Snail mail

Surprise comes from strange quarters sometimes. As the year 2010 and the first decade of the century wind up,we find ourselves richly entertained by the unlikely triad of the Union home ministry,the Indian postal service and the West Bengal government. Perhaps part of the hilarity is in our inability to ascribe blame for P. Chidambarams letter taking six days to reach the office of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. In the war of words and not just over the content and intent of the letter,which is another matter altogether it will take a while for the fog to lift. Nevertheless,the contents of the letter were in the public domain on Friday itself,although the Bengal government hadnt even received it yet.Alas,the travails and travels by ordinary speed post of the home ministers letter asking the chief minister to disarm the allegedly armed CPM cadres in Maoist-affected West Midnapore district rub off some of that bureaucratic embarrassment on us,the people of India. Should we rue the pervasive paralysis of our postal service? Or draw solace from the fact that it is the great leveller,now that the Union home ministry and a state government honour the list of its victims? And yet,the chief ministers office claims important letters from Delhi are also,additionally,faxed. That doesnt appear to have been done this time. Well,at least,Julian Assange wouldnt be able to poke his nose in our secret governmental communication,if such an apparent exception is the norm. Lost in these hows is the original show the whys and what. The CPMs less-than-peace-loving cadres in Bengal were not an open secret,they were out in the open for years,although the facts of this case are not clear. What we have clearly heard a lot,however,were Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjees wails about the harmad vahini. With the Bengal assembly polls so close,wouldnt there be some humouring of the Congress ally? If only they could convince her more about their earnestness!