Laughing stock

The best example for a foot-in-the-mouth syndrome is the Indian politician.

• When a journalist is shot while travelling in her car at 2am in Delhi, Chief Minister Shiela Dixit says that she should have been more careful and not been out alone at such an ungodly hour.
  
• When incidents of women call centre employees being abducted and raped when being picked up by "their company taxis" late in the night surface, the Karnataka government banned women from working in establishments after 8pm, a rule which was thankfully revoked later.
• Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil calls the latest terror attacks in Mumbai, which are by far the most lethal, a "small incident which is bound to happen in big cities like Mumbai"

While these misplaced comments might be amusing, they also throw up some disturbing indications about our political leadership (or the lack of it). Sychophancy and bureaucratic procedures are the rule of the day. Indeed, when keeping your post depends on which politician's leg you massage rather than actual "work", no politician expects to be voted back in office for doing his duty with sincerity and conviction for the welfare of the citizens when the real path to power lies in the hands of his superior.
We in India are tuned to apathy when there is anything to do with politics. Who wants to get into that muck? is the common question. There is so much filth in the government system that even 100 years of cleaning will not rid it of its filth. Might as well drop that and go clean the Ganges instead.