Political correctness may be out of fashion these days, but political incorrectness is something we can do without. Few politicians today are sticklers to the code that saw “PC” become a major force in the 1990s; what we see worldwide are politicos who, seduced by a bank of television cameras and microphones before them, get so garrulous that they say the craziest things, which are usually hurtful.
While most are known to repent at leisure after speaking in haste, some try to be too clever in defending themselves. Take the case of politician Godfrey Bloom of the UK Independence Party, speaking about not wanting to send money to “Bongo-bongo land”, and then quoting the dictionary to quibble over what he had said not being pejorative. His comments certainly weren’t PC, and they caused a furore that politics can do without.
There are many in India who fall in Mr Bloom’s category. For instance Bhim Singh, a Bihar minister, who joined the foot-in-mouth brigade with his remark that people joined the Army in order to die! His words, particularly in the backdrop of the tragic incident on the Line of Control, were so callously insulting that his chief minister was forced to apologise.
Such utterances can’t be forgiven as they seem to come from clownish politicos. The fear is that with a general election fast approaching, the rhetoric could get more and more bizarre. We only wish a code of conduct could be agreed on before the din gets worse ahead of 2014.