Goat, Tiger and Grass stack
I am reminded of a puzzle my father
gave me to solve when I was in the third standard. This was about the goat,
tiger and the grass stack to be ferried across the river in a basket boat that
had space only for two occupants. Since the boatman had to be a constant
fixture, he had to make three trips to ferry all three to the other shore. The
problem was he could not leave the tiger with the goat or the goat with the
grass on either shore .If he took the goat leaving the tiger and the grass, on
his next trip, he faced the choiceless choice of leaving either the grass stack
with the goat or the tiger with the goat which would provide a sumptuous repast
for one of the two- the goat or the tiger. The puzzle remained unsolved till my
father told me that the key to the solution was the space for two in the boat.
I leave the puzzle at this point to you to solve the boatman’s predicament.
This puzzle sums up the political puzzle of electing our next President where
the space is limited to one alone. We have a Bengali versus another Bengali (Pranab
vs Somnath), a Muslim technocrat versus a Muslim diplomat (Kalam vs Ansari), a
SC versus a ST (Meira Kumar vs Sangma) or PM (Manmohan Singh) versus PM(Pranab
Mukherjee). It is ludicrous to renominate Abdul Kalam. Even assuming him to be
a role model, in this country with a billion people can’t there be two Kalams
but only one? M&M have muddied the waters for the BJP and AIADMK to fish in troubled waters while Congress continues
testing the waters in an effort to reach a consensus. The puzzle remains
unsolved unless the boat(wo)man comes up with a trump ace.
The Congress has been put in a quandary despite the
fact that M&M are in agreement with Madame Sonia that PM should be the 13th
President. M&M say that PM shall be the next President while Sonia’s choice
is also PM-(Pranab Mukherjee). Our desi M&M, like the American M&M
(candies with letter ‘m ’printed on one side) that fills candy shells with a
variety of colorful chocolate centres has made the President’s post an empty
shell into which they can have their signature fillings. M&M’s personal
bitterness, inflated ego and vaulting ambition have left a bitter taste not just
for the government in power, but for the whole nation. While politicians take
umbrage in the saying that there are no permanent friends or foes in politics,
this does not give license to political leaders to don the robes of an Assange
and leak out what transpired in a one-to-one meeting with the host who had invited
them. Since Sonia had not revealed the names till there was a consensus, it is
downright chicanery on the part of the Bengal M to make the names public. As
for the other M, he thinks it morally right to run with the hare and hunt with
the hound. Seated next to Sonia on the anniversary bash of UPAII, he led her
along the garden path assuring her of his support. Congress was lulled into
complacency without noticing his newfound bonhomie with his counterpart M. The two M’s have displayed crass
Machiavellianism, in their employment of cunning and duplicity
in statecraft and in general conduct. It would have been in order to
list out their preferences to the UPA chief as they are still its allies. They have a right to make their choice public
but they have no right to make Sonia’s choice public. It is an act of betrayal-
something we Indians have to be wary of as we had allowed the Mughal and the
Britsh conquest through the internecine betrayal and rivalry of the Hindu
rulers. The BJP has had a martyred grievance that it had not been approached by
the arrogant Congress, forgetting that even before the race to Raisina Hill
began, Madame Swaraj decisively ruled out support to any Congress nominee-especially
Pranab as a Congressman and Ansari as a man of no substance. Its frequent
assertions that we will keep our cards close to our chest and will play a wait
and watch game show scant respect for the high office of the President.
Congress may now feel back stabbed by M&M, but it has no one to blame
except itself. Unlike other times as in the Lokpal Bill, FDI in Retail, NCTC, FDI
in Pension, this time it had been assiduously working to take the allies with
it, but it failed to see M&M”s writing on the wall.
While
our political pundits discuss the fallout of M&M’s googly, what is most
distressing is that the highest office of the president has been cheapened
through murky intrigues and unscrupulous wheeler dealers. It is unfortunate
that in the last few weeks’ debate about the next President, no one talked
about what qualities are required to be the President of India, but only in
terms of minority, caste, religion, gender and de facto domicile(from North or
South or East or West or North-East of
India.). It is sad that we cannot expect our politicians to leave aside their
personal and party prejudices to look for a President who has faith in our
people, in our Parliament, empathy and compassion, honesty and integrity,
courage of conviction founded upon social and moral responsibility. The political drama or tamasha has shown that
our politicians are not looking for a person of erudition and wisdom who will
bring back a humane, ethical and moral society.
Indian Republic today needs an active President
who will lead the bickering politicians to replace their present trend of
packaging humanity into politics by packaging politics into humanity. Can we
expect our politicians to give up their egoism, vaulting ambition and mindless
intrigues and showcase to the world that parliamentary democracy in India is
strong and vibrant. Democracy that is principled on unity amongst diversity can
be best illustrated through the Presidential election in the coming weeks. Let us
hope that our political class displays maturity and not play musical chairs to
grab the sole seat nor play a game of chess to capture power nor resort to
gamesmanship for the sole purpose of defeating the opponents, but play fair and
square true to the highest principles of democracy
.
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