The Toughest Job in India

Guess who has the most difficult job in India today? No, it is not Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Nor is it UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. It is not the editor of the venerable Old Lady of Boribunder or the captain of Team India either. Hard to believe though it is, it is the Congress’ man for all seasons, Manish Tiwari. True, he was banished into the sidelines and barred from the television studios by the party high command for a while after his intemperate outburst against Anna Hazare at the height of the Anna wave last year. But after the erudite Abhishek Manu Sanghvi shot himself in the foot with his indiscretions with a lady lawyer, the grand old party had no choice but to fall back on the tried and trusted MP from Ferozepur. Since his reinstatement, he has been holding fort at TV studios every evening virtually single-handedly, performing the seemingly hopeless task of defending the indefensible with aplomb. [The portly Renuka Choudhury, a poor second choice, is good for comic relief with her inane comments and weird mannerisms. But when it comes to defending the party or the government against some serious, credible allegations of corruption or impropriety with meticulously dug out facts and carefully thought-out arguments, she is not a patch on Tiwari.] Being a lawyer has certainly helped Tiwari. But what has helped even more is his rare facility with the spoken word: the choice of words and phrases, the diction, the pitch, the subtle sense of humour, the gift of repartee, the ability to put on an expression .. you name it. More importantly, he shares all these attributes – and more - in the two most relevant languages for the spokesperson of a national party: English and Hindi. It is indeed rare for a person to be so good in two completely different languages. Tiwari’s is unquestionably the most unenviable job in the country right now. After all, not many would relish the prospect of being pounced upon by an increasingly combative media on a daily basis. A horde of blood-thirsty television reporters at the daily afternoon briefing and a no-holds barred television anchor in the evening – all in a day at the office! What makes the task particularly difficult is the fact that scams and scandal have tumbled out of the cupboards of the UPA government and the Congress party with a frequency that is too hot to handle for even the most stoic person. When he is not is answering a question on a corruption allegation against a minister, he is defending a leader accused of sexual misdemeanours. But Manish is rarely, if ever, fazed by the shrill, virulent nature of the questioning. He may lack the intellectual air of a Abhishek Manu Sanghvi. But make no mistake. He would do the defending just as efficiently - and often more effectively - because of his ability to become aggressive and shrill when the occasion demands – something that the balding senior lawyer clearly lacks. Watching Tiwari defend Union Tourism minister Subodh Kant Sahai on an English news channel the other day, I was amazed at his ability to turn the tables on the accuser – in this case the redoubtable Arnab Goswami. “Arnab Goswami”, he told the man feared by the highest and the mightiest in the land in a matter-of-fact voice, “cannot sit in judgment over something that has already been judicially adjudicated and by no less than the honourable High Court.” He was referring to the fact the Delhi High Court had thrown out a PIL against Sahai charging him with much the same malfeasance that has now led to a full-throttled cry for his resignation. ‘Does Arnab Goswami have any respect for the High Court?” he continued the harangue. Poor Arnab! He did not know where to hide and resorted to the easy option of leaving the floor open for Ravishankar Prasad, the BJP national spokesperson, to step in. Given the facts that had come to light since the Delhi High Court judgment - that Sahai had written to the Prime Minister recommending SKS Ispat’s case for coal block allocation, that the minister’s brother was not only a director in the company but was also present at the screening committee meeting that took the decision to allocate coal blocks to his company, the fact that the Prime Minister, who was then also the Coal minister, was in indecent hurry to accede to Sahai’s request and so on (all of which ‘Your Channel’ trumpeted all day long as its exclusive) – Tiwari’s bid to hide behind it would have been, in the hands of lesser mortals, an act of clutching at straws. But the wily lawyer turned the straw into a veritable handle to beat the anchor with. There are times when he can get exasperating. He can test your patience and – at times – make you feel like bashing him up black and blue. I personally know many people who just cannot stand the very sight of him. I have myself found his shrillness occasionally off-putting. But when I imagine the enormity of his task and the general aplomb with which he has been doing his unenviable job day after day, month after month, year after year and scandal after scandal, I often feel like doffing my hat to him. If you do not agree, just imagine yourself for a moment in his position and think about how you would have defended the blatant disregard for all cannons of fair play, the flagrant violation of all rules and norms and the rampant corruption that have marked the allocation of coal blocks – besides several other things - in the UPA regime and you would immediately understand what I mean. It is not easy defending the indefensible, is it? Well done, Manish!