Loudmouths

Mark Twain once said, "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

Well, the inability to keep your mouth shut is the sign of a loud mouth. And this week, it was an intriguing encounter with two such men.

Loudmouth

The first one was Ram Madhav, a politician from the BJP.

A few days back, the CM of Jammu and Kashmir - Mehbooba Mufti - made a a request to GOI. The request was to cease anti-terror operations in the holy month of Ramazan. 

Mufti said, "Everyone agreed that we must urge the Centre that government must think about a unilateral ceasefire like Vajpayee ji did in 2000. Encounters, crackdowns are causing trouble to common man. Efforts must be made to maintain environment so that both Eid and Amarnath Yatra are peaceful." 

Before the GOI could respond to her request, either in positive or negative, Madhav bolted out of the stables. He vehemently opposed the suggestion. You can read his entire views here. Madhav often tries to consider himself as an unofficial spokesman of the GOI.

I expected the GOI to be a bit pragmatic, as it has always been. Soon after Mufti's request, the Home Minister of the GOI, Rajnath Singh announced an unilateral ceasefire

The Home Ministry said, “The Centre asks Security Forces not to launch operations in Jammu & Kashmir during the holy month of Ramzan. Decision taken to help the peace-loving Muslims observe Ramzan in a peaceful environment. HM Shri @rajnathsingh has informed the Chief Minister, J&K of Centre’s decision. Security Forces to reserve the right to retaliate if attacked or if essential to protect the lives of innocent people. The government expects everyone to cooperate in this initiative and help the Muslim brothers & sisters to observe Ramzan peacefully and without any difficulties”.

And as for Madhav, he was left licking his words.

The next one in this illustrious group is none other than the very vocal Arnab Goswami.

It was high drama after the vote counting of the elections in Karnataka. The biased Governor invited the BJP to form the government, though JD(S) + Congress combine had the majority. The Governor passed this decision at 9 PM, and scheduled the swearing in at 9 AM on the next day. 

Malfeasance was evident in this action.

The Congress decided to take the battle to the next level, and decided to bring up the matter in the Supreme Court, the very night.

Goswami, sitting in his studio, started screaming in his trademark style - "How can the Congress bring up this frivolous matter for the Supreme Court in the dead of the night?" and mocked the political organisation.

The Supreme Court of India did not treat the matter casually, as Arnab had done. They heard the petition for 3.5 hrs the same night, between 2 AM to 5:30 AM. 

The passed on some decisive and important actions on the same night and the next day. And their very actions proved very crucial. Although BJP had its CM sworn in on the next day, her had to quit his post a day later - due to the very fact that he did not have a majority.

Once again, Arnab was left licking his words, by the the Supreme Court, who decided to hear the matter that same night.

The events of the last few days has left one indelible impression. The world is full of loudmouths. Listen to them at your own risk. More often than not, they are grossly wrong. But they seem to project that they are right by screaming.

Stay away from loudmouths.