As the game of gaddis plays out here…

With the dust settling on the latest round of assembly elections, all those among the political class wondering about ‘what now’ or ‘what next’ could try binge-watching Game of Thrones. The title itself should strike a chord, as should the basic story: powerful, scheming and mostly amoral regional rulers aiming to capture the all-important ‘Iron Throne’. While our Mahabharata also has enough apt subplots and allegories, the profusion of regional claimants fighting for the central throne in the book-turned-TV serial makes it especially appropriate. More so as there appears to be no permanent friends or enemies, and even the two major royal clans, the Lannisters and Starks, are dependent on regional overlords in their efforts to retain — or obtain — the gaddi.

Of course, modern-day politicians with similar ambitions do not have the TV serial’s protagonists’ advantage of firebreathing dragons, sorceresses, supernatural elements and dire wolves to further their cause. And the serial’s violence, skulduggery and immorality may be a little over the top even for our most hardened players, but the message is clear. If at some point the squabbling clans and their leaders don’t set aside their individual petty ambitions and unite, they will be in no condition to face the onslaught from the scary northern hordes that seem immune to all their weaponry.