It is this group's thought process, ideals and philosophies that course through the veins of India's elected government. And it is this that is holding the government, and through it the country, to ransom.'
As I write this, a full 48 hours have passed since the orchestrated assault on journalists inside New Delhi's Patiala House court complex on Monday. In this time, neither the prime minister nor the information and broadcasting minister and his junior minister -- all loquacious gentlemen, both online and off -- have uttered a single word condemning the attacks.
Why should they react to each and every violent incident, I can hear the supporters of this dispensation scream. And there is this argument, obviously coming from a federal high horse: Law and order is a state subject, should the Union government intervene every time something happens somewhere?
As for the first line of defence, while it is true that the central government has many things to bother about other than a violent incident in a court complex, Monday's event was not just another fracas that this country is full of.
It was not a random attack, but an assault on the Press (spelt with a capital P). Which, for the benefit of an inexperienced bunch, is the fourth pillar of democracy, the other three being the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary.
Ordinarily, an attack on any of these pillars is a matter of grave concern, but not so to our Facebooking, blogging, tweeting ministers and their ilk.
The inference from such silence can only be: Either their silence is a sign of their tacit approval for the attack on the media -- 'news traders', the prime minister had himself described the fourth estate to us as early as 2009, when he was campaign manager for a man he was to cast aside five years later; and to one of his ministers goes the eternal credit of dubbing us 'presstitutes', oh, such is the high regard they hold the fourth estate in -- or, they believe the media -- English media, specifically -- deserves the beatings.
As for the second argument trotted out by the apologists of the dispensation, the federal line, it doesn't hold, especially since the I&B minister was not constrained by any such principle when two of Times Now correspondents were beaten up in Uttar Pradesh earlier this month. 'Attack on journalists in Uttar Pradesh is condemnable. An independent probe into the incident should be carried out,' he had tweeted then.
Alas, a more egregious attack happens in the nation's capital, inside the court premises, at a time when the I&B minister was physically present in the court, and yet he finds no time, or words, to condemn the attack.
The inference is clear. This government has taken the George W Bush line, from another era, another war, to heart. Either you are with them, or against them.
This is the doctrine that runs through this government's interactions and dealings with the other three pillars of democracy.
It is this very same 'with us or against us' doctrine that has paralysed Parliament into a standstill, its legislative powers suborned by the arrogance of parliamentary numbers unseen in 30 years.
Homilies aside about the greatness of democracy, the need for consensus, an inclusive India, all of which is geared to an audience in world capitals where alone this government measures its worth, for those of us in India it has been week after week of the sorry sight of an administration that knows not how to administer, a government ill-equipped to govern, ministers powerless and speechless before the Prime Minister's Office
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