'Ek Ticket, Double Mazaa', The Great Political Tamasha

How you can buy one, get one free at the great Indian political mall. Humour becomes doubly humorous when it comes in pairs. That is why the great tradition of cinematic comedy includes celebrated twosomes like Laurel and Hardy, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and even cartoon characters like Tom and Jerry. 
    
Like the Marxian formula that thesis paired with antithesis forms a synthesis, the mechanics of humour often requires a pair of opposites – thin man/fat man; cat/mouse – to arrive at a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts. If a further example were needed to buttress this point, it comes by way of the political comedy of manners provided by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. 
    
Already running for nine years now, the duo’s act has caused bemusement to commentators and the general public alike, due to the spectacle of what is perceived to be a two-tone prime ministership, with a power behind the throne who switches channels or pulls the strings according to her wishes. 
    
The Sonia-Manmohan show has now been given yet another fillip following Rahul Gandhi’s reported disinclination to assume the prime ministerial post in a hurry, as his priority is to reorganise the internal functioning of the party. This has given rise to the speculation that the Sonia-Manmohan doubleact – which some might describe as a perfect example of the saying ‘Ek ticket, doh mazaa’ – will extend beyond 2014. 
    
Some spoilsports have argued that having two prime ministers – one de jure and one de facto – is unconstitutional. Such quibbling misses the point that the Indian Constitution represents the land that gave birth to yoga, and as such is capable of adopting the most complicated of asanas. Indeed, the country has already seen the precedent of a prime minister backed by a deputy prime minister, and UP witnessed rotating chief ministers who each held office for six months in turn. 
    
This being the case, it could be argued that there’s nothing wrong with having a PM as well as what might be called a shadow PM. Moreover, this principle of bipolarity is not confined to the Congress alone. Doesn’t the yin of the RSS (invisible power centre) pair with the yang of the BJP (visible face of power), to yield a whole – the Sangh Parivar – that is greater than the sum of its parts? Don’t Left parties’ politburos lord it over their elected representatives, yielding what could as well be called the Left parivar? Didn’t the late Bal Thackeray once boast of ‘remote-controlling’ Maharashtra’s government? 
    
And if all of this leads to much black comedy, whoever said that our leaders’ job is to provide roti, kapda and makaan, and not riveting entertainment? Such narrow and materialistic thinking should never cramp our fertile imaginations.
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