Pots & Kettles

Two men look out through the same bars: One sees the mud and one the stars.
— FREDERIC LANGBRIDGE

Pots and kettles
If pledges mouthed out by politicians during election time appear to the common man to be the sound of broken drums, the name-calling currently going on during this campaign is surely a case of pots calling kettles black! Not that politicians of yore had never stooped to mud-slinging or personal attacks on adversaries. Indira Gandhi, particularly during the post-Emergency elections, had been the target of vitriol, Morarji Desai’s infamous chokri (an immature girl) being just one mild example. Naturally, the Congress had gone tit for tat against Desai, the latter’s somewhat idiosyncratic habits being aptly usable for the creation of witty similes. Rajiv Gandhi too had mud thrown at him, BJP’s infamous slogan, Gali gali mein shor hai, Rajiv Gandhi chor (thief) hai, in reference to his alleged involvement in the Bofors case, being one that immediately springs to mind. However, observers have noted that despite rare exceptions, elections for a few decades after independence had been relatively free of foul and dirty name-calling, with standards falling in each subsequent campaign. True to this trend, the 2009 General Election has turned into the worst ever sewage-spattering contest. The atmosphere is already befouled by phrases that should have hardly emerged from the lips of future law-makers, so much so that Varun Gandhi’s anti-minority tirade appears to be integral to the general scenario, rather than a reprehensible aberration.

It is bad enough when foul language is spewed out by those at the lower echelons of Indian politics. When a petty player from the Shiv Sena calls the Indian Prime Minister a hijra (eunuch), or another from the BJP labels Sonia Gandhi as kutti (bitch), the common man turns a deaf ear knowing that such language had emerged from gutter-dwellers. But when, in a land that boasts leaders of the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Jaiprakash Narayan, those at the higher echelons throw all decorum to the wind, it is a definite matter of concern. The verbal slug-fest between L. K. Advani and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, despite the use of laundry-washed words, is reprehensible because it is personal rather than revolving around policies. When Lalu Prasad Yadav vilifies Advani as “a refugee from Pakistan” and thus unfit to become the Prime Minister, he is descending to an unacceptable level. Such a metamorphosis in Indian election campaign is tragic in more senses than one. The Election Commission appears to be totally helpless in stemming the rot, having so far been able to take action in merely a few infringements. The electronic media, especially during so called ‘debates’ between political parties, has wilfully allowed foul-mouthing of opponents in order to attract viewer attention. The danger, therefore, is very real that future generations would take the use of foul language during campaign to be an acceptable norm, boding ill for the future of our democracy.


The above is from an editorial from "The Assam Tribune"
I won't add anything.
It says it all about our politicians.