Manmohan's Caesar-ian moment. Or was it the Roman ear?

The “Caesar’s wife” argument by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seemed flawed on two counts – that of semantics and culture.

Let’s take semantics first.

The story is of the year when Caesar was elected head of the Roman government around 62 BC. Clodius, an alleged lover of Caesar’s second wife Pompeia, was accused of a sacrilege, with her having played a suspect role in it. Despite no clarity, Caesar nevertheless divorced Pompeia before the trial of Clodius by a jury. Appearing as a witness, Caesar testified before a surprised court, that he did not know anything about the charges against Clodius. His explanation being that though he was not clear about Clodius’s crime, his wife could not even be a suspect, he being the head of the state.

In effect, what is meant is that actual guilt or innocence was immaterial for Caesar. For him, resemblance of an action of his wife, that might have otherwise been amoral, to an immoral action, was reason enough to distance himself from her. A dilemma faced by lord Ram, and handled very similarly by banishing Sita.

But more of it later. Cut to the present. Prime Minister is Caesar or Pompeia?

If one goes by his statement, it would come out that he is Caesar’s wife as “he wants to be above suspicion”. If that is the case than it is his head that should have been scalped and not A Raja’s as has happened. A better juxtaposition would be that PM is Caesar, Raja Pompeia, and if we have to complete the cast – Radia could take the place of Clodius and the Parliament that of the court.

That brings us to the second flaw – that of culture.

As mentioned earlier, lord Ram took a call similar to Caesar’s when faced with a comparable situation. If Manmohan Singh had to err any way, could he have given a more culturally rooted analogy of Sita’s guilt?

In the mid-1990’s, Singh’s mentor and then PM Pamulaparti Venkata Narsimha Rao found himself in a similar – or much worse – position toward the end of his tenure. Accused by UK NRI Lakhubhai Pathak of taking a paltry Rs one lakh bribe from him, Rao, the polyglot fended off the media by saying he would clear the fire test like “Sita maiya.”

Singh could have addressed a wider audience across the country perhaps in just following his then mentor who incidentally is no more a pariah in the Congress pantheon after last week’s resurrection by his present mentor! Or as it the Rome connection working?