... and politicians across the Board put their foot in their mouth

One of the positives in the gloom of last week is the mass public outrage at anyone of political ilk. I was at a public rally on Wednesday to show solidarity and for the first time in my life I saw Indian civilians with blood in their eyes. More than 100,000 people thronged the streets of South Mumbai shouting slogans against Pakistan and vilifying politicians.

It has not just been inaction of the government machinery that has stoked public anger but the foot-in-mouth statements made by politicians in the wake of the terror attacks, which spanned from inept to rude and from insensitive to shocking. Some creative minds have channelized this energy into some interesting posters which have been photographed by an anonymous person and which found their way to my inbox.

The Communists fell first. Comrade Achutanandan, the Kerala Chief Minister, was asked by slain soldier Maj. Unnikrishnan’s father to vacate his premises. Clearly not used to such snubs, our Comrade challenged a dog to visit the martyrs house had it not been for his sacrifice. To which our friends at the rally had this to say –

For my non-Hindi speaking / reading / understanding friends reading this blog, the breaking up of some of the syllables in the Comrades name, especially the part in between the two ‘a’s refers to a certain part of the female anatomy. Comrade still refused to apologise despite being criticised from all quarters. Finally Prakash Karat, the CPI supremo did the apologising.

Others (below) indicated that they prefer the canine.

Next caught with his pants down was Maharashtra Chief Minister, the Hon. Vilasrao Deshmukh, who invited Ram Gopal Verma (RGV), a Bollywood film-maker and his actor son, Ritiesh Deshmukh in his official entourage to survey the damage done to the Taj. RGV has in the past made movies like RGV ki Aag which you can review here. (Note - RGV ki Aag flopped at the Box Office). The move surprised even Bollywood. That resulted in this response –

And then from a respectable name, the meaning of which is analogous to ‘landlord’ his name was adapted, with a few nifty changes, and captured in the font of RGV’s previous movie posters, a name that means ‘a national fool!’

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the BJP Vice-President, had probably never interacted with the urban, educated and presentable woman before. When he saw some of them in media coverage deriding politicians he ejaculated (pun intended) ‘Some women wearing powder and lipstick have taken to the streets of Mumbai …” No specific interesting poster on this, but the remark drew the ire of women parliamentarians, some even from his own party.

The poster above summaries most of the blunders made by Indian politicians in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. It includes RR Patil, the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra saying that such things happen in big cities. In bizarre logic he justified the statement by indirectly saying that he had saved 4,800 people (They came to kill 5,000 we contained the damage to 200).

And this man was conspicuous by his absence – Raj Thakeray of the MNS did not mind as the NSG, which had North Indian representation, including the slain Gajendra Singh - who lost his life in the operation - protected our nation. But then stooping low as their wont, the MNS put up a poster outside Malad railway station clearly mentioning that three ‘Marathi’ top cops, Karkare, Kamte and Salaskar had gave up their life to protect outsiders and foreigners.

All the gentlemen above are however left far behind by the Hon. Shivraj Patil, who has been in stellar form, wearing his incompetence on his sleeve. In what can only be described as shocking, the Home Minister gaily announced the size and time of arrival of the assault team. Later, in an interview after his visit to Mumbai, Mr Patil told the media that the terrorists had left Cama Hospital and the railway station (both terror targets) before he had reached the site. Dear Shivraj, what were you smoking? Did you expect to have tea with the terrorists? Maybe you wanted meaningful intercourse as you indicated when you took charge of the Home Ministry.