Following Arun Jaitley’s untimely demise, while the nation was mourning the irreparable loss, liberals and Pakistanis have been celebrating and indulging in slander against the deceased stalwart. The mouthpiece of the Congress party, too, appears to have joined the charade.
The National Herald published an obituary that could only be described as extremely insensitive and downright distasteful. They said Jaitley will be remembered as a “failed FM” who will only be remembered as the most successful “spokesperson” the rightwing ever produced.
In the obituary, they make insensitive remarks such as “Jaitley earned more admirers (most of them were flatterers) than distractors” and that “He balanced his contradictions with charm and eloquence.”
Apart from such inconsiderate remarks, the Congress mouthpiece accused Jaitley of “failing the nation” in its obituary. They write, “As a Finance Minister, Jaitley would be remembered for failing the nation and surrendering in front of Modi’s whim to announce and implement demonetisation overnight, yet he would be considered better than the present FM Nirmala Sitharaman.”
National Herald also claimed that Jaitley’s appointment as Union Finance Minister in 2014 was a ‘quid pro quo’ gesture. It states, “It is said that it was Jaitley who saved Modi from the legal trap that followed the 2002 Gujarat riots. His appointment as the Finance Minister by Modi was seen as a quid pro quo gesture.”
The obituary is entirely made up of such thoughtless remarks. It quotes one unnamed TV journalist as saying that Jaitley “liked bitching”. Other crass statements included, “He did not garland those who kill people in the name of cow vigilantism. He, very cleverly distanced himself from the politics of Gau-Gobar which dominate the narrative today.”
The obituary easily qualifies as one of the worst ever written in the history of politics. It is a perfect demonstration of the pettiness that the Congress party symbolizes today. It clearly couldn’t have been written by someone with a sane mind. That it was approved by the editor speaks volumes about the editorial standards of the Congress mouthpiece.