Politics By Fair Means Only, Please

We've never been shy expressing our contempt for the BJP through this blog. In fact, we are quite the fans of Dr. Manmohan Singh and even consider his Congress party a natural political home for secular-right Indians.

Given all this, we are acutely embarrassed by the recent developments in Jharkhand.

There is nothing we'd prefer more than to see the BJP out of power wherever possible, BUT only by fair means. Absent this, our secular polity shames itself -- and risks losing the moral upper-hand it has over it's saffron counterpart.

Our friends in the Congress might want to read up on Reinhold Messner. His motto -- "by fair means" -- meant he made it to the top of the Everest on human capacity alone -- not aided by artificial means such as supplemental oxygen.

Per Messner: Everest by fair means-that is the human dimension, and that is what interests me . . . In reaching for an oxygen cylinder, a climber degrades Everest. . . . A climber who doesn't rely on his own strength and skills, but on apparatus and drugs, deceives himself.

Dr. Singh, we are in urgent need to hear your denunciation of the tawdry tactics of some in your party. And please, please have your party resolve to never again rely on artificial means to scale political mountains. Please.