By Justice Markandey Katju
In a village of rural India there lived a 'bauna' (dwarf) who was fond of seeing wrestling matches.
Once a 'dangal' (wrestling match) was taking place in the vicinity, and the bauna was keen to see it. However, unfortunately for him, the 'akhaada' (wrestling arena) was surrounded on all four sides by a crowd of spectators, who were much taller than him..
So the bauna thought up a clever device.
At a stage in the match when wrestler A had thrown wrestler B on the ground, (which the bauna could not see but could guess from the loud cheering of the spectators), he shouted "Mama ne patak diya, mama ne patak diya'' (i.e. 'My uncle has floored his opponent').
On hearing this, some spectators looked behind, and seeing the bauna shouting, thought he was the nephew of A. Hence, they brought the bauna in front so that he could see his uncle fighting.
However, this shouting by the bauna and commotion in the crowd, distracted A, and consequently B, seizing this opportunity, with a smart move threw A on the ground and stood on top of him, thus reversing the situation.
At this, the bauna shouted, pointing at B, ''Yahi hai mera mama, yahi hai mera mama''.
I was reminded of this story, and am amused, on seeing the unabashed behaviour of a large section of the self-proclaimed 'independent' media persons, who were earlier anti-Modi and anti-BJP, but after declaration of the state assembly election results on 3rd December, have suddenly changed their tune.
Foremost among them is the great Ravish Kumar, winner of the Magsaysay award, coiner of the term 'godi media', and regarded a hero by many Indians after he left (or was sacked from) NDTV, (though I always believed that though he was honest, he had nothing in his head)
He said that Shivraj defeated Modi, and that there was a 'leher' in favour of Shivraj Singh Chauhan--an asinine thing to say.
Next comes the redoubtable Ajit Anjum, who never missed an opportunity to attack the BJP. Now in his recent tweet he says :
जनता ही जगन्नाथ है.
मोदी के नेतृत्व में बीजेपी ने बहुत बड़ी कामयाबी हासिल की है.
एमपी में रिकॉर्डतोड़ जीत के साथ - साथ तीन राज्यों में किला फतह कर लेना बहुत बड़ी बात है
One must not forget that acrobat Ashutosh, who, swung from journalism to politics, joining AAP, where he strongly attacked Modi
He even said Modi has gone mad, and has lost his mental balance
He aspired to get a Rajya Sabha ticket, but when that was denied by Kejriwal, got cheesed off, and again swung back to journalism, like a trapeze artist, where he sings a different tune now, no longer viciously attacking Modi.
And of course, there is Arfa Khanum, who bore the entire burden of the woes of the Muslim community on her tender shoulders and wore her Muslim identity as a 'taaj' (as she herself said).
But now I see little of her on the social media. Maybe after the resounding BJP victory in the state elections, she has thought discretion is the better part of valour
There are many other weathercocks too, but they are too many to recount here.
I am reminded of the following Urdu sher :
“Jeevan ka safar hai toolani
Yaan ikraani hai naadaani
Jo Shahsawaar maahir hain
Woh raah badalte rehte hain”
i.e.
Life’s journey is long
Staying on the same path is immaturity
The expert horse riders
Continuously change their tracks.
(Justice Katju is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. These are his personal views.)
