubbornly resisted the policemen trying to accost Chaudhury to her car. Jolly was appropriately dressed for the occasion, obviously having assured that TV cameras were on hand to record his historic invasion on the privacy of a woman then at home, and about to leave probably for her office to formalize her resignation as the Number Two of the publishing house. Not a stitch was out of place, as befits a sitting MLA seeking re-elections, that was Mr. Jolly. A helpful worker was on hand to help him wipe his face with a ‘kerchief as he went about painting Chaudhry’s nameplate in the darkest of blacks.
The BJP has been at pains for the past three days denying it was out seeking its pound of flesh for Tehelka’s “ignominous” sting operation that had cost a former BJP chief, Bangaru Laxman his chair for accepting (recorded by the hidden Tehelka” camera) a bribe. They had not hesitated the day earlier in calling Tarun Tejpal a Congress stooge which did indeed draw an unsolicited denial from the ebullient Kapil Sibal, a Union Minister. “I do not hold a single share in Tehelka,” the lawyer-turned-Minister, a friend nonetheless of Tejpal and the magazine, argued.
The Congress, for its part, has sought to underplay Tejpal’s proximity to the party, content to repeat the mantra “law must take its course.” Some others from within the party, sympathetic to Tejpal, have not hesitated to mention that the BJP Government in Goa was partisan and trying to be vindictive. This latter position will surely hurt Congress because of the severity of the charges Tejpal is faced with, unpardonable in the extreme. I am not being judgmental but on the face of it, Tejpal does have a lot to explain. For instance, if he was not guilty how come his virtual admission of guilt in his letter to the aggrieved young woman colleague, as revealed by Managing Editor Chaudhry on the third day after the crime flared into the open.
Anyway this is a matter for the police and courts to look into. For the record it must be said the incident by itself, leaving aside the politicians’ gimmickry, is a blot on the second oldest profession, the first being you know what!
All that aside, the present poll campaign by itself should rank among the worst India has witnessed these past six decades and more of the republic. Rarely was a campaign marked by such acrimony, abusiveness and vile personal attacks. If one were to apportion blame for the campaign having descended to the depths it has I would rank the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate for having set the tone for it; from the Congress Party you had a whole lot of men and women, led by the reliable Digvijay Singh, Information Minister Manish Tiwari and, of course, the redoubtable lawyer Kapil Sibal, doing the honours.
The electronic media has been the principal purveyor of the growing scourge, running amuck during the so-called night-time debates. The debates often end up as a display of bad manners and ill-temper. It does indeed become difficult to make sense of the cacophony that passes on for debate. One hopes in the coming weeks, as we prepare to go into the general elections mode, the channels would have decided upon a different format for such debates and discussions. It might be more useful to allot parties time for general statements on points at issue or to let them speak for two minutes or so each leaving it to the anchor to do the rest. This would be a much better way of conducting the discourse than converting each such session into a slanging/shouting match between the spokespersons. There are clear indications of these debates degenerating into virtual tu-tu mein-meins but this is a matter which concerns the channels. If the idea is to perform a public service the broadcasters must evolve more rewarding formats. It is not unusual at present to see two or three or even four participants in a discussion talking simultaneously, even anchors joining in not unoften.
And to return to the sordid tale I began with, I feel impelled to mention one that the BJP believes has happily gotten over with by the Gujarat government’s belated decision to order an inquiry into the phone-tapping and snooping on a young woman, activities carried out by Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s chosen aide, Amit Shah, currently holding the fort for Modi in Uttar Pradesh; as the drama unfolded ( mentioned in this column earlier) the principal cast became clearly known : Amit Shah, ex-IPS officer G.L. Bansal (accused in the Ishrat Jehan encounter case) Pradeep Sharma, once favourite IAS officer of Modi, now a disgraced former Commissioner of Bhuj, the man said to have introduced the woman to Modi, the woman’s father and of course the woman herself, 32 years old and married.
Curiously, the two letters which sought to establish that it was the father who had sought the surveillance of his daughter were released by the BJP. And the burden of the explanation has remained the same : father asking for surveillance, with the woman, an architect who probably handled some redevelopment projects in the wake of the devastating earthquake in Bhuj almost a decade ago, kept in purdah. I have gone through parts of the text of the conversations between Amit Shah and G.L. Singhal recording the movements of the woman and the question that comes to mind is why was the tax payers’ money being used to set the Gujarat Police on the tail of a woman who obviously had no criminal intent? And now that the scandal (it’s nothing but that) has been put into the lap of a State inquiry committee, one cannot help asking how can a P.M. candidate in the world’s largest democracy believe he need not answer questions about the illegal surveillance of a private citizen, a woman, even if she be the daughter of someone known to the Chief Minister. It is the norm with our top leaders not to answer legitimate public questions. We can never ask Sonia Gandhi or Rahul anything and now it seems that Narendra Modi can be even more imperious. He expects us to be grateful for the consideration he has shown for public opinion/ concerns by having his minions in Gujarat belatedly announce the appointment of a local inquiry headed by a former judge of the Ahmedabad High Court. His supporters meanwhile never tire of stating that their man is destined for great things and cannot be bothered to be engaged with every story his opponents set afloat. What is significant about the snooping/stalking case is that it moves out of the secular/communal paradigm and concerns propriety and misuse of institutions. I know Mr. Arun Jaitly, the BJP leader, has a different take on this. He should know the real implications of the incident better than many others, having himself been subjected to snooping. He was all fire then.
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