Minister’s attitude

Indifferent

Politicians have a knack for taking on the role of comedians if the situation arises. Whether their jokes are appropriate or not, is an entirely different matter though. Pakistani politicians, some of them only so-called, must then occupy the front row, for they do not lack in lighthearted bantering, some even have the skills matching a professional stand-up comedian. Rana Sana Ullah, Punjab law minister in the last government and the late Governor Salmaan Taseer traded barbs, albeit in a fun manner, many times over. Who can forget the ‘a degree is a degree whether fake or original’ fame Aslam Raisani or Pervez Musharraf who when faced public complaints about soaring price of tomatoes in December 2003, had suggested the public to use vegetables that were in season.

George Santayana’s well known saying that ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’ seems to have taken a literal turn when Punjab Food Minister Bilal Yaseen suggested women, who complained about the soaring price of tomatoes on Sunday at Shadman bazaar, to use lemon or yogurt to spice up the dishes, quite in the fashion Musharraf said almost 10 years ago. The statement speaks loudly of the indifference the privileged class often displays on the plight of the non-privileged classes. Instead of ordering an inquiry into why the prices had shot up, or taking any steps to control the trend, the minister seemed to be too pleased with himself to understand that making both ends meet with their meager sources of income is no joke for most of the public. Perhaps the minister doesn’t consider the job he has been entrusted with worth his attentions, perhaps the minister would like to utilise his great culinary knowledge – he did suggest how women can spice up dishes even without tomatoes – in a more befitting profession. Perhaps Masalah TV would soon make him an offer and the very public he so jokingly offended might see him, with all his charm and sense of humour, host a programme of his own, slicing and dicing vegetables and preparing ‘spiced up’ dishes, as per his suggestion of using alternatives to tomatoes. And perhaps, just perhaps, we might be able to witness the pinnacle of his expertise on cuisine when he would prepare dishes without other unnecessary ingredients like pepper, salt, and other spices. For that is where it is headed to if the present ministers keep this very attitude: you won’t be able to afford salt, pepper, or any spice for that matter.

It is ironic that the learned minister belongs to the party, the PML-N, whose leaders are known for having a taste of rich food but then again in their grandiose designs of running a bullet train they are quite ignorant of what the public is most suffering from: inflation, sky-high prices of commodities and power shortages. They would perhaps prefer French Queen Marie Antoinette’s infamous statement ‘Let them eat cake’, supposedly spoken upon learning that the peasants had no bread, than turning their attentions away from political shenanigans and working to solve the public’s problems. The Punjab government, and the PML-N leadership, should at least keep a check on how their ministers represent them and their government, if they cannot control the prices of food items.