Elephantine memories

In one of the funniest and at the same time, grimmest political incidents in the engaging and twisted drama that is current Tamil Nadu politics, Mani Shankar Aiyer was ambushed both literally and figuratively. Aiyer had been invited in his capacity as the local MP to a government meeting where CM Jayalalitha went after him in an unexpected verbal assault, where she reminded the Congressman of his disparaging comments about her published two years ago where he, in response to Jayalalitha then gifting an elephant to the Guruvayoor Temple, had written that he would like to gift her to a temple too [Draw your own inferences as to the insinuation/comparison]. This led to the harassed (and probably bewildered) MP leaving the function in a huff. But that's just half the story - a group of people attacked his car and him a fair distance away from the function, allegedly an AIADMK act that seemed to have been more planned than spontaneous. Aiyar (sporting torn kurta for benefit of the news channels) has decided to complain to a lot of people in return.

Since I don't sympathise with any of the participants in the drama, it is easy to let out a huge chuckle - Aiyer himself has been seen to be pro-Jayalalitha in recent times, and like that other flip-flopper Subramaniam Swamy, can be in any corner as it suits him and can vehemently defend his positions. What seemed to me most funny was the fact that though Amma has taken strong umbrage to the comparison, she (in her now trademark style of ruthless and outspoken revenge-seeking) has exhibited the exact powers of memory and vengeance that the pachyderm in question is proverbially supposed to embody.