Salman Khurshid's behaviour has been appalling, he must apologise

What is behind the rage that seems to have engulfed Salman Khurshid? This once-suave Congressman, a Cabinet minister, has flown off the handle on at least two occasions this week, hurling abuse at journalists and anti-graft activists.

On Tuesday evening, surrounded by sycophants and television cameras, he let fly a tirade in which he promised to work with his pen as well as with blood. He went on to say, menacingly, that activists were welcome to go to Farrukhabad, his constituency in Uttar Pradesh, but added, “Let them also return from Farrukhabad.”

That sounds like a direct threat, an intent to cause bodily harm or worse, directed at the activists. Such words might be appropriate in a Bollywood potboiler about the underworld, but are unprecedented coming from an elected representative of Parliament, who claims St Stephens and Oxford as his alma maters.

What makes Khurshid’s transformation from suave politician to this venom-spitting individual more remarkable, is that his day job is as India’s law minister. Better standards of behaviour are expected from someone who is supposed to uphold the administration of law and justice in the country.

The proximate cause of Khurshid’s ire seems to be allegations of embezzlement at an NGO named after his grandfather, former president Zakir Hussain and administered by his family.

The amount involved, Rs 71 lakh, is paltry, compared to the stratospheric sums allegedly involved in recent scams. The right thing for Khurshid would have been to order an investigation into the matter and find out whether the charges were true or not. Instead, he has gone off the handle, hurling insults and threats in the full glare of TV cameras.

Even when judged against the plummeting standards of India’s recent political discourse, Khurshid’s behaviour has been abysmal. The Congress has little to say in his defence. There is no honour left to salvage, but the only way Khurshid will be able to claw back some respectability is to apologise, profusely and in public, for his comments. And hope that public memory is shorter than it actually is.