Idle Thoughts

In 2010, when the Shashi Tharoor – IPL controversy was at its peak, I wrote a small note wondering about the future of politicians like Shashi Tharoor – well qualified, polished, with international exposure – in the Indian political environment. Here is a link to that note. I worried then that the environment is too hostile for this new life form – let’s call it the T-gene - to survive. Half a decade has passed and there is good news as well as bad news. The good news is that he has survived the test of time so far. If anything, he is stronger today than he was then. The bad news is that I still don’t see many more like him coming into politics. So the T-gene survives but does not seem to prosper. It is not difficult to see why. The environment of selection remains as hostile as what it used to be. If the T-gene has survived, it has survived on its own tenacity and not by benevolence of selection. Media still prefers Lalit Modi or Lalu Yadav brand of politics. Let us consider a...

I was following the IPL-Tharoor saga not just as another scandal, but rather as a definition of what is the Darwinian fitness in Indian Politics. When Tharoor became prominent in politics, to me it was a welcome mutation – not a perfect new species, mind you – but a mutation that was a definite improvement on the existing species. And there was reason to believe that the environment of selection too has changed with increasing education of the masses and increasing influence of the electronic media. From that perspective it was quite interesting to watch if this new gene survived. It is probably too early to write the obituary of this political gene, but I think it looks unlikely that it will survive. In Indian politics it appears that the fittest one is the same old fashioned, wily gene. For those who are wondering why I am wasting my breath in supporting someone who apparently misused his position of power, I am not here to justify what he did or what he is supposed to have do...