The Times of India
Editorial
Colin Powell's resignation: moderates vs hardliners
Fence-sitters should be banished from politics
The 'moderate' is a sick joke in contemporary politics. He persuades everyone into believing that he acts as a restraining influence on hardline elements, without actually doing anything of the sort. Colin Powell was believed to be the moderate in the Bush administration who was opposed to the Iraq invasion. It was this moderate image, as well as his Afro-American descent, that prompted the US government to pick Powell as its spokesperson in the UN General Assembly address which sought to explain why Iraq should be attacked. The man who supposedly did not believe in getting into Iraq lied on television screens across the world on the existence of 'weapons of mass destruction'. A true moderate would have refused to go on air, even sacrificing his job in the process. The moderate is a packaged creation, serving as a perfect foil to overtly hard-nosed elements in a political set-up. Who better than a person from a disadvantaged community to play the role?
Therefore, Powell is mistakenly perceived as someone who might better appreciate the plight of the have-nots in the world. Back home, Atal Behari Vajpayee is the moderate poster boy of the anti-Muslim Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Shahnawaz Husain are pressed into service to peddle Hindutva. Finally, the Afro-American sat back and watched while tragedy befell Iraq; his friends in India hemmed and hawed when Gujarat burned. The late Yasser Arafat played ducks and drakes with Islamic fundamentalism, while posturing to stand for secular Palestinian ideals. Moderates are sidelined during crucial junctures, where an entire party converges around a single view, such as the Republicans after 9/11 or the BJP during Kargil. They are then reduced to a farce, reacting after a disaster. They cling to their posts despite all the embarrassment. We don't need such fence-sittersEnjoy the awesome learning power of EncartaŽ at your fingertips when you subscribe to MSNŽ Encarta Premium.
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