Fortunately only those with a sense of political history still recall how Lal Bahadur Shastri assumed moral responsibility for a couple of major accidents and resigned as railway minister: Today few ministers can boast of either morality, or responsibility. That would be lucky for Manohar Parrikar, who would have found himself in deep trouble had Shastri&’s example still been honoured. For twice in less than a year have terrorists managed to penetrate the security systems at two major defence installations, and despite all the “noise” over what happened at the Pathankot air base an important army installation at Uri in Kashmir came under attack. It is true that no minister can be held responsible for a lapse in security, yet there is enough evidence on display at Uri to confirm that no lessons were learnt from Pathankot, Something which is likely to be authenticated by the NIA probe into what went wrong in Kashmir. And that adds up to a valid query over the defence minister&’s capacity to lead the national security apparatus. A place in the VIP enclosure for the Republic Day Parade also requires executing a demanding job, more than taking a flight to a trouble-spot — remember that Parrikar was specially chosen for the job by the Prime Minister. And yet the major post-Uri security review was conducted in the home ministry — it points to the administrative and political pecking order.

The fact that Shastri&’s high standards no longer apply is not the only stroke of luck that favoured Parrikar. The terrorists who struck at Uri did him a great favour by diverting attention away from a most distasteful comment to the effect that the chief minister of Delhi needed surgery on the tongue because he used his to repeatedly disparage Mr Narendra Modi. Even in the quagmire of politics there is no room for such “black humour”. Particularly on the subject of anyone&’s medical problems. The defence minister must understand that by virtue of the office he holds he is one of the “big four”, and he must rise above such cheap barbs. He also happens to “head” the military, and hence is required to sustain the image of officer-and-gentleman. Has he not come up rather short?