Foot-in-mouth syndrome & politicians: List only getting longer

NEW DELHI: The list of political leaders afflicted with 'foot-in-mouth' syndrome just seems to be getting longer.

As the political discourse gets heated up ahead of the Lok Sabha polls which is less than a year away, the leaders have come in for sharp criticism for their shooting-from-the-hip, forcing them to retract or deny or issue clarifications.

Raj Babbar and Rashid Masood of the Congress, Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference and Chandran Mitra of the BJP may be the latest to have been afflicted by the disease, but the list is long.

With the media, especially that of the electronic variety, on the lookout for the absurd and out of the ordinary, Babbar's innocuous claim as Congress spokesman that a hearty meal could be available for as little as Rs 12 in Bombay was bound to raise controversy.

Masood and Abdullah may have gone a step ahead of Babbar, claiming availability of food for as little as Rs 5 and Re one respectively, but were quick to retract their statements.

The "hearty meal" controversy in the back of the latest estimates of poverty made CPI-M leader Prakash Karat to wonder whether Congress is projecting all milk and honey in the country in the time of back-breaking prices.

In the eye of a storm over his remarks that Bharat Ratna should be taken back from Amartya Sen, Mitra recently expressed regret over them, saying he "oversaid it".

Sen had earlier said Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi should not be the Prime Minister of the country. This had led to the BJP MP to hit out at him.

BJP chief Rajnath Singh's comments about English causing a great loss to India as it has eroded Indian culture and language sparked a heated controversy with political leaders and intellectuals rebuking him for being obscurantist. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackarey too sought to disapprove.

The biggest controversy in recent times, was, undoubtedly the one over the "puppy" remark by Modi, the BJP's campaign committee chief for the Lok Sabha polls.