Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya

@prashanthamine

Late Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray had once publicly chided his Shivshahi government then deputy chief minister, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader late Gopinath Munde with the one liner “Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya” over the latter’s extra-marital affair. Today late Munde’s nephew and Maharashtra Social Justice Minister Dhananjay Munde finds himself facing a similar piquant situation.

We are not here to cast any aspersions or attribute any motives here. But history is replete with several such instances of moral indiscretion on part of politicians. There have been more dangerous liaisons that have not just threatened their careers but also threatened their governments and national security.

The most classic of them all was the 1961 Profumo Affair, involving John Dennis Profumo then British Secretary of State for War in Harold Macmillan’s Conservative government with a model named Christine Keeler who was a Russian spy. Keeler had affair with Yevgeny Ivanov a senior naval attaché with the Soviet embassy in London. The scandal eventually led to the toppling of the Conservative government of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

The John F Kennedy – Marilyn Monroe – Robert @ Bobby Kennedy affair of 1962 has now acquired cult status. There was a time when then Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) J Edgar Hoover had to bluntly tell the Presidents younger brother Robert @ Bobby Kennedy who also happened to be the Attorney General to tell his elder brother to stay away from Hollywood actress. Monroe is widely alleged to have had links with Russians and she later died under mysterious circumstances.

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The third most controversial affair was that between then US President Bill Clinton and the White House intern Monica Lewinsky in 1995-1997. The torrid affair even cost Clinton with an impeachment and damaged Democrat Al Gore’s bid to presidency in 2000.

A decade long affair with divorcee Jennifer Fitzgerald threatened to rip apart the marriage of then Republican US President George H W Bush and Barbara Bush. Worst ignominy was in store for former Hollywood actor turned Republican Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger (73) fell for his one-time maid Mildred Baena (59) in 1996.

Even more scandalous was the affair between former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had with an 18 year old model Neomi Letizia somewhere between 2007-2009. Critics argue that Letizia was fit to be Berlusconi’s grand-daughter. Former French President Francois Hollande initially threw a fit of rage after his affair of 2012-2014 with actress Julie Gayet was blown up by a French magazine Closer.

In India, the Bhanwari Devi and Mahipal Maderna affair of 2011 in Rajasthan was the most controversial. The controversy blew up after the mysterious disappearance and later death of the auxiliary nurse. The escapades of former Governor N D Tiwari are well documented. There are several more such instances of moral indiscretion from some of our most revered politicians.

We may make fun of the moral indiscretion or escapades of our politicians, but we never fully understand the seriousness or the gravity of the indiscretion. Let us not forget that these leaders and career politicians have held the highest office of the land. They have taken oath of office and secrecy and is often sworn on the holy book. An indiscretion such as this can mean compromising with national security.

It took close to two years before the Profumo affair broke out in the British media in 1963, as the British media then was pretty much conservative in its approach so as to not to interfere in the private lives of its political leaders. It was finally broken by a politician using his parliamentary privilege brought the scandal out in the open forcing Profumo to make a statement. The affair involved espionage angle that ultimately toppled a government.

Howsoever the scandal may be serious or mild indiscretion it surely damages the public image and the career of the politician. It also damages the reputation of the woman involved and hence discretion is advised until the investigation might prove otherwise.