Timing is everything in politics. It reveals plenty—but it reveals even more!
At a little past 10.30 am on Tuesday, August 22, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India struck down the regressive practice of instant triple talaq, in a 3-2 judgement.
Press Trust of India, the emerging pet media hate of the BJP government, reported the full judgement at 11.13 am.
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By 12.35 pm, BJP president Amit Shah had a full statement.
By 1 pm, he had five more tweets (here, here, here, here, and here).
By 2 pm, he had a full press conference.
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By 1.45 pm, prime minister Narendra Modi was out with a tweet hailing the triple talaq judgement as “historic”.
By 2 pm, PTI was amplifying the PM’s words.
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By 2.55 pm, finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley had his response up on Twitter. By 7.10 pm, his digital warriors had put up his views on YouTube.
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By 4.46 pm, former finance minister and lawyer P. Chidambaram was offering a response which he followed up a minute later.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi‘s response came a full seven hours after the judgement was delivered, at 5.55 pm.
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Today, a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court delivered a unanimous judgement, ruling that privacy was a fundamental right.
PTI reports the judgement as having been delivered at 10.47 am.
At 3 pm, Amit Shah is yet to tweet or call a press conference.
At 3 pm, Narendra Modi is yet to tweet or offer a response.
At 3 pm, Arun Jaitley has still not squared up to cameramen.
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Former Union finance and law minister P. Chidambaram was first off the blocks at 11 am.
Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, who didn’t bother about the triple talaq judgement, shot off her approval at 12.48 pm.
Rahul Gandhi was hailing the SC judgement at 1.43 pm.
By 1.46 pm, he had another tweet.
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What the responses reveal about the ideological mindsets of our parties and their leaders from this timeline is not difficult to guess.
As for Mukul Rohatgi, the Lodhi Garden lawyer who stood up on behalf of the BJP government and said citizens don’t have a right over their bodies, nothing has been heard from him after he demitted office as attorney-general.
