EVKS Elangovan alone to blame for fracas

The political scene in the state has descended to unplumbed depths in coarseness. And one man is to blame for it — the state president of the Congress party, E.V.K.S. Elangovan, who is in the crosshairs for vituperative comments which really had no place in the public sphere. His protestations of innocence and the tired old line about being misunderstood do not pass the test in an era in which every word uttered is available in the media.

The pity is there is no subtlety in the way he said the things he did. They were as crude as they were unworthy of a political leader to cast personal aspersions, that too on the Prime Minister of the country and a Chief Minister of a state. It is not as if Elangovan were a Gore Vidal delivering a withering one-liner parting shot like the writer did at Truman Capote when he said his demise was a good career move.

What Elangovan said was very similar to the comment Nick Krygios made on the tennis court a couple of weeks ago to open up the debate about the general poor sportsmanship of the era. The boundaries are being stretched everywhere in this era of the social media in which every citizen has a medium to vent his anger and his angst and to pour out his frustrations. Even so, what the politician said goes far beyond the pale of decency.

History may show that even such a respected politician like C.N. Annadurai, one of the pillars of the Dravidian movement and a scholar, had said something very similar about Pandit Nehru and Sirimavo Bandaranaike. But that was in the early 1960s when the age of political correctness was not yet upon us. Also, it was said in a closed party meeting and word got to the media only as a kind of political joke rather than serious comment.

In today's environment when everything gets into the visual medium, social and / or print media and any word uttered in public is available for instant dissemination and response and reaction, what the Congress man said was a crudity we could very well have done without. The futility of it will be clear when you consider snide remarks do nothing to change the equation on the ground, neither in politics nor with the people.

Elangovan is no Donald Trump at election time trying to pick up some rating points by a deliberate spreading of vicious misogyny. A party already reduced to absolute political irrelevance in the state has nothing to gain from an indecent remark aimed at those who are occupying the highest offices today. The sheer illogic of imputing connotations to a meeting suggests a perversity of mind in the mind of the observer as well as misogyny that is weird in these liberated times.

The vitriol and spite of bloggers, the twitterati and facebook fans are not for a politician who is leading a responsible party that had enjoyed decades of power to know what it is to be in power and how it works when you are in the opposition. Elangovan's leader, Rahul Gandhi, may sound like a stuck record in his 'suit-boot ka sarkar' and 'kurta-pyjama' alternatives.

But there is some logic to the imagery of criticism sought to be brought out in such descriptions.

What Elangovans said was an outright crudity. The deliberateness behind what were not some unthinking, off-the-cuff, in the heat of the moment remarks was made apparent in a press conference at which he poured in some more vitriol in more personal comments aimed at the Chief Minister. Regardless of how standards may have slipped in public life, what we need is far better public space and a far higher philosophy than this.