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Boxing to instructions?

Sushma Swaraj is either boxing to instructions, or keen to convince the party leadership that she is also quite capable…

Boxing to instructions?

Sushma Swaraj (Photo: PIB)

Sushma Swaraj is either boxing to instructions, or keen to convince the party leadership that she is also quite capable of “playing dirty” in the vote-garnering game.

Either way, she has descended to uncharacteristic depths when relying upon a four-year-old incident to “attack” Meira Kumar, then Speaker of the Lok Sabha and presently the Opposition’s nominee in the Presidential election. Admittedly the healthy tradition of not dragging the Presiding Officers of Parliament into political controversy was junked long ago, but even by contemporary yardsticks raking up an old issue against a person no longer holding office is unacceptable.

Swaraj ought to have moved a no-confidence against the Speaker immediately after the allegedly offensive incident, not tried to spin a politically-calculated tale of woe years thereafter.

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The controversy dates back to Swaraj, as Leader of the Opposition, resorting to disruptive tactics, and the Speaker frequently interrupting her when she tried to defend the tactics: tactics that have since become the norm in the apex legislature.

In trying to prove herself “one of the boys” Swaraj had clearly overdone things ~ particularly when contrasted with how her predecessor as LOP, LK Advani, had marshalled the troops.

Although Swaraj has excelled herself when putting a human face to the external affairs ministry ~ which the Prime Minister has recently lauded ~ her political track-record is not consistently sublime.

Doordarshan’s women news-readers will recall the “conservative” dress code she had imposed on them when I&B minister, a rash remark by her (when holding the same office) had stymied Atal Behari Vajpayee’s peace initiative at the Agra summit, it was as chief minister of Delhi that Swaraj had led the BJP out of the Old Secretariat.

And if a Speaker’s action can be subsequently used for politicking, Mrs Sumitra Mahajan has invited considerable flak now that the Pandora’s Box that has been opened by Sushma.

Is the BJP/NDA afraid that the Presidential contest could be “closer” than initially imagined, hence the resort to personal muck-raking? It matters little who threw the first foul punch, reducing that poll to the depths plumbed in 2014 will be a matter of national shame.

As the ruling party the BJP has a responsibility to avert the kind of low-level scraps it has relished in recent times. Some limits of decency must be maintained in the race to Raisina Hill.

Sushma must be careful that a personal angle, a gender dimension is not added to what is dubbed as a Dalit versus Dalit, Bihari versus Bihari affair. Considering that her name was among those mentioned in NDA circles before Ram Nath Kovind got the nod, she must not invite the charge she is upset because it will be in another woman’s name that some votes will be cast.

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