In our humble opinions page...

In our humble opinion, despite the zeitgeist, humility is a virtue. But whenever anyone starts a sentence with 'In my humble opinion,' chances are high that vanity is at play. On Tuesday, poll strategist and Chanakya-for-hire Prashant Kishor, while declining the 'generous offer' of the Congress to join the party as part of its 'empowered (sic) action (sic) group' and 'take responsibility for the elections,' tweeted: 'In my humble opinion, more than me the party needs leadership and collective will to fix the deep rooted structural problems through transformational reforms'. If we didn't know better, we could have thought him to be an editorial writer full of sound and wisdom, signifying nothing. But a closer look will show that Kishor essentially knows a puddle to sidestep when he sees one.

It is one thing to be a consultant, advising what to do - and for the Congress, more importantly, what not to do - and quite another to be the chap in charge, with the risk of left holding the Congress can. In the party leadership, however, the rejection has reportedly been taken with stunned humility - as in, with a self-defined modesty that has been stunned. It would not be too fantastic to imagine a letter emanating from the humble euphemism called 'high command' that starts with, 'In my humble opinion, this news is good riddance to bad rubbish.'