Quratulain Rehbar

Here’s what the government and Delhi police are really telling you: ‘Guys, ’twas a famous victory! We won the match hands down. We saw to it that the rival team could not show up at the ground.’ That’s assuming this was a T20 fixture and dismissing any other contests or formats in this series yet unfolding. And ignoring the fact that the rival teams humbled them repeatedly, sometimes hilariously, at multiple venues beyond Jantar Mantar. It’s also assuming that employing brute force to deny young people entry to a designated protest site in the capital of their own country, using 35,000 or more security personnel to do so, cancelling 250 trains, arresting people on board aircraft, yanking them off buses, detaining thousands across Delhi and the country at their homes or in police stations, cracking down on independent journalists, and deploying their discredited media attack hounds – was a victory. And meanwhile CJI Surya Kant who made the Cockroaches a household word has added another fascinating insect to his lexicon, advising the authorities that “one should not use a hammer to kill a fly." Cockroaches, flies, gosh! What’s next in the queue, spiders that trap themselves in their own webs? Today Delhi brought alive the old Sanskrit saying Vinash Kale Viprita Buddhi. When doom approaches, the mind losses its balance and judgement.