Double entendre

To stop identical twins from taking over India, we could pass a law. But let?s have a national debate first.

In Alexander Dumas’ The Man In The Iron Mask, King Louis XIV’s identical twin brother is kept prisoner so that he may not claim his right to the throne. In Hergé’s Tintin adventure, King Ottokar’s Sceptre, we find another pair of twins, Hector and Alfred Alembick, who don’t share the best of relations. Not so with Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Polish President and Prime Minister respectively. The two 55-year-olds are working in tandem, ruling the country with the support of the populist Right -- never mind that certain quarters think that they risk isolating Poland from both their European and American partners.

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The thought of identical twins ruling a nation boggles the minds that are yet to appreciate the double vision that Poles gain from years of getting acquainted with the charms of Wyborowa -- or, for that matter, any other Polish vodka. In one stroke, an equivalent of the Kaczynski brothers in India could end those endless debates about political dynasties -- or those fruitless rumours about disconnect between the chiefs of government and the ruling party.

Poland is essentially a nation that is being governed by the ultimate coalition partners -- the product(s) of a single egg that was once fertilised to form one zygote, which then divides into two separate embryos. Technically, to stop identical twins from taking over India, we could pass a law that restricts one zygote to one post. But let’s have a national debate first.