Light Elements
One should not have any objection to the politician, [I mean
minister, mayor, sarpanch (why not ?), leader of the opposition either ex or
existing or any other political personality] being invited for inaugurating a
conference wherein professionals deliberate upon some aspects of ‘legislation’
made by them. Of course they represent ‘us’, the people of this country.
Ironically, more often than not their standing in the public life is a cause of
concern for the intellectuals. Normally, they assume any crowd be it
intellectual or non-intellectual as their potential vote bank. Most of the time
they try to score out their political opponents through their speeches. They are
always in election mood. But the organisers have different perspective. They
feel that the conference should be inaugurated at the auspicious hands of that
political figure.
While giving a brief profile of the owner of the auspicious
hands, sometimes the overenthusiastic organiser makes us feel ‘unlucky’ by
disclosing the fact that he, I mean that political figure, had the ambition of
becoming CA, but alas he is a mayor, minister or somebody politically worth at
the given point of time . Here the organiser gains loud “laugh” [not applause]
in the auditorium. But the organiser does not stop here. He begins ‘sheroshayari’
in Hindi, the national language, to appease the political figure. I think the
trait of appeasement runs through the blood of Indians.
For them it is prestigious to get the conference inaugurated
at the ‘auspicious’ hands of a ‘political figure’. Fine enough up to this stage,
but when the organisers dare the audience to listen to the speech through the
‘auspicious’ mouth of the political figure, it’s a nightmare.
Recently I happened to be a participant in a conference held
in the metro city, where I heard this speech of the political figure. I
reproduce some funny statements made by him after thanking the dozens of
dignitaries on the dais :
“So this conference is organised by so and so (name of the
city) chartered accountants’ ‘firm’ (the conference was organised by the
branch of the Institute). The firm has done very good job for the benefit of
all coming from different parts of the country. [in fact audience consisted of
local members of the Institute and faculty were from the different parts of
the country right from Delhi to Kanyakumari] This conference is held at the
right time to know how to deal with global recession [I was floored, since the
faculty were supposed to deal with Income Tax law which has no connection with
global recession]. Chartered accountants render great service to the society.
They help us to file our return of income under income tax. They guide us how
to borrow from the banks. They are the backbone of Indian economy. They are
agents of the Government of India. I promise to give any help to them. I wish
them great success and great future. I once again thank the organisers for
inviting me to inaugurate this conference. (note that this statement was made
intermittently throughout the speech) . . . . .”
Peculiarity of Indian politicians is that they never
attend any function without ‘slogan shouting squad’, I mean supporters because
of fear of ‘protesters’. Normally they attend the function as late as they
could. Nowadays there is a display of high security exercise by the police
department, like sniffer dogs, security check from toe to head, police personnel
holding sten-guns, cavalcade of cars topped with red lights. If you ask what
threat you would perceive from professionals like us, you are scoffed at by
saying, “We are helpless, it’s routine security matters”.
At the end of the day you have to accept the ‘odd man in’.
