But Abhijit should not be unduly pulled up for that. A much more suave Shashi Tharoor, a person with huge global experience, too suffered from similar unguarded comment when he tweeted sarcastically calling economy class as “cattle class”. A more recent example is that of a most decent person, Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s innocent poser to TV technicians, “Theek Hai”. Those who love to collect anecdotes will recall a controversy that was created by a statement of H R Bhardwaj on how brokers invaded every members of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s cabinet. Both Bhardwaj and Dr. Singh thought they were off the record while the televised programme carried their comments.

Why do public persons make comments, which they might regret later? Most commit the folly in their unguarded moment when they forget the straitjacketed life they live. For Prime Minister Singh it was a normal expression from a senior person after completion of recording of his speech. How will he know that a technical error will lead to the telecasting of his comment? If anybody is to be blamed, other than the recordists, it should be the PM’s personal staff. It was their responsibility to check and seek comments from the TV crew. Clearly the support staff did not act efficiently.

In case of Bhardwaj, it was an indiscretion to chat warmly to the interviewer of the Pritish Nandy show. When one is in a formal interview, one must never take chances and start gossiping. If Bhardwaj thought that he was speaking off the record, he should have moved away from the set before opening his mouth. He had to pay the price for the elementary mistake.

Shashi Tharoor thought his Twitter audience were his cronies who would enjoy a hearty laugh and leave it at that. He would have been right had there been restriction on followers in case of Twitter. But the dent in his image has become permanent of sorts. The elitist character of Shashi Tharoor, the politician, remains indelible.

Abhijit Mukherjee’s case is different. He cannot take refuge behind any alibi of innocent mistake. He was talking to some TV channel. And just imagine the number of mistakes he committed. First, take a look at his dress – the winter cap made him look as if he is straight from a comic movie. Despite having such an illustrious father, Abhijit is a clownish person who does not even know how not to appear before a camera.

Secondly, he cannot articulate his views even in Bengali. If one cares to listen to his entire comment, one will find an utter lack of tight logic or strong expression of view. At best, he was rambling incoherently but came across as venting personal venom against the agitators in Delhi. The utter lack of ability to communicate embarrassed his President father, which will be difficult to wish away soon.

Thirdly, Abhijit got exposed while other channels rushed for his clarification. His utter inability to use English as a medium of communication and keenness to appear in channels, only to be torn apart by well-known suave news anchors, made him a forlorn ridiculous figure. He should have issued a written statement, apologizing for the intemperate utterance and withdrawn completely from the channels. It would have even served had he tendered his resignation or at least offered to do so to the party High Command. Damage control is a difficult task.

Abhijit should have remembered that he was made an MP only because he is the son of Pranab Mukherjee. Any comment from him would harm his father’s carefully cultivated image. The fact that he winked at this critical aspect of his political life, and felt he was a public person on his own right, betrays his unmerited arrogance. Or, should one say intelligence?

This brings one to another critical issue of public life. Politicians create a constituency of their own and like to pass the same to their family members. The same logic saw Nehru-Gandhi family taking centre-stage in Indian politics. The feudal mindset of India helps the family lineage to perpetuate. Thus the quality of politics suffers. Even the Great Mughals, the longest ruling dynasty of India, could produce just one remarkably great ruler in Emperor Akbar. Post his great grandson, the empire had nearly vanished. Political families, at least judged by the predicament suffered by President Mukherjee due to his son, too, face the similar ability deficit. Unfortunately, political families fail to accept the reality and continue to push their family members in public life. The sin of Abhijit Mukherjee is to jump into the arena lured by the attendant perks of the system without trying to assess if he had the necessary acumen for the task.

But will aspiring family members of Indian politicians learn a lesson from Abhijit’s folly? (IPA Service)