When maturity took a day off on Monday

BJP lawmakers celebrating Pradhan in Parliament, CJP members’ loud celebrations and the CBI missing a hearing on paper leaks — all make for bad optics

A resignation, especially one aspiring to a higher morality, is meant to be a sombre affair. Which is why it isn’t clear what the BJP lawmakers cheering and celebrating the former education minister (for his resignation) in Parliament on Monday were hoping to achieve. Sure, it was political, an expression of members of a political unit not used to setbacks that this — the minister’s resignation — was no defeat. Still, all they served to do was to erode the moral high ground the minister and the government had sought to take with his resignation. And they presented just the kind of optics the government would have liked to avoid.

A video widely circulated showed some worthies of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) loudly celebrating the end of their struggle and the resignation of the minister — an event that should have been marked with gravitas and quiet contemplation. (PTI)

But on Monday, it wasn’t these lawmakers — fortunately a minority — alone who were guilty of bad optics. A video that was circulated widely showed some worthies of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) loudly celebrating the end of their struggle and the resignation of the minister — an event that should have been marked with gravitas and quiet contemplation given what many students across the country went through during the protest.

Still, both the cheering lawmakers and the dancing protestors were outdone by the federal investigation agency. Two days after the end of a weeks-long protest sparked by paper leaks, and soon after the Prime Minister promised quick and tough action against anyone involved in paper leaks, the agency’s lawyer deemed it fit to skip the first hearing of a fast-track court hearing a paper leak case. It’s the kind of thing that is so funny that it isn’t.

Sincerity, maturity, and intent — all took a day off on Monday.

The more things change…