This time, another sardar grabs the headlines with a slap. Union Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar's cheeks were at the receiving end.
A slap or a shoe cannot change things overnight. It’s hardly the punishment fit for all the misdeeds of the political class in a democracy. I strongly disagree to such violent protests. But surprisingly, everyone I talk to seems immensely satisfied with what an insane sardar did to an all powerful politician. Someone remarked, Pawar’s face already looks like it was slapped a hundred times before, Harvinder should have gone for some other neta. Anna Hazare infamously remarked “was it only one slap?” . Some said Pawar sahab should have, as a true democrat, shown his other cheek. Some went on an uncontrollable bout of laughter after watching the clip.Some one went on to make a bizarre kolaveri version of the whole incident.The social media was having a gala time laughing it out.
But every politician cutting across party lines stood united in condemning this insane act as they easily could have been at the receiving end any other day. The Bollywood bandwagon instantly united as usual to tweet its condemnation to make sure they are in the good books of the Bombay strongman. The media was abuzz with the regular self styled upholders of democratic values fighting for space to decry the slap. As expected, Pawars’ NCP went on a rampage in Maharashtra by stone pelting and destroying public property in protest against this undemocratic act.
But beyond all these, I saw a dangerous reaction in the face of so many Indians- a smile! Happy to know that there are still sardars like Jarnail and Harvinder, who can do things that we can never dare to with our sanity intact.
We call ourselves sane...yet we are insane enough to remain silent and put up with the misdeeds of our politicians. They say Harvinder Singh is mentally insane…
But does it mean, sometimes you have to be insane to do the right thing? What do you say?
