Contrast,compare

What happened in Egypt was a rare and beautiful thing,and the world was transfixed by the spectacle of citizens who reclaimed their country from long dictatorship. As people tried to assimilate what happened in Tahrir Square,they have reached for historical parallels and homilies on what conditions create a revolution. The Egypt example has been seized upon in many places,as disaffected citizens protest their own regimes. And sometimes,its been invoked in preposterous ways. Mulayam Singh Yadav is trying to use large examples for little purposes,and looking rather ridiculous for it. Trying to energise his own party,Mulayam likened Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati to toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak,as he announced an agitation to protest her governance.

We will neither resort to violence nor accept it8230; the agitation should shake up the psyche of the corrupt and autocratic state government, he proclaimed. Never mind the fact that Egypt underwent 30 years of Mubaraks heavy rule,labouring under sweeping emergency laws,deprived of free expression and free elections. To compare that to UP,one of the most politically vital parts of this democracy,is absurd and funny. Mayawatis administration may have its excesses,but shes there because of the combined will of large parts of the UP electorate,the same electorate that decisively ejected the Samajwadi Party.

By borrowing the grand terms of the Egyptian example for his own limited grievances,Mulayam Singh only makes the SPs issues appear trivial.