Tripathi's smile cracks

Finally, that smile has been wiped off the face of Amarmani Tripathi, former UP minister, celebrated DNA testee and man with 33 cases against him. He hadn''t stopped grinning into cameras these last four months that he has been in the limelight.
All that attention because a young poetess Madhumita Shukla was found murdered. After months of maintaining that he had not met the 24-year-old in three years, a DNA test seems to have established that the minister was intimate with the dead woman.Till very recently.
To smile so indefatigably through being accused by Madhumita''s family of being responsible for her death, through losing that lucrative ministerial post and indeed through the whole process of a person so close dying must take special ability. An ability evidently shared by the likes of Salman Khan who seems to spring back from each wrongdoing none the wiser, but with many wisecracks nonetheless.
Is it about cameras and the need to present your best face? Or about proving you are innocent by putting on an asinine grin and a show of high spirits? Tripathi has seemed just short of flashing the V sign like a sporting hero as television crews trail him since Madhumita''s murder.
Maybe it is all a sport. In another world Bill Clinton equally shared being the butt of a zillion jokes with the animated Monica Lewinsky, the inanimate but interesting cigar, and, unfortunately, his wife Hillary.
Nobody is joking here, but there has been much nudging and winking, all about the dead woman''s antecedents. Her letters are read out with salacious interest, but very few eyebrows have been raised on the much-married Tripathi''s extramarital activities. His flirtations with the law, yes, those otherwise, no.
For a race traditionally squeamish about in-the-face activities of the sexual variety, we seem to have a fairly liberal attitude to our politicians'' peccadilloes. A throwback to the feudal day? They are largely forgiven their fling as long as there is no overt crime. The sixth commandment can be ignored as long as the fifth is not involved.
Stories abound but there is no retribution, even if it is usually public money that provides infrastructure support. Gary Hart, eat your heart out - and you couldn''t run for President for being photographed with a woman on your lap.
It is also unlikely that Tripathi''s wife, also being investigated by the CBI in the case, will be the best-selling writer of her memoirs. Who wants to read the trials and tribulations of the neglected wife of an Indian politician - there are so many. The more curious may pick up Madhumita''s poetry as long as her face, her love letters and her case are on television.
Amarmani Tripathi, if he gets a breather from the law, will undoubtedly wait for the dust to settle and then try his hand at ministership again. He has already been minister with 33 cases relating to murder, attempted murder and extortion registered against him. A charge of immorality is unlikely to make a dent.
There are much bigger fish whose scarcely discreet dalliances have been laughed away indulgently. Must be an easy habit to acquire - political clout.