Wanted: A fig leaf for Rudy

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br />The humble <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">neta</span> in crumpled <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">khadi</span> was already a dying breed. The kind that indulged himself, but had the grace to pretend he only lived to serve the public, not his own extravagant tastes.Rajiv Pratap Rudy has changed all that.<br /></div> <div align="left" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="left" border="1" width="18.9%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy</span></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">The minister is a new-age politician who seems to think he can get away with anything. That a minister''s chair brings instant immunity. He has clearly not been attending the classes Congress leaders ought to be holding on how transient power can be. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">Now, almost every politician goes through the rough and tumble with that one aspiration in mind. That one day, position will bring in the goodies. For some of them, the goodies would be the sheer thrill of power. And for many, like Rudy, it could be getting the public to <a href="http://www.thetimesofindia.online/articleshow/484386.cms">pay for his indulgences</a> - like vacationing, family in tow, in the most expensive suite of the most expensive hotel in Goa. Though why he needs a butler''s services </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">Why blame him alone. For over 50 years even the minions and acolytes that attach themselves to </span><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="" font-style:="" italic="">mantris</span><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold=""> have lived off the fat of the land. And we, the folk who worry at the end of the year about filling the right form and then stand in line to hand over income-tax, know well whose luxuries we are paying for. It is one of those things everyone knows and everyone lives with. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">What galls is that Rudy did not even bother with a fig leaf. That he left a trail of paper while making demands of the most entertaining kinds - asking Airports Authority of India to build a fountain in his garden or keep him swimming in the latest cell phone models is a little rich, even for a minister most seen posing on the runway in designer clothes. And this is election season.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold=""><formid=367815></formid=367815></span><br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal">Unhappily for the gent, circumstances have a way of making one look very foolish at times. Rudy was quoted only this weekend saying that during the coming Lok Sabha elections, image management would be crucial. He was talking about a well-groomed look for the politician to "grab eyeballs." Now he needn''t bother with that dapper look. He has all the eyeballs he can handle. But did he say image management? <br /><br />What Rudy lacks in circumspection, however, he seems to make up in political acumen. By all accounts the minister is expected to face a tough time in the general elections with a very good chance of not making it back to the Lok Sabha. Perhaps then, that was a minister in a hurry - a common breed that scrambles to make the most of current situation knowing it is unlikely to get this good ever again. <br /><br />And perhaps that is what has made a braveheart of him as he announces that he is ready to take on the mighty <a href="http://www.thetimesofindia.online/articleshow/483396.cms">Laloo Prasad Yadav</a> in his Chhapra constituency of Bihar. He knows he''ll probably lose, but he could do a mini-Sushma Swaraj - dine off the "sacrifice" for the rest of his life. Remember Sushma''s long suffering moment in Bellary, when she offered to go down fighting against Sonia Gandhi? <br /><br />Only Sushma got a Rajya Sabha berth for all her trouble. Rudy is no Sushma to begin with and right now the softest heart would not like to rehabilitate the man. So the bravura - though juxtaposed with his whining on having had to pay Rs 2.69 lakhs for a super luxurious hotel stay and on not having got a discount makes the whole thing sound like something out of a Shekhar Suman show.<br /><br /><formid=367815><br /></formid=367815></div> </div>