Amitabh Bachchan is in the ‘Panama Papers’! Just in case you have not been brought up-to-date, these so-called ‘papers’ are not what Panamanians hold in their hands while enjoying their morning ‘cuppa’ or whatever every day. They are revelations about shell companies set up by tax evaders from across the world.
Bachchan’s first reaction was that it must have been a mistake and that his name must have been misused by unscrupulous elements. But then more evidence emerged about his participation in board meetings over long-distance phone calls as well as his exact designation in not one but four firms forcing Bachchan to ask the media to leave him alone and direct all queries to the government.
Full facts are still not clear but the proposal to involve Bachchan as India’s brand ambassador is under a cloud although the latest reports say an announcement appointing him to that post is imminent. Regardless of what the government decides, Bachchan’s iconic status has taken a beating.
Come to think of it, icons are falling one after another as the media probe and subsequent analyses make life difficult for those in the public eye. Bachchan’s brand ambassadorship was the result of an indiscreet statement by the original ambassador, Aamir Khan, who told a Delhi audience that, because of rising religious and ideological intolerance, his wife had suggested they leave the country. Whatever and however much Khan may explain in subsequent days, the majority of Indians felt hurt that the man who was “selling” India abroad was, in a sense, himself deprecating the nation.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is ‘Captain Cool’ who took the Indian cricket team to great heights on the world stage. Not just his game but his utterances in post-match press conferences, whether after a win or a defeat, set him apart as a man destined for still higher things in life. A successful political career, it seemed, was Dhoni’s for the picking. Some people even saw a future prime minister in Dhoni. (Little wonder in that because those were the Manmohan Singh days and Rahul Gandhi was being positioned as a successor). But then the Chennai Super Kings team in the Indian Premier League, of which, naturally, he was the captain, got mired in match-fixing controversy and was banished from the league itself. Dhoni apparently had little role in what went on behind the scenes within the team management but somehow fingers started pointing at him as well. The icon suddenly lost the sheen.
And then there is Salman Khan, who can inspire even the most malnourished youth in back-of-beyond villages to build his biceps. In fact, his co-stars are near-unanimous in saying Salman is a hero’s hero. He is known for his philanthropy as much among the deprived and the ghettoised as within the film fraternity itself. Stories abound of Khan extending a helping hand to yesteryear actors in financial trouble. And then he goes on a hunting spree in Rajasthan desert and allegedly kills a revered animal. As if that were not enough, his car runs over people sleeping on a Mumbai pavement, instantly killing one and injuring four.
While many Mumbai slums celebrated Salman’s acquittal by the Bombay High Court after being sentenced to five years in jail by a lower court for the pavement killing, there was much chagrin among the chatterati in television studios which forced the state government to appeal to the Supreme Court where the case is currently being heard. It seemed that another icon was primed go down.
But then, all of a sudden, from nowhere comes an announcement by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) that Salman Khan would be the country’s ambassador, no less, for the Rio De Janeiro Summer Olympics slated for this August. Many of India’s Olympians are aghast. What, they ask, has Salman Khan got to do with sports in general and Olympics in particular? And doesn’t India have its own Olympians and medal winners who could fit that bill? It is not as if we have a Carl Lewis or a Nadia Comaneci or a Roger Federer among our ranks. But we have what we have and must make the most it, not just “import” an “outsider.”
Obviously there is more to it than meets the eye. Politics must have played its part in projecting Salman as the country’s ambassador. But a bigger question would be: what will happen to India’s Olympic ambassador if the Supreme Court finds him guilty in the hit-and-run case and sets aside his acquittal by the Bombay High Court? Will he continue to motivate the Indian team from behind bars?
Innocent until proven guilty is the norm, but then again Salman had been proved guilty by one court and is facing the prospect of a similar verdict from another. The IOA will have egg on its face if the verdict goes against Salman before the Olympics come around. Sad that India’s iconic ambassadors are going through a bad patch.

History being made in Uttarakhand
“The people can never understand why the president does not use his supposedly great power to make ’em behave. Well, all the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering...”-Harry S Truman, president of the US (1945 to 1953).
Very often it is said the US president, who can order the unleashing of nuclear missiles that can destroy much of the earth, if not all of it, is the world’s most powerful man. But, as Truman himself put it, he is at best a glorified public relations man (or a woman, perhaps soon enough!).
There is a vast difference between the powers of a US president and his counterpart in India. The American president is the Chief Executive, India’s acts on the advice of the council of ministers with limited freedom of his/her own, especially in major decisions on governance. Perhaps Truman’s description of presidential powers would fit the Indian president better than anyone else. In a sense, the Indian president is more ceremonial than presidential.
History was made last week when the division bench of the Uttarakhand High Court not only struck down a presidential order but also added a few observations that put the so-called “highest office” in the land in less than glorified light.
“There is nothing like unreviewability. We are not sitting here to judge the political wisdom of the president… People can go wrong. A president or judge may be an excellent person, however he can also go horribly wrong,” said Chief Justice K M Joseph and his brother Judge V K Bisht as a preamble to setting aside President’s Rule in the state.
(It was just as well that the learned judges added “judge” in their comment because the Supreme Court seems to think these two judges, in turn, may have gone wrong, horribly or otherwise, in their verdict and restored President’s Rule, albeit temporarily).
But more history was being made in Uttarakhand. The high court verdict was pronounced at 3.30pm on April 21. That reinstated Harish Rawat as chief minister. The Supreme Court gave its stay order at 2.30 the following day, giving Rawat the dubious distinction of holding the shortest reign as chief minister of a state - just 23 hours.
But Rawat is a very conscientious man! He suddenly realised that the state should not suffer even for a minute because of the political skullduggery that was being played out in Dehradun. With the high court reinstating him, Rawat called a midnight meeting of his cabinet which passed as many as 11 major orders, most of them populist ones like re-appointing more than 6,000 temporary teachers on a stipend of Rs15,000 a month and hiking all social pensions to benefit as many as 700,000 people. Observers feel Rawat is preparing for assembly elections which may be inevitable very soon.
But all state cabinet decisions have to be approved and signed by the governor. Unfortunately, even before Governor Krishan Kant Paul could look at the documents the next day, Rawat was out of office once again and, therefore, the cabinet decisions could not see the light of day.
P.S: Judges Joseph and Bisht may have been simply pointing out human frailties when they said a “president or a judge” can go “horribly wrong”, but that statement carried interpretations far beyond the case in point. By logical extension, judges of the Supreme Court can also go horribly wrong. A man can hang for no fault of his. Scary thought indeed!
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