Friday, 15 June 2012

Goat, Tiger and Grass stack


                                                                        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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