My letter to the editor which was not good enough, i guess :-(.But why waste the effort. So here it is, whether it is good enough for the blogsphere or not :-)
Much can be said on both sides regarding the Shashi Tharoor Twitter issue.
One must remember that Mr. Tharoor is an Indian English writer and enjoys a very high level of comfort in the English language. It is the writer in him and his keen sense of humour that caused him to succumb to the temptation of making a humorous rejoinder to a query, by playing on the image evoked by the term ‘cattle class’. The Party should have taken this witticism in the spirit in which it was said and ignored it, instead of blowing it out of proportion.
On his part, Mr. Tharoor should remember that he is more than a writer now. He is the representative of the people whose sensibilities he should be careful not to offend. He is also a high profile Minister, the cynosure of media attention and the hope of young India which looks upon him as one of the new breed of politicians handpicked to give a makeover to the image of India as an emerging world power. The responsibilities on him as a politician, a leader, and a party man demand he develops a sense of political propriety rooted in an awareness of socially and culturally sensitive issues and of the culture of the political party which gave him a ticket.
There are many expressions in the English language - like pariah and coolie for examples- which are accepted words in the English language but hardly ever make their appearance in the Indian print media, though they are used freely outside India. It is the sensitivity of the scribes to the connotations and associations of these words in the Indian context that has caused these words to almost disappear from the public sphere in India.
Now that Mr. Tharoor has chosen a career in politics, he should take a lesson from this discretion shown by the journalists in the use of words for public consumption. He has to be politically correct always. It will do him good to learn the art of becoming a successful Indian politician. The manner in which he conducts himself as the member of the Congress party will decide his political future.
Exactly!
ReplyDeleteHe has to take a good few flights of steps down, to make himself op par with the current set of Kaangress politicians. Anyway the issue is now zipped up and the High Command has seen the pun in it. RIP..
You are a very unfair person. You make a post on a very juicy topic and then just as we are really getting into the fistfights, you make the next post and take the attention away. Unfair, very unfair.
ReplyDeleteI kind of agree, as a public figure and a politician he better watch out for those who would love to twist every word he utters...
ReplyDeletea successful indian politician!!what do u mean by that?.. you want him to be as rotten as the rest of them?u break my heart,kpj.he is not fit material for that game.he's going to keep on stirring hornets nest.the likes of him stand no chance.
ReplyDelete@chinny
ReplyDeletedont agree with u. think he'll come around. at least he'll watch out for what he says. after all he is a super diplomat.
why else do u think he entered politics if not to stay there.see what happened to the firebrand Alphonse kannanthanam after he entered politics.
@ scorpiogenius & indianhomemaker
i see that u agree with me. if u enter politics, if u r a public figure, you better obey the rules-or get rejected.
@anonymous
who is standing in the way of the fist fight?
i am more than enjoying it. i'm getting enlightened - - -
Hmm. But it would appear that you sometimes get all emo and up, when one of the fists hit you once in a while. ..
ReplyDeleteNothing personal, ma'm ... It's just business[sic, Godfather]. ;)
I went to a government Lower Primary School. The bicycle was the dream vehicle then. Only a couple of teachers had them and they were very proud of it.
ReplyDeleteA gold merchant's son joined the 3rd Standard. He used to be dropped in his father's car. Some of us used to go and touch the car. He used to wear costly dress. We had not heard of uniforms then.
A few of the teachers and pupils became his admirers. But many others tended to taunt him and were mercilessly caned for it.
It was just ordinary school bullying. However, from the next year, that boy came down to our levels, wore less flashy dress, and was dropped by car less often. The bullying ceased.
Tharoor is only being bullied. He can very easily come down to our levels of hypocrisy [though hopefully, not of corruption]. The bullying will cease then.
But he cannot give up his intellectual eminence and scholarship; he might play them down and join the 'cattle' [kannaali] in the Class.
Despite everything, he would still win hands down from anywhere in Kerala. The women voters from the LDF families would still silently ensure it, as they did at Trivandrum.
But he should tread very carefully in the Congress party. He has enemies all around waiting to pull him down, out of pure jealousy.
I am curious if you will take up the Sister Abhaya case anytime.
ReplyDeletewell said....part of it may be due to tharoor's background.
ReplyDeleteMy take on this issue:
http://anshumanblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/to-kill-twitterbird-tales-from-ivory.html
Sashi Tharoor's sarcastic comment reflects his objection to the austerity measures taken by the Govt. A pamphered rich man's reaction when he looses some of his comforts. Apart from his looks and language skills I cannot see anything special in him.
ReplyDeleteHi, Some one from facebook refereed your link i have book marked it nice blogs you write see Free how to grow twitter followers here
ReplyDelete