Pic for representational purpose of how all political parties damage footpaths

The woes of eternal youth leader aka prince in perpetual waiting appear to be piling up. Looking at him, the Man from Madras Musings was tempted to comment if this, and not Mona Lisa’s was the head on which all the sorrows of the world had fallen. Let’s face it – you thought the Tweedledum-Tweedledee combo would collapse within weeks and here they are going strong. You thought the river water could be ratcheted up as an issue and all of a sudden Tweedledum claimed victory though as to what exactly was won is yet to be understood by anyone. Then came the polluting plant in distant pearl city but there too matters just went ahead and all is quiet. Eternal Youth Leader (EYL), at the time of going to Press, was contemplating laying siege to the Governor’s residence, than which there can be no bigger non-issue. MMM doubts if anyone would notice. The Governor will be happily ensconced in his beautiful home and the rest of the world will continue to function as usual.

But that is not all. Last fortnight, EYL and his party, the Rising Sun, conducted a political meeting in a locality named after the original founder and elder brother of the party. In the process of this, they followed the usual procedures laid out – drilling holes in pavements, digging up roads, putting up flags and generally making nuisances of themselves. The public, which all along ignored these things (a euphemism for suffering in silence), suddenly decided to protest. Social Media erupted in anger. Tweets and Facebook posts proliferated and EYL had to take notice. It is unlikely that he would have cared if people had protested in person bit something on social media was a different matter altogether. He issued an immediate apology and asked his legions to repair the damage done. This was done after a fashion – concrete was poured into the holes, grit pushed into the pits and the banners vanished. The Social Media protestors went on to protest other things – such as the situation in Outer Mongolia for instance. Attention span is notoriously short on Social Media.

But if you thought EYL’s troubles ended there, the next day saw people protesting against his party blocking off a central thoroughfare for a political meeting. Protests about this were less vociferous and the meeting went ahead. But it just shows that EYL is going through a tough phase. What puzzles MMM is that nobody protested when Tweedledum and his twin, and their party did just about the same thing – drilling holes, dug pits and put up banners. How is it that Social Media did not protest? The only one who did was old Traffic Ramaswami and he did it the old way – remaining steadfast and moving the Courts to act, not by sitting in a couch and pressing the ‘Like’ button. It would be good if EYL and the two Tweedles pay attention to the likes of Traffic Ramaswami and not the likes on Social Media.