From sab chor hain to PM is Shikhandi,Team Annas desperation is showing When Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan called the prime minister Shikhandi,he took the discussion on corruption to a new level of irresponsibility. Shikhandi,a character in the Mahabharata,was of indeterminate gender. On the battlefield,Shikhandi was used as a shield by Arjuna,as he felled Bhishma,the invincible warrior,who was on the side of the evil forces in this most epic of good-versus-evil battles,and who would not take up arms against a woman. Only Bhushan can explain the appropriateness of the parallel he draws between the character in the epic and the PM. If the PM is Shikhandi,who is todays Bhishma Pitamah? And Arjuna? Whats clear is only this: Bhushan doesnt quite know his Mahabharata but he certainly knows the use of the sly slur and the cheap shot. Whats also clear is this: the discussion and debate on an issue as consequential as corruption is too important to be left to those who can trivialise it in this way. Bhushans ill-fitting metaphor is not incidental,it is part of a pattern made up of Team Annas unending overreach and lack of rigour. Having propagated the sab chor hain line on corruption and having recently included Manmohan Singh on its hit list,Team Anna is confronted with a problem: how to make their charges of corruption stick to the PM. Therefore,the flailing about for names to call him in the hope that the noise and fury of their attack will mask the lack of relevance or meaning. Their Lokpal dreams on hold,Team Anna now wants a grand SIT they have even named the retired judges they want on it to slay the entire cabinet at one go. Such bizarre logic not only undermines the very cause they claim to fight,it also erodes the teams own credibility or whatever is left of it. The signs are already clear. Team Anna is losing the support that it and some TV channels had boasted of in the early months of its mobilisation. So,for its own sake,it must step back,take a break and come back stronger in both reality and myth.
