Theatre of the Absurd


A recently coined phrase by prime ministerial hopeful L K Advani at recent press conference got my political sense tingling a bit…..

I was quite surprised with the PM in waiting (Everyone is anticipating the date when his swearing in ceremony will take place) was making such a statement about the alliance in power. I think he needs to wind his clock a bit and remember the times his alliance was reduced to the Theatre of the Absurd……

Mr. Advani himself has been the head of many of the absurdness that took place at the time…. In 1998 he formed an alliance with the AIDMK to form the government…. But 1 year later when the alliance broke…. The power hungry BJP formed an alliance with the DMK…. A successful alliance that was…. Then fast forward to the 2004 general election a alliance was not formed again with the DMK but with the AIDMK, against the wishes of the then Prime Minister as he had shared a good personal relationship with Kurnanidhi… The reason for the alliance with the AIDMK will never be known in the public domain but it did show that the BJP was just like the Congress hungry for power…
It was only on Advani’s insistence and his advisor Gurumurthy that the alliance was formed again Jayalalitha……

In his book Mr. Advani writes that he was not in favor of releasing terrorists for the safety of Indians on board IC 814….. And he was not aware of the fact that the cabinet agreed to send Mr. Jaswant Singh to Kandhar for the release of the hostages…. First if Mr. Advani was not aware of the decision to send Mr. Singh then the people of India really need to question whether he had a say at all in important policy matters and if he did not agree with the decision why didn’t he resign as minister of the cabinet…… Here I would like to give the example of Robin Cook who resigned as foreign secretary as he did not agree with UK allying with the US for the war in Iraq and spoke quite openly in the British parliament against Tony Blair and the Government….
Could not have Mr. Advani not done the same for his ethics and principles…..

The alliance with the Trimanool Congress was nothing special as well…. The NDA government was also seen bickering on issue just as the Congress is on today’s date….
It is the problem of coalition politics and the two main political parties of our time trying to keep all their brothers and sisters happy!!!!

Even the well read and spoken about Jinnah controversy is a part of Mr. Advani’s flip-flop policy….. If he had given his resignation as party president he should should not have taken it back on the insistence of God alone knows whom……. His party was not with him at the time of crisis…… Agreed his speech was taken out of context but his main rivals used this opportunity to end his political career……..

Now that everyone is waiting for him to take be in the chair of power next year…. I wonder which type of theatre will he produce now…… Any takers for Theatre of the Opportunist!!!

Commercialization of Love!!!

Recently I made a trip to Agra, with office colleagues. For me it was my 4^th visit to the Taj and was not looking forward to the journey. For me it was a waste of a Sunday, on a day where I could put my feet up, enjoy a glass of beer and catch up with some necessary television time (for the fact there was nothing much to do in Aligarh). On insistence of my office colleagues I reluctantly got up at 6 am. 

To top it all our driver was a budding F1 race driver. His foot was like a brick on the accelerator and he would never use the brakes. Thank god for the breakfast stop at Priyanka hotel (which had a photograph of kareena ) where I had the oiliest but the best pharantas ever!!! After breakfast it was back on the roller coaster………..

We reached the Taj around 10 am….. Even before entering the gates our group were being approached by guides each shouting different rates for explaining the marvels of the Taj. We did not take the guide at the time thinking we would understand everything…. Plus we had a couple of non-virgins who had been to the Taj before….. After entering the gates even I realized that I also needed a refresher course on why is the Taj so famous…. The only problem which came up, two people ran to get guides each being successful of negotiating and getting one (enthusiastic first timers to the Taj)…. To my surprise both had licenses from the tourism but both had different rates for showing us around the monument of love…. After the bitter fight and settlement between the two guides we went around to see the Taj…..   For information of sake we paid 400 rupees for the guided tour….. After the guides we were being approached by professional photographers to get a click with the beauty in different filmy angles again rates being shouted loudly “only for 30 rupees, only for 100 rupees”….. Thankfully no one was interested in getting their photograph done professionally with the monument…… 

After our the 3 hour visit around the Taj….. We found a restaurant & bar right outside the Taj which served beer. So we non-virgins to Agra decided to sit down and drink…. So while the first-timers went to the Agra fort, I finally got to do what I always wanted on a Sunday drink beer and enjoy myself…… While drinking my second beer a thought struck me would Shahjahan want his love to be commercialized. He made the Taj for the world to appreciate the beauty of the monument and remember his love story forever…… But did he ever imagine that the monument for some have become a money making racket…. Even the guides would take us to shops outside the Taj so that they could earn a little commission. 

Is Love all About Money Honey???