Fencing around

Lyricist and Rajya Sabha member Javed Akhtar and his wife Shabana Azmi reached the Central Hall a good two hours ahead of the Obama’s address. Incidentally, the Akhtar-Azmi liking for Obama coincides with the rising Left confusion about which side of the fence the duo are now.

The Left always behaved as if Azmi (nominated to RS during UPA-1 , supposedly on the Left’s prompting) and Akhtar, were their very own fellow-travellers , more so given the ideological affiliations of Kaifi Azmi and Jan Nisar Akhtar.

The Left got the first jab when Akhtar got nominated to RS with Congress patronage just when the comrades were busy licking their ‘nuclear wounds’. The couple were also part of Manmohan Singh’s select guest list for the Obama dinner, at which the Left was left out.

If the latter still doesn’t get the hint, one can ask if anyone spotted an ‘Akhtar-Azmi solidarity show’ at the Left demo against ‘imperialist Obama’?