Tickled by Ministerial Bantacruz Banter

Show us a politician with wit — the kind she or he is willing to share with the public — and we will show you a bird that doesn’t fly. The fact that both species exist should give us hope that we’ll not all be set up as seditionists for cracking jokes at, and about, officialdom. The kiwi in the pack is Hardeep Singh Puri. Responding to an earlier tweet by Suchitra Krishnamoorthi, in which the actor had quipped about Banta — of Santa-Banta fame — sending the Union civil aviation minister a letter requesting the under-construction Navi Mumbai airport be named after him, since his brother had ‘Santacruz’ already honouring him, Puri reacted with Sardar-style good humour, ‘To lighten the mood a bit, I want to inform my friend Banta that his formal proposal has not yet been received by us!’ Banta Claus is having his ho-ho-ho.

Puri’s reaction merits our comment because politicos and their ilk have become a byword for harrumph-giri, usually taking on the role as joke-hunters and wit-killers. Puri’s riposte — although testing the waters with his ‘To lighten the mood a bit…’ descriptor in case some gravitas-pulling colleague makes a din — is a refreshing case of officialdom responding with humour. A chuckle is a sure sign of the absence of the nervousness that usually wracks the corridors, nooks and crannies of power in this country.