The curious case of the politician and the pooch

Politicians and pooches go way back. From what are mostly repugnant remarks, politicos have also invoked canines to play pranks on each other and even have them tried to have them sent to jail for troubling them at night. It would seem, man's best friend may be the politician's worst enemy.

1. VK Singh

Keeping it tasteful, as he has lately been known to do, General VK Singh said, in order to break any link between the central government and the murder of two Dalit children in Haryana, "To har cheez par, ki wahan par patthar maar diya kutte ko to, sarkar zimmewaar hai. Aisa nahi hai (For everything… Like if somebody throws a stone at a dog, then the central government is responsible… It is not like that)". Singh's remark has triggered demands for his resignation by the Congress, Left leaders and the Aam Aadmi Party.

2. Narendra Modi

"Another thing, if we are driving a car, we are a driver, and someone else is driving a car and we're sitting behind, even then if a puppy comes under the wheel, will be painful or not? Of course, it is. If I'm a chief minister or not, I'm a human being. If something bad happens anywhere, it is natural to be sad," then Gujarat chief minister (and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in 2013, referring to the 2002 riots in Gujarat. Ironically, this insensitive - and somewhat strange analogy - was the closest he came to an apology or expressing remorse over the incident, that led to the death of over 1,000 people, most of them Muslims.

3. Nitin Gadkari

This seems to be something of a favourite among the BJP supremos, it seems. In 2011, Nitin Gadkari, while addressing the media in Chandigarh, called Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav "dogs of Sonia Gandhi". This classy quip came since the BJP minister was miffed by the Yadav leaders' "change of stand" and "betrayal" during the cut motions in Parliament, he said: "Woh Sonia ke talwe chatne waale kutte hain (They are dogs that lick Sonia's feet)." This may have been the moment muzzles were made for.

4. VS Achuthanandan

In 2008, Kerala chief minister VS Achuthanandan's remarks against the family of the National Security Guard commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, who was killed fighting terrorists in Mumbai, had people demanding his resignation across the country. Achuthanandan, who went to offer his condolences at the commando's house in Bangalore, was turned away by his father and reacted most disrespectfully, saying that "even a dog would not have gone to their house had he not been a martyr". We'll take that rabies shot to save ourselves from the insensitivity of politicians too, thank you very much.

5. Durgadas Kamat

Last year, in a hilarious gesture, the Congress organising secretary Durgadas Kamat claimed a barking dog was a perfect gift for Bilawal Zardari Bhutto because he was continuously barking up the wrong tree as far as Kashmir is concerned and dispatched a parcel containing a plastic toy dog to the PPP headquarters in Islamabad. This was in reaction to the son of two-time former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and former President Asif Ali Zardari saying, "I will take back Kashmir, all of it, and I will not leave behind a single inch of it because, like the other provinces, it belongs to Pakistan," at a rally last year. Excuse us, while we wag our tails approvingly.

6. Shiv Sena

The Shiv Sena-controlled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), in 2004 "arrested" 14 dogs for disturbing chief Bal Thackeray's slumber one night with their incessant barking. While it is impossible to "arrest" dogs, the Sena chief was adamant and to humour him, the BMC officials told him that they had duly "arrested" the canines on one Thursday night from Kalanagar (just to be clear, they had been impounded). We can think of some incessant, annoying barking from within the party (not to mention ink hurling) that warrants impounding today. Let's hope action is taken just as swiftly in that regard.