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Resorting to resort politics with sequestration

Resort politics. Perhaps, this phenomenon is unique to the Indian political scenario.

Resorting to resort politics with sequestration

Illustration: Vishu Verma



Harvinder Khetal

Resort politics. Perhaps, this phenomenon is unique to the Indian political scenario. The term resort politics comes from a party herding its elected candidates to resorts/hotels, far away from the wooing ways of its rivals, lest they defect to the other side. 

The Karnataka elections have once again necessitated the contesting political parties to resort to resort politics. Resort politics is resorted to when the electorate delivers a hung verdict, when no party or coalition gets the mandate to rule. In such a situation, the parties are desperate to win over elected candidates from other sides so that they may defect towards their side and the party gains the requisite strength of more than 50 per cent legislators to win the floor test. And, it is this bid that the rival parties equally try to thwart, even as they themselves are not above such unethical, dirty tricks. The shepherd desperately tries to keep his flock faithful, lest they are ‘poached upon’ by rivals. All this while, the bewildered voters are fed preposterously entertaining and dramatic stories of “turncoats”, “rebels”, “defectors”, “horse-trading” and “party-hoppers”.

This sequestering (hiding, isolating) of MLAs to prevent them from inducements or threats to engineer defections brings to mind another term that is representative of a distinctive trait of Indian politicians: the Aaya Rams and Gaya Rams. This coinage comes from Haryana. In 1967, Gaya Lal, Haryana MLA, changed party thrice in 15 days. He first shifted from the Congress to the United Front, then he went back to the Congress and then within nine hours, he had again crossed over to the UF. During this period, when the flighty legislator was with the Congress after quitting the UF, the then Congress leader Rao Birendra Singh declared: “Gaya Ram is now Aaya Ram”. No surprise that this gave rise to many wisecracks and immortalised Gaya Lal with this phrase. 

So, while stories of wheeling-dealings and brokerings smacking of absolute lack of ethics made news, the resort politics of the South had the social media erupt in humorous takes on the ‘prized’ MLAs. Anticipating legislator-poaching and resort politics, one of the first to make light of the situation after the election results were out was the Kerala tourism department. Making a pitch to the new Karnataka MLAs, it tweeted: “After the rough and tumble of the #KarnatakaVerdict, we invite all the MLAs to unwind at the safe & beautiful resorts of God’s Own Country.” The tweet, however, was soon deleted. 

Finally, it was not destination Kochi, but a resort of Bengaluru that Congress-JD(S) MLAs chose to sequester in. The twists and turns in the drama even prompted a judge hearing the matter refer to a joke gone viral: “We are getting a WhatsApp message which says the hotel owner saying he has 116 MLAs, make me the CM.” 

A similar one was also making the rounds:

“Hello, is this the Governor’s office?”

“Yes.“

“I have got 113 MLAs with me. Will you make me the CM?”

“Who is this?”

“I am the owner of the resort where they are hidden.”

A language buff wittily put forth this humour-laced pithy line: “It is Karnataka politics which gave the English language the phrase ‘the last resort’!” 

These rapid developments and political manoeuvrings with the subtext of gratification remind me of George Bernard Shaw’s famous statement ‘politics is the last resort of scoundrel’.

Incidentally, in 1985, the Constitution was amended to prevent such defections. But as the greed of power holds sway, our politicians do seem to be able to find ingenious ways out, even in seemingly impossible situations and at the cost of making strange bedfellows.

In this scenario, it is the Independent lawmakers who are the prize catch. Instances of them being sequestered, ‘whisked away’, ‘airlifted to posh hotels in idyllic places abound. Their votes are valuable to major parties during Rajya Sabha nominations.

Meanwhile, did you know that the word sequester, as depicted in the Indian election scene where the lawmakers are ‘isolated’, ‘secluded’, ‘segragated’ or ‘hididen’ has a number of usages, ranging from medicine, courts, government, economy, jury, law and even chemistry? It seems that not only politicians, a lot of times a lot of things/people need to be kept apart or sequestered. 

For example, jury sequestration, although it is the last resort of judges. When publicity surrounding a trial and interested parties may interfere with juror objectivity, a judge may order that a jury be sequestered to prevent tampering with them through persuasion, threats, or bribes.

Then, property may be temporarily seized (sequestered) under law from the possession of the owner until legal claims are satisfied. Or, something that is the subject of a controversy may be taken out of the possession of the contending parties and deposited in the hands of a third person; this neutral party is called a sequestor. This usage has roots in the late Middle English: from Old French sequestrer or late Latin sequestrare ‘commit for safekeeping’, from Latin sequester ‘trustee’.

Budget sequestration involves setting a hard cap on the amount of government spending. In medicine, to set apart, detach or separate a small portion of tissue from the rest; or, for a piece of dead bone to be separated from the sound bone. 

Then, in these days of global warming, there is dire need of carbon sequestration or long-term storage of carbon to mitigate warming and avoid climate change. It is a way to slowing the atmospheric and marine accumulation of greenhouse gases released by burning fossil fuels. Interestingly, oceans are biggest carbon dioxide sinks on Earth as they naturally absorb more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans put into the air. Plants, too, absorb the gas. Artificial processes devised to produce similar effects include artificial capture and sequestration of industrial carbon dioxide using saline aquifers, reservoirs, ocean water, oil fields, or other carbon sinks.

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