Post-mortem Politics

A week or so ago Ted Kennedy, the last of the Kennedy brothers died following a prolonged illness. The American media and several prominet politicians were going berserk eulogizing how America had lost its symbol of progressive American liberalism and listing all the reasons described in the most decorative detail possible as to why he was "The Lion of the Senate". So, I got interested and looked on Wikipedia to know more about him and ended up having a fascinating read. So apparently, "The Lion of the Senate" had chickened out when it mattered most. More importantly, he got away with a sentence of two months for his gross negligence of causing an accident and then failing to save a life that was put in danger directly by his actions, leading to an excruciatingly painful death. Now, this is not a single moral lapse that was a blot on an otherwise perfect life in the public eye. Several other instances of misuse of political clout have been documented over time. So I wondered if there was really anyone who would portray a honest picture at the time of his death. I found this piece which makes some bold comments on his shortcomings as a politician and as a person while touching upon several issues that were comfortably bypassed by the mainstream media. I won't claim to know everything about the writer of this piece, and I won't discount the idea that he may have his own interests to protect in writing it. But, it was a piece that had to be written by someone.

Moving on to the Indian political arena, YSR's life has met a violent end while on his way to Chittoor on an official duty. Notwithstanding the fact that his administration was rocked by numerous scandals, pretty much everyone irrespective of their political affiliation has expressed deep regret at his loss. The competitive post-mortem spirit among the Congress(I) party members to surpass the previously held record for the number of deaths in the event of the death of a mass-leader and create a legend using bloated statistics has already been pointed out. But latest reports suggest that the numbers have been scaled up further. Of course, the report indicates that there was no independent confirmation of this [the number of deaths] and that [YSR] has surpassed in death the popularity of actor and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founder NT Rama Rao who died in 1996. But then, who cares about facts anyway. I won't go into the pointless details about how all of his political rivals who vociferously differed with him on various issues have commended him as a great administrator. However, I wish that someone writes a balanced piece on his legacy before everyone forgets him.

An interesting contrast is how the American media associates Ted Kennedy with words like liberalism and freedom whereas the Indian media prefers such gems like "the champion of the poor" and other similar socialist-leaning monikers. In the end, it is all about using the situation as means to meet your ends. The media needs to cater to the people who like to hear nice things about the dead and politicians need to further their careers by all ways possible.