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Journalism of Courage
His right to express himself is getting PMji into a fine mess. Every now and then, when PMji opens his mouth to say something, he promptly puts both feet right into it. Things have got to such a pass that when PMji is slated to say something, the fire brigade, the PMO, the riot police, the diplomatic corps, and the Indian Army are put on high alert to deal with the aftershocks. Of course, fluffing one8217;s lines has come to be the ultimate badge of leadership ever since George W. Bush demonstrated eloquently that to be the most powerful man in the world only requires an IQ of 10 and verbal skills that could compete with Donald Duck8217;s on a good day. I mean, here is a man who has the power to blast the world to smithereens and who can still assure us that the 8216;8216;future will be better tomorrow8217;8217;, presumably because we would have ripped down all those terrible 8216;8216;terriers and barriffs8217;8217;.
Given this reality, why are we getting so worked up over PMji8217;s verbal volatility, you may well ask. Why indeed? I have, nevertheless, come up with some suggestions that PMji could consider in order to avoid retracting, refuting, retro-fitting his statements, day after day.
PMji must think before he talks: Now this is a fairly straightforward prescription. At present PMji takes about five minutes between sentences. I would suggest that he extend the pauses by another 25 minutes. These half hour gaps will have two useful consequences. It will mean that by the time he gets around to articulating what he meant to articulate, he would have forgotten what it was. Also, by the time he gets around to doing this, the rest of us would be in deep slumber and will not therefore accuse him later of communal viciousness, constitutional impropriety, or any of the numerous charges that have been recently laid at his door.
PMji must consider renaming the PMO: The PMO or the Prime Minister8217;s Office is deemed to represent the Prime Ministerial Brain. It is expected to protect PMji from any harm he may inflict upon himself or the nation by his rhetorical reverberations. The PMO must henceforth be reconstituted as the Prime Minder of Oratory. Its chief function would then be to interpret the prime minister to the nation. To do this, it must first interpret the prime minister to the prime minister, so that he can come to a conclusion about whether he is a swayamsewak or chief guardian of the Constitution. Above all, the PMO would be required to solve complex epistemological riddles like whether the PM had said 8216;8216;Muslims8217;8217; or 8216;8216;some Muslims8217;8217; in Goa.
PMji must use simple words: Since PMji cannot utter a word without causing serious confusion, he must consciously eschew complex, Sanskritised terms. The fact that he does this while making particularly important interventions with international repercussions, does not help. If he can8217;t speak simply, he must at least ensure simultaneous translating facilities every time he says something. Take the word pratikar used last week. The word means 8216;revenge8217; quite simply, but PMji did not actually mean it to mean 8216;revenge8217;. He clarified this later after various foreign news agencies had concluded that India was on the verge of avenging itself by declaring war.
Finally, PMji must remember eating one8217;s words is an art: There are numerous ways of doing it effortlessly 8212; and it8217;s best to chew 30 times before swallowing them, even if an occasional noun or adjective may still stick in the throat. But, like they say, when you make a retraction it only means that you have 8216;reconsidered8217; the issue. When your opponents do it, it means that they are double-faced, double-tongued blackguards who have 8216;gone back on their word8217;.
