Why 'moral' Diggy really 'came out' about Amrita Rai: He had no choice

The tweets by congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh, and TV anchor Amrita Rai made headlines on Thursday because they are in a relationship. Incidentally, the disclosure was followed by allegations that the email and social media accounts of the anchor were hacked. Digvijaya, a shrewd politician, did make a virtue of the disclosure, although it wasn’t voluntary, to target Narendra Modi by saying that he was not hiding his relationship like the latter. [caption id=“attachment_1506049” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Digvijaya Singh. Ibnlive[/caption] “I don’t hide my relationship, which Mr Modi does. I am not a coward,” is what he tweeted. He, as well as his girlfriend, went on to add that they would marry as soon as the latter’s divorce is finalised. So for now, the moral high grounds of Modi, who hid his wife and a past married life, and Digvijaya, who hid an affair with a married woman, are equal before the country. Is that the purpose of those who leaked the pictures of Digvijaya and Amrita and the news of their relationship? Whatever it’s, why is the country obsessed with the private lives of politicians, that too in a sleazy and sensational way? It’s prurient and judgemental too going by the tweets of two other politicians on the Digvijaya affair. First, by BJP’s Susheel Kumar, who said: “Congratulations Digvijaya Singh for having an affair even at 67;” and second by AAP’s Somnath Bharthi who went overboard by saying that the congressman was “characterless” and he would file a PIL to “reveal such cases”. His connotation was that Digvijaya had more such relationships. Interestingly, what these politicians and some sections of the media sought to explore and project were moralistic because what neither Modi nor Digvijaya did were illegal. Modi apparently married and has been living away from his wife, while Digvijaya is seeing Amrita Rai, who is in the process of getting a divorce from her husband. What the Congress, more so by Digvijaya, had tried by publicising the Modi affair was to show that he didn’t take care of his wife - who incidentally had no complaints -. while the BJP leaders wanted to make Digvijaya look like an illegal/illegitimate paramour. In fact, one of the newspapers did use the  word paramour. On Thursday, while Digvijaya and Amrita Rai were making headlines, Mulayam Singh  Yadav said something cheap and silly about his bete noire Mayavati. “I am at a loss on how to address her .. whether to address her as shrimati, kunwari or behenji”. The connotation was sexual and about her alleged relationship with the late BSP leader Kanshiram. To make his intention explicit, Mulayam’s statement followed a reference to Kanshiram. Of course, Mayawati paid back in the same coin by saying:  “everybody knows how he treated his first wife … Does he address his grand children as Shriman and Shrimati instead of brother and sister?” From political, to personal to moral seems to be the depths that Indian political discourse is plunging to. When there is nothing illegal, political rivals seek to find immorality. Are they running out of imagination and ideas to take on their opponents? More often than not, their snide remarks are sexist and sexual. This is a new low in Indian politics and reflects badly on our society.