Dear Messrs Fadnavis, Kejriwal, Nirmal Singh:
Please don't take umbrage at this and file a criminal defamation case against me.
I am just trying to figure out why, during what is called the silly season (summer downtime) of news, you guys are making yourselves look so silly (hope "silly" is not a criminal defamation suit-triggering word.)
Instead of tweeting about "I did not delay the plane" and "I never said I can only travel with my full delegation, offload all of us", shouldn't you have told your aide "you are a silly (oops, there it is again) fellow to have left your passport at home, so now as punishment, you stay behind"? You, Mr Fadnavis, would have been the hero of Mumbai, people would have flooded your Twitter timeline with praise. Instead, by behaving like a spoilt politician in power, you have cut a really silly (oops) figure, ranting and raving in multiple posts of 140 characters that "Enough is Enough" - which, needless to say it is. And by the way, why is it that you (in first class) and eight other worthies are headed to the US? I am sure it must be for the best of Maharashtra and farmers of the arid areas of the state will appreciate the effort expended by your team and you in New York.
Of course you, Mr Nirmal Singh, the well-known Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, are even less humble than Mr Fadnavis. Having joined your colleague Kiren Rijiju in ousting three passengers from the Leh flight and delaying it by an hour, you now want an investigation into why the pilot shut the door of the plane before you got there. But how silly - you answered the question yourself by saying you reached the airport at 10:48 am (what a precise fellow you are, I am sure you are like this in everything you do); the boarding card said 10:40 am. And BTW, as Deputy Chief Minister of the state, why were you flying in and out of Delhi, doesn't the weather of Srinagar suit you? And may be if you had hung around Leh another day you could have done something more for the betterment of the people, which I am sure is close to your heart.
And poor you Mr Ashok Gajapati Raju. As an unknown in a cabinet of others unknowns, you have suddenly been shunted into the limelight, having to apologise for politicians of your party using Air India as their private airline. But somewhere along the way, you have been silly (oops, so sorry, sir) enough to declare that not only are you a smoker, but that you carry a lighter and an ashtray (Swachh Bharat, no doubt) with you onto planes because you as a minister aren't frisked! As the Minister for Civil Aviation, how can you break the rules that your ministry has established? And it is a rather silly argument to make that lighters can't be used in hijacks! The reason a matchbox hasn't been used in hijack is that no airport allows them onto aircraft. BTW, can lighters and matches cause fires? Given that planes have synthetic carpets which are highly inflammable, you really make silly arguments for breaching the law.
And our friend Arvindji. It was very kind of you to provide free water and cheap electricity to the poor in Delhi. And what an example you set by saying no air conditioners for you and family. A real people's man. Of course we understood you needed to move from that modest Tilak Lane flat of your last tenure to this large Civil Lines bungalow to accommodate the thousands that visit you each day. Also you need space for the 70-odd personal staff you have now in your humble office. And so we can understand that to keep them in comfort, you need 70 kW of electricity for the office area, but why do you need 34kWh for your home?
Silly of me to ask, but there are no ACs in the house, right? And how could you run up a bill of Rs 22,689 in your home and a lakh plus in the residential office? I just paid my bill, where up to 3 ACs run at night, and the bill was Rs 15,668, so how could your home, Arvindji, a home without a single AC, have run up such a huge bill? I suggest you have the meter checked and file a corruption case against the the meter inspector. He is out to get you. Meanwhile, in your transparent and open manner of Government, could you, Arvindji, allow an independent Lokpal type come and verify whether you have ACs at home or not? I am sure you don't, but you know how maligning the media is. Meanwhile I guess the state will pay your bill of lakhs.
In the end, we, the foolish public, who were convinced that we were getting new, clean, honest, law-abiding governments when we elected you in the last year or so find that actually all you politicians are the same. You love power, and that power corrupts. How silly to have believed this time round things would be different.
We stand corrected.
(Ishwari Bajpai is Senior Advisor at NDTV)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.