Apropos the report, "Nirmala critical of Rajan's 'one-eyed king' phrase" (April 19), Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's advice to Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan applies to all public figures, be they officials, diplomats, ministers or politicians.
As metaphors tend to carry an element of exaggeration, those in public life should be wary of using them, as the media and politicians in the Opposition scrutinise their every utterance. In 1977, when then Union minister George Fernandes called an Opposition leader a "congenital liar", then prime minister Morarji Desai reprimanded him, saying, "You could have expressed the same view by saying, 'she seldom speaks the truth'." In 2007, then Indian ambassador to the US Ronen Sen was censured by the Parliamentary Privileges Committee for calling critics of the Indo-US nuclear deal "headless chicken".
More obnoxious than the use of metaphors is making contemptuous gestures in media glare. Restraint in speech and behaviour should be the watchword of those in public life.
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As metaphors tend to carry an element of exaggeration, those in public life should be wary of using them, as the media and politicians in the Opposition scrutinise their every utterance. In 1977, when then Union minister George Fernandes called an Opposition leader a "congenital liar", then prime minister Morarji Desai reprimanded him, saying, "You could have expressed the same view by saying, 'she seldom speaks the truth'." In 2007, then Indian ambassador to the US Ronen Sen was censured by the Parliamentary Privileges Committee for calling critics of the Indo-US nuclear deal "headless chicken".
More obnoxious than the use of metaphors is making contemptuous gestures in media glare. Restraint in speech and behaviour should be the watchword of those in public life.
V Jayaraman Chennai
Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:
The Editor, Business Standard
Nehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
New Delhi 110 002
Fax: (011) 23720201
E-mail: letters@bsmail.in
All letters must have a postal address and telephone number