Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Poor Shri So-and-so,” I start the discussion while out on a stroll with my friend Gokuldas. “His resignation was accepted, promptly. Nobody showed deep dismay at his act. Nor did anyone tell him that he was indispensable, that the organisation would flounder if he were to quit and beseeched him to reconsider his decision. No army of shouting-screaming party workers surround his house, shouting slogans in his praise.”
“Don’t you get the message?” Gokuldas asks. “What message?” “The message that So-and-so is not a real VIP,” he replies. “So there are VIPs and VIPs?” I roll my eyes. “Of course! I know for sure that the person who are speaking of is not a blue-blooded VIP,” Gokuldas says.
“Would you define a blue-blooded VIP?” I finally corner him. “He is one who readily offers his resignation because he knows it will never be accepted,,” says Gokuldas. “It is only the real VIP whose effigy is burnt when some action or statement of the leader nettles a section of the populace and the aggrieved people take to the streets to record their resentment in no uncertain terms,” says Gokuldas. “The real VIP does not have to spend money to acquire even costly things? I read, about twenty years back, the late Moshe Dayan, the one-eyed general of Israel, managed to collect rare artifacts without paying for them. He would walk into a shop, spot an item that caught his fancy, enquire its price, issue a cheque for the amount payable and the object would be delivered at his place. But the shopkeeper never presented the cheque for payment. He chose to retain the cheque which in his view was more precious than the amount endorsed on the cheque.”
He continues: “It is only the real VIP who is rushed, even when he complains of dizziness, due to strain, airlifted to Delhi and admitted in a leading hospital, placed under the care of the best of doctors. And It is only the VIP who can go back on his words without fear of reprisal. He knows that he has, if I may parody Robert Frost, miles to go and promises to break with immunity.”
I spot the glint in his eye and concede that that he has proved his case extremely well.
