The 26/11 Rally

In New Delhi, the Public Works Department planned to build bungalows for its ministers that would include, among other things, four garages [not a garage for four cars, note] and six quarters for domestic help [not quarters for six domestic help, note]. Also in New Delhi, while various Federal ministers wait – some of them in five star hotels - for alterations and upgrading of homes allotted to them, others occupy two bungalows at once. Staying in Delhi for a beat longer, the United Progressive Alliance is rocked not by issues of the magnitude of the nuclear deal or statements relating to peace talks with Pakistan but over the nonallocation of a bungalow to ally Trinamool Congress; elsewhere a former ally is up in arms because a leader who has been progressively decimated in successive elections has not been allotted a home befitting his ‘stature’ [Unlike another ‘leader’ who had started the year in hope that she would be, if not queen, at least a king-maker in Delhi, the aforesaid leader has no holiday home in conducive climes to hide out in]. The ruling Congress party – and its chairperson – made a virtue of austerity and ‘set an example’ for the rest of us spendthrifts [never mind that the point of the example is lost on us: Sonia Gandhi was travelling on party, not government, work; it would be the party that paid the bill, so why would I give a flying f**k whether she travelled economy or business, or bought a special plane just for the trip?]. Hopefully, the money saved by Sonia madam’s economy class flight ticket and Rahul baba’s much-publicized train travels will offset expenditures such as this small matter of Rs 100 crore to ‘repair and renovate’ official bungalows. The Opposition should be opposing – but then… oh never mind. Meanwhile in Mumbai, Home Minister P Chidambaram’s mea maxima culpa results most tangibly in the posting of some 30 CRPF jawans near the Taj Mahal Hotel. Their residence address: the cobblestoned paving of the public space near the Gateway of India. When news of this disgrace breaks in the media [video], the government reacts not with shame, and an awareness of what is owed those whom we entrust with our security, but with embarrassment. The jawans – all 30 of them – are hastily whisked out of sight in a fashion reminiscent of slumclearance drives and, by way of adding gratuitous insult to injury, are reprimanded for daring to embarrass the government. Oh well – at least their new lodgings are near a public toilet; they no longer will have to use a police van for such basic private functions as changing their underwear, so perhaps we are making progress after all. Excuse me, but I think I will spend this first anniversary of 26/11 following the cricket while allowing the commemorative noise pollution to pass me by.