Political "buzz" gets too literal in Himachal Pradesh

At least in this age of sting operations and bugging, politicians should be careful about what they call each other. More so if there is a buzz that some of them harbour particular animosity about each other and are not averse to giving bites on that account. That is certainly the case with the two stalwarts of Himachal politics, chief minister Virbhadra Singh and his predecessor, Prem Kumar Dhumal, who have been engaging in stinging repartee for years. By likening Dhumal and his son to the dipterous insect and dismissing their jabs as mere mosquito bites though, the CM may be underestimating their damage potential even if he is confident that the money laundering charge will be swatted away.

Even Dhumal, by merely retorting ominously that mosquitoes can cause malaria — itself not a virtue that a politician should ideally bandy about — has revealed his own limited knowledge of its malevolent potential. After all, as mosquitos are the preferred vector for all sorts of outbreaks — especially during the monsoon season — there is no telling what even a single prod may trigger. Indeed, the two veterans would do well to have a look at the considerable academic research that is now going on into how mosquitoes have almost invisibly but inexorably disrupted the expected course of life in places as far apart as Egypt and Australia.