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Journalism of Courage
BJP quibbles over Pranabs signature,Congress wanted JPC to call Fernandes and Vajpayee
It was always clear that the presidential contest is going to be more revealing for its process than its outcome. Now,the BJPs prolonged carping on the matter of Pranab Mukherjees signature is threatening to turn it into a marker of graceless politics. Admittedly,Purno Sangma is faced with an unenviable task. To make a dent,or even to attract notice to his candidature,Sangma must make a noise,kick up some dust. Yet to insist,in the face of Mukherjees denials,that the signature on his letter of resignation from the Kolkata-based Indian Statistical Institute is forged,is to scrape the bottom of the barrel of oppositional tactics and stratagems. But the BJP is not alone in its small-mindedness. Including the names of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former defence minister George Fernandes in the now withdrawn list of witnesses to be summoned by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the spectrum allocation scam,has cast unflattering light on the Congress as well. The threat to put in the dock two senior leaders,confined to their homes because of illness and age,is spectacularly insensitive.
The Congress must ask itself if it is living up to the reputation it has so assiduously courted for NAC-style political correctness. And the BJP must wonder whether it is paying too high a price for what seems to be an outsourcing of its presidential campaign strategy to Subramanian Swamy who has patented the personalised political ambush. In a mature polity,the rules of engagement dont need to be spelt out or written down. They must be observed because it would be indecent not to.
