Playing Government-Government

Playing Government-Government Romesh Thapar BY the looks of it, there is a fierce competition in simplistic talk. The National Integration Council, with the PM chairing and chief ministers attending, calls for keeping com- munalism out of politics. The President wants to get the campus cleared of politics. And, believe it or not, that survivor, Mohammad Yunus, is so upset with the Supreme Court judgment on the national anthem and its singing that he wants the judge sacked! The people indulging in these and other mental acrobatics are becoming a threat to our survival as a democratic polity. They don't seem to be able to understand (he starting points of problems, the business of cause and effect' and the linkings between the various crises which are surfacing simultaneously. They seek solutions through degrees of authoritarian propulsion, very short-lived and faltering. Too many persons are playing government-government, or associating with the play.