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battle. ‘Even if you went to the IT or the Election Commission, such a probe would hurt you as much as it would me,’ she retorted.
    ‘Perhaps. But – and here’s where you still have to understand the junta – what do you think the people are going to do when they realize you’ve earned more than thrice as much as all the other parties put together? It’s not about whether you are a thief – it’s about what you’ve stolen.’
    As much as she hated to admit it, Pandit had to concede the point. Corruption being as rampant as it was in recent years, the voting public had gotten inured to the shock of its occurrence. The controversy over any scam these days revolved not around the core issues but the number of zeros in the figures calculated by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
    ‘Agreed,’ she said after a few minutes of thought. ‘But you drop the demands for the PM’s resignation or his appearance before any investigation committee.’
    ‘Excellent,’ Patil clapped. ‘I had no intention of dragging Razdan into this anyway – but I guess this means he is going to continue till the fourteenth, huh?’
    ‘As will you,’ remarked Pandit, noting with satisfaction the momentary flash of anger that flashed across his face. ‘Jojo needs a little time before he takes on more responsibilities. I think by the time the next elections take place, he will be ready for a more . . . significant leadership role.’
    16th September, 2012. Over the air.
    Raghav Menon seemed to size me up carefully before answering. ‘In one of the interviews you gave shortly after your book was published, you said you chose this year – 2012 – as the year in your story because you thought this was the most likely year in which a coup could happen.
    ‘The year 2009 was just after the last elections, so it was unlikely that the voters would regret their mistake that early – or even acknowledge that they could have erred in choosing their government.
    ‘And 2010 was still too close to the election year. The Opposition is still in disarray, there is this energy that comes with a second term, the government is still sopping up the goodwill from all their populist measures in their manifesto . . . above all, there is no real political threat for them to combat, and so it would be business as usual.
    ‘Two years after the elections – 2011 – is when the disenchantment starts to set in. The blinders are off, the donors are demanding their pounds of flesh, the Opposition is organizing itself, people are waking up and finding out that the sops are starting to disappear. State elections start throwing out their incumbents. A trend is appearing . . .
    ‘Which brings us to 2012. That’s when it all comes to a head. Populism has left the economy in a mess, coalition politics have broken down policy-led governance, disappointed donors are now looking for alternatives. So the government has no choice but to go on the defensive – which means, to go on the offensive. Slap arbitrary cases, stifle opposing opinions. There are still two more years left for a possible change – so the people are also getting restless. The lifecycle of the government starts to decay as more scams are unearthed. Frustration in the air, in all directions.’
    He paused, as if waiting for applause. To be honest, I was impressed. He had neatly paraphrased my entire interview to the magazine Mirror in 2010, given just a couple of weeks after my book sold its first copy. I nodded appreciatively as I said, ‘All of which I grant. We are exactly at that point of the public psyche right now . . . but this is not the first time it’s happened, and it’s not going to be the last time either –’
    ‘Have you studied history, Mr Selvam?’
    ‘I have. Who hasn’t?’
    ‘What started the First World War? What triggered off the Second World War? How did Kargil start? What was the Boston Tea Party, with respect to the American war for independence? What set