Dear Editor,
What was odd about the slanging match between Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi was that it wasn’t played out in front of crowds at campaign rallies but in Parliament. Gandhi, despite what Arun Jaitley may think, has matured as the Congress’s chief pie-thrower. His aim has certainly got better, even though the knowledge that a pie can’t really maim anyone will probably come to him in time. But his statement that “Savarkar is yours, Gandhi is ours” is an inapt argument over political patrimony at a time when a healing touch is needed. A nation’s icons are integral to its existence and political process.
Beyond the Modi-Rahul face-off is the larger institutional malady: a breakdown in the rules of the game of parliamentary system. When in Opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party was righteously disruptive in Parliament; now, while occupying the treasury benches, it laments the use of the same tactics by the new Opposition. Thankfully Modi tried, uncharacteristically, to sound chastened and reasonable and sought the Opposition’s cooperation.
Padmini Raghavendra,
via-e-mail
