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Endowed with the gift of gab, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is not known for committing any verbal faux pas that he may have to cut a sorry figure. Probably, for the first time in his political career, he committed the one, and that too a serious one, and that too at a sensitive time, when the party is fighting a crucial electoral battle in Ludhiana.

 

Suggesting that the BJP’s campaign to distribute ‘sindoor’ (vermilion) across the country is like ‘one nation, one husband’, obviously trying to allude to the BJP’s proposal of ‘one nation, one election’ has been picked up by the opposition, both the BJP and the Congress, to target him. And both the parties could not have found a better issue than this.

 

That it was an off the cuff remark made with a purely satirical intent goes without saying. Mann is a master satirist. In fact, he owes his rise in politics not just to the gift of the gab, but the wit, humour and sarcasm. The BJP has been identified with the ideas of ‘one nation, one party’, ‘one nation, one leader’, ‘one nation, one language’ and recently, ‘one nation, one election’. And Mann sarcastically added, ‘one nation, one husband’ to it.

 

After presiding over a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Mann addressed a press conference. There he was asked about his reaction to the BJP’s campaign of distributing ‘sindoor’ apparently to use ‘Operation Sindoor’ victory for Ludhiana West by-elections. He retorted that the BJP was only trying to politicise the operation. In the same vein and in the flow of the moment, he ended up remarking whether it was a scheme of ‘one nation, one husband’.

 

The remark is quite sensitive in terms of gender and religion. It is mistakenly believed that ‘sindoor’ (vermilion) is used only by married women as one of the symbols of their married life and for the well-being of their husbands. The government of India apparently named the retaliatory action against the terror attack with the same reason; since so many women’s married life was destroyed, the government of India named the operation after ‘Sindoor’.

 

Those not familiar with Hindu traditions, customs and practices, would obviously not know that every devout Hindu applies the vermillion mark (sindoor tilak) on his/her forehead every day. It is used in temples also. Lord Hanuman’s idol has only vermillion over it.

 

No wonder the BJP, which does allude to cultural practices to connect with the people and voters, has grabbed the chance to corner the Aam Aadmi Party over its leader’s remark. Union Minister of State in Railways, Ravneet Singh Bittu, took no time to condemn Mann for this remark.

 

While most of the Congress leaders maintained silence, since they have also been alleging that the BJP was politicising the Operation Sindoor and trying to make political capital out of it, party’s Punjab Working president Bharat Bhushan Ashu, who is contesting the Ludhiana West by-election, seized the opportunity to score a political point. He alleged that it had become a fashion to make fun of and mock Hindu customs and practices and the Chief Minister proved to be no action. He sought an apology from the Chief Minister.

 

Ludhiana West is a Hindu dominated assembly segment. It is quite natural for the opposition parties, the Congress and the BJP to latch on to the issue that has been handed over to them by the Chief Minister. Neither the AAP nor the Chief Minister have offered any clarification, even after there was sharp reaction on social media.

 

Although the remark was apparently not made with any insulting or derogatory motive or any ill-will, it is not sure as to how it may play out during the elections. Sometimes, innocuous and harmless remarks made with good faith end up boomeranging on the people who make these. In this case the pun was well intended.

 

During 2014 General Elections in Amritsar, where the then BJP stalwart late Arun Jaitley was pitted against Congress strongman Capt Amarinder Singh (who has since joined the BJP), Jaitley’s campaign in-charge Bikram Singh Majithia, quoted a ‘sloka’ of Guru Gobind Singh, where he invoked Lord Shiva to ensure Jaitley’s victory, by ‘distorting’ the original ‘sloka’ (hymn). It came handy for the Congress to put the then Akali-BJP alliance on the defensive.

 

There have been umpteen other such remarks by political leaders that land them in trouble. A minister from Madhya Pradesh Vijay Shah is facing an SIT probe ordered by the Supreme Court of India, after he described Col Sophia Qureshi as the ‘sister of terrorists’. Although he never meant to suggest she was their sister or in any way sympathetic to them, it was interpreted that way.

 

A Deputy Chief Minister again in MP claimed that the defence forces of the country were ‘bowing’ before the Prime Minister. This was apparently done to praise the Prime Minister and project him as a great leader, but, again, it ended up with a different interpretation with embarrassment for the party.

But that is the way of the political leaders, not just in India but across the globe.

 

Sometimes their slip of tongue is inadvertent, at times it is deliberate and intentional, and it is not so easy to make out what actually the motive was. They do take recourse to the standard excuse and defence that they were quoted ‘out of context’ or there was no ‘such intention’ behind the remarks as is being interpreted, while as the intent is mostly the same as is being interpreted. And everything is forgiven at the end of the day and everyone gets away with everything!