Speech therapy: Leaders like Sandeep Dikshit find self-restraint challenging

Time and again the political class has demonstrated that it suffers from foot-in-the-mouth syndrome. Or, perhaps, it hankers after the 15 minutes of fame that comes with being a motormouth.

Former MP Sandeep Dikshit, who has been out of the political reckoning for a while now, chose the easy way out by locking horns with Army chief General Bipin Rawat. Dikshit had virtually called Rawat a goon on the streets.

Whatever support he had expected from the Congress leadership over his intemperate remark wasn’t forthcoming. Left in the lurch and in the face of mounting backlash, he retracted his statement and issued an apology.

However, the Congress leader has displayed symptoms of a malignant disease that has gnawed at the foundations of the civilised discourse, which is the hallmark of a democracy. Mud-slinging in public has become a recurrent feature, spawning a culture where mutual respect and self-restraint have been the foremost casualties.

Leaders like Dikshit, who do not contribute in terms of policy-making, organisational strength or intellectual arguments, have only narrow self-interests in mind when they purport to shake things up. Sensing the tide against him, he realised the importance of choosing “appropriate words” even while expressing his disagreement with General Rawat.

Thankfully, the latter’s dignified silence prevented a further escalation of words. The irony is the right to free speech is much abused in this country.