May 22, 2006
 

Karan Thapar fails ... or does he?

When I read Karan Thapar's chat with Arjun Singh about the whole ruckus, I'm inclined to believe that the HRD minister has so beautifully internalized (to borrow a Kaavya Viswanathan cliché) what the bureaucrats portrayed in the 'Yes Minister' series kept doing - stalling, providing vague answers, being non-committal, etc.

I couldn't spot a single firm reply to any question that was thrown at him. It'd be interesting to do a statistical analysis of his replies. Chances are above 70% of the answers would have referred to 'Parliament is supreme' or 'Cabinet decisions' etc. I've never really had any respect for him. His performance in the interview has meant that I have lost complete faith in his ability to carry out his responsibility as my government's minister.

Overall though, a poor show from the "Devil's Advocate", given how he manhandled Pervez Musharraf a few months ago. Then again, he was successful in making it obvious, yet again straight from the horse's mouth, that Arjun Singh is content to hide behind Parliamentary decisions and collective responsibility to justify the decisions taken rather than come out with the reasons and statistics to back up his [and the government's] verdict.

Labels: musharraf, pakistan