The lollipop prince

Talk about smacking a pampered child. Clearly, the Congress party, tired of their tantrum-throwing vice-president’s ever pressing demands, decided to give him a beating. Well, only metaphorically, of course. The union cabinet which met on Sunday to decide on the ordinances, including Rahul Gandhi’s pet anti-graft bills, batted against their cherished crown prince and rejected ordinance route for that bundle of bills. At least, the party opted for a saner version of their consistent policy of appeasement – this time clearing OBC status for the Jat community and declaring special status for the rump state of bifurcated Andhra Pradesh, Seemandhra. But what can be said of the grumpy prince who wanted to shove down anti-graft bills and turn them into parting shots of undoubtedly the most corrupt regime in the post Independence India? Not only clearing the anti-graft bills through the ordinance route would have been a blatantly biased exercise, it would have been equally unparliamentary and undemocratic, because it would amount to airbrushing of the slew of scams and launderings that the UPA government presided over. Moreover, it was Congress’ last ditch attempt to reclaim the anti-corruption plank from the anti-graft crusader Arvind Kejriwal and the icon of brutal efficiency in Narendra Modi. Though extremely crucial pieces of legislation, the Gandhi scion cannot always have his way and lay claim on every slice of pre-poll reform that need to be brought in to cleanse the system.