Privilege motions relate to privileges enjoyed by members of Parliament and legislative assemblies and woe to the man who breach them. Legislators irrespective of party affiliations are not beyond ganging up to protect their privileges. Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan, however, might not get that privilege, not when the issue is Sabarimala and it involves a police officer acting under the orders of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who has his privileges to consider. The charge against Superintendent of Police Yateesh Chandra is that he “misbehaved” with Pon R and his “body language” was insulting.

To the aam hoi polloi, police misbehaviour is a daily occurrence as it is standard behaviour for the police. And "this Yateesh Chandra police” is “Dirty Harry” on the rolls of the IPS. He doesn’t make a distinction. He has gone after the left and left of centre with the same lathi and it didn’t make a difference. It is only the right (BJP) which has taken exception to his tone and tenor. Soon after his encounter with Pon R, Chandra was made Trichur SP and given a "medal" by Pinarayi. Now, Yateesh Chandra’s “conduct” is subject of scrutiny and it is to be seen whether Pon R gets “justice.”

The problem is these are “toxic” days and there is a lot of “misinformation” floating in the form of “fake” news, the “post-truth.” Whether SP Yateesh Chandra speaks in a certain way with a body language that is offending, even if without intention, will be weighed against Minister Pon R’s body language and language delivery. Pon R is that sort of man descended from ape who is so soft-spoken that those who hear him are liable to misread him. Yateesh Chandra did and that is his undoing.

Which brings us to UPA Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and NDA Prime Minister Narendra Modi, their conduct in so far as relations with the Press are concerned. Singh has been ridiculed by media and rival politicians as “Maun Mohan Singh”, for being “silent” on “toxic” corruption. Singh took that on the chin and kept walking the talk in his own “less said the best” manner of conduct. Singh’s diction and delivery is largely fashioned by his role as distinguished professor before he became RBI Governor and Prime Minister. RBI governors are preferred to remain silent bots as recent ones will attest.

Compare PM Singh with PM Modi and the latter cannot be halted for being scarce with words. They roll off his tongue in pearls of wisdom. The tone at times conspiratorial. Modi delivers from the stage and it’s always a one-man show. Modi avoids the bunched Press like a plague. He hasn’t held a presser to a hall since takeover in 2014, preferring one-on-one with select editors of friendly media. “Maun” Mohan Singh held midair press briefings on the way back from foreign lands. To the professor in him, journalists with their questions were no different from college students with queries. Simple!

Modi is once bitten twice shy several times over. The Press kept him chained to Gujarat 2002 to such an extent and for so long that he probably shakes in his designer-pyjamas whenever he pictures a bunched press throwing questions at him. His “conduct” past and present likely to be questioned. In that he is unlike POTUS Donald Trump, who is to media what bee is to bonnet, not averse to facing the Press inside or outside the White House press briefing room, his hair an orange frame of defiance, his words red hot Republican! Nothing scares Trump – neither hurricane nor Stormy Daniels!

But Trump and Modi draw a parallel. They both talk to the “people” directly, Trump with twitter and Modi with Man Ki Baat. Trump and Modi also rail at rallies and brag at them, too. And it is at rallies that they go after rivals with words and body language that will teach a thing or two about privileges and conduct to Pon Radhakrishnan and SP Yateesh Chandra. “Conduct” is the word which explains the “silence” of prime ministers, which of them with action and conduct heard the silent cries of the lambs, the perennial sacrificial lambs – the Aam Aadmi! (IPA Service)