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 | Scapegoats galore: Sonia is guiltier than Patils, Deshmukh Our Correspondent The term scapegoat has an interesting history. According to www.wikipedia.org, "The scapegoat was a goat that was driven off into the wilderness as part of the ceremonies of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, in Judaism during the times of the Temple in Jerusalem... Since this goat, carrying the sins of the people placed on it, is sent away to perish, the word 'scapegoat' has come to mean a person, often innocent, who is blamed and punished for the sins, crimes, or sufferings of others, generally as a way of distracting attention from the real causes." The term scapegoat fits perfectly to describe the story of Shivraj Patil, Vilasrao Deshmukh and RR Patil. Yes, they have erred ignominiously; Shivraj Patil made himself the butt of jokes by pursuing a sartorial perfection in times of crises and frequently issuing idiotic statements. Deshmukh and RR Patil also besmirched themselves by not restraining that vile thug, Raj Thackeray; in fact, they covertly supported him. And, of course, they also proved to be absolutely unprepared to face terror. By any reckoning, the three are grossly incompetent. But, paradoxical though it may sound, their incompetence proved to be their USP; in the case of Shivraj Patil, it was particularly true. Shivraj Patil's only qualification to occupy the high office was that he is a loyalist of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. He has no mass base; he could not even win his own Lok Sabha seat. This was the reason that Congress president Sonia Gandhi made him Home Minister. Yeah, that's right; let's stop believing in the fiction called prime minister's prerogative. Patil proved to be as pliant as she had wanted him to be. This was the reason he was persisted with, despite continuous demands for his dismissal by not only the Opposition but also Congress leaders and important allies. But suddenly, She-who-must-be-obeyed has realised that "decisive action" is needed. At the recent Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, she said, "We can no longer sit back and let these attacks overwhelm us... The nation is looking to us for decisive action and determined leadership." Her cheerleaders in the media and other opinion-making apparatus are likely to hail her "determined leadership." Few are likely to ask a simple question: why was he allowed to carry on for so long? One can expect her quandary vis-à-vis Telecom Minister A Raja and Health Minister A Ramadoss; she has to tolerate the idiosyncrasies, idiocies and improprieties of allies; but in the case of Patil, there was no pressure on her to persist with him. Further, all his acts of omission and commission were ordered by her; he was just a puppet. Puppets have become scapegoats. Posted on : 12/6/2008 Mail this article to your friend |