It is an age in which a politician’s worst nightmare is any rude aside, meant only for an inner circle, being caught on an open microphone and broadcast to a much larger audience than intended. The Presidents of the US and France, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy, have both been high-profile victims of this new hazard of the microphone gaffe, known only in the television age.
Our own politician with maverick opinions on many subjects, Mani Shankar Aiyar, joins this select band of politicos who are stumped by the very medium they embrace to air their views to the population at large. The perils of live shows in which the broadcaster springs a surprise telephone hook-up that could be potentially embarrassing for a guest were emphasised when Mr Aiyar was featured on a show along with the much reviled sponsor of brazen acts of terrorism against India, Hafiz Saeed of the dreaded Lashkar-e-Tayyaba of Pakistan.
Unlike Messrs Obama and Sarkozy, our MP walked into the trap with his eyes — and mouth — open, little knowing that his Congress party would take umbrage at this. While he was not exactly consorting with terrorists by design, he was certainly guilty of being careless about what he says and who he shares media space with.
Correct as he was in putting down an enemy of the state on the programme, his good judgment did not, however, extend to how he handles his interactions on television. Of course, as is known to happen in all such minor infringements of the code of political correctness, this one, too, will be just another storm in a teacup.