Beware of sycophants.

On 10 July the Supreme Court said that politicians convicted of serious crimes, punishable by more than 2 years in prison, must resign their seats. Previously such politicians were given a grace period of 3 months in which to file an appeal and while that was ongoing the politician could continue in office. Since appeals take years it meant that politicians guilty of murder, rape, banditry and kidnapping have stood for elections and even held important ministerial posts. Naturally, the Supreme Court judgement caused a lot of heartburn across parties so the government decided to pass an ordinance to negate the verdict and allow politicians to evade justice. This caused enormous public anger. The ordinance was agreed by the entire cabinet and sent to the President for signature. So far, so usual. Then the bombshell. On 27 September Congress spokesman, Ajay Maken was defending the ordinance in the Press Club in Delhi when he received an " important phone call ". A few minutes later the Congress heir apparent, Rahul Gandhi pops in and launches a tirade against the ordinance. " I'll tell you what my opinion on the ordinance is," he said." It's complete nonsense. It should be torn up and thrown away. That is my personal opinion." An almighty uproar has ensued since then. People are saying that Mr Gandhi has destroyed the credibility of the Prime Minister by humiliating him while he is abroad and some say that the Prime Minister has no option but to resign. Not true on both counts. The Prime Minister was never a choice of the people because he was not elected to the Lok Sabha. He was imposed on us by Ms Sonia Gandhi only because he has no political base and would not be a threat to her son. His credibility was based on 1. his supposed honesty and 2. his knowledge of economics because he has a doctorate from Oxford. He has not just presided over, but by knowingly allowing criminals a free hand, the most corrupt government in our history. Also by supinely following orders to waste money on the most shameless bribery of the " vote bank " he has destroyed the economy. He has no credibility, honor or respect left. The nuclear deal which he forced through by threatening to resign would also have been under orders. Apparently he has already denied any talk of resignation while he is still in the US. As for Mr Gandhi, his antics were clearly scripted. Did some people knife him in the back? Only time will tell.