In 1962, John Kenneth Galbraith, then US ambassador to India, wrote to President Kennedy arguing that politics is not 'the art of the possible' but rather 'consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable'. With Lutyens' Delhi still emerging from a fortnight of protest-and-crackdown, the aftertaste is certainly bitter enough. Galbraith's definition, however, presupposes someone willing to choose, and options on a ballot to choose between.
Opposition parties now mobilising against EC, with a rally planned for Nov 1, fit the bill well enough. Whatever one thinks of them, theirs is the familiar case to make - we are the least bad option; pick us. It's not quite so with the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). It is amorphous, with its founder, Abhijeet Dipke, last week reiterating his insistence that it remains 'an independent pressure group'.
