No, I am not joking. Let me refresh the memories of readers. On Sunday, May 22, 2005, the prime minister called an emergency session of the Cabinet. The ministers at this infamous conclave decided that Governor Buta Singh had spoken the “gospel truth” in calling for the dissolution of the newly elected Bihar Vidhan Sabha. The Union Cabinet, having rubber-stamped this fallacy and faxed the relevant papers to President Kalam in Moscow, went to sleep. The next morning, the prime minister flew off to Ranthambore to solve the Mystery of the Missing Tigers.

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It needed the considered judgment of the Supreme Court to drive home the point that the Union Cabinet did not apply its collective mind before swallowing the governor’s chicanery. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intellect and his integrity are — it goes without saying — beyond question. The conclusion therefore must be that he was then preoccupied with some other grave issue. And, judging by his schedule, the tigers of Rajasthan obviously rated higher in the list of priorities than the mere wretched human beings of Bihar. So, as he has obviously failed in his duty in one instance, would he care to tell India whether he had at least succeeded in saving the tigers?

Should the whereabouts of Panthera Tigris be beyond the ken of the prime minister, he is, I am sure, only too aware of just where a certain Singh had chosen to skulk on Republic Day. The prime minister should have ensured that Singh did not unfurl the flag from Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Republic Day. As things turned out, Buta Singh, as a man whose mala fide intentions have been set in stone by the Supreme Court itself, took the salute, as he himself had proudly proclaimed to the world he would. It was only after that, that he stepped down.

Of course, constitutional pundits would tell you that, strictly speaking, the prime minister is Primus inter Pares, or First among Equals. So what were Prime minister Manmohan Singh’s colleagues in the Union Cabinet doing when they were supposed to be applying their minds? The internet is a wonderful invention. It allows me to consult The Indian Express archives going back all the way up to 1997. Here for your edification are a few of the headlines from those dramatic days in 2005:

‘Angry over Kolkata poll deal, Cong’s own rough up Pranab’ was a lead story on May 16’. ‘Govt clears 50% Muslim quota for PG courses in AMU, anger on campus’ was one of the headlines on May 20. (So now we know what the veteran from Madhya Pradesh was doing — creating another ‘unconstitutional’ act for the courts to strike down.) ‘In Kathmandu, New Delhi has created right royal mess’ was a front page story on May 26. (A slippery slope in the making long before External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh hit an oil streak!) And on June 1 it was a case of ‘Govt’s Doctor plays The Cigarette Censor’ as Health Minister Ramadoss made a cheap bid for publicity.

Obviously all the prime minister’s men had plenty on their plate even without being distracted by Bihar at a midnight meeting! But what of the gentleman most obviously concerned, perhaps next only to Dr Manmohan Singh himself — namely the Union home minister?

Shivraj Patil is a decent man and an honourable one. But he lacks the clout to stand up to the bullying of someone like, say, Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav. But if we can sympathise with Patil the man, is that excuse enough for Patil the minister? Wasn’t he expected to think it through as their lordships of the bench have implicitly suggested? Surely he could have had no illusions about the kind of man who had been sent to Raj Bhavan in Patna?

All sarcasm apart, both the Union home minister and the prime minister are intelligent and honest men. But their reputations have become an air-raid shelter for those who lack their scruples. Buta Singh’s mala fide intentions are scarcely unique in the brief life of the United Progressive Alliance regime. Does anyone remember the shenanigans of S.C. Jamir in Panaji’s Raj Bhavan? And what of Syed Sibtey Razi in the Raj Bhavan in Ranchi? When you consider the fact that both men continue to wallow in their respective gubernatorial offices, you find it easier to understand Buta Singh’s defiant assurance before he was presumably made to see reason.

I wonder if Dr Manmohan Singh and Shivraj Patil would have the courage to seize the straw offered by the Supreme Court even at this late date. Their lordships have had harsh words for the practice of planting politicians in Raj Bhavan. Now that Buta Singh has stepped down, will the prime minister use this to wield the broom and sweep the offices at Ranchi, and Panaji?

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is old enough to recall why January 26 is something more than just another holiday. It is the day we adopted our own Constitution. It is also the day we snapped all links to an alien crown, replacing a governor-general with a president — Dr Rajendra Prasad. This Republic Day, a man whose action was condemned as “unconstitutional” by the apex court, took the salute in Dr Rajendra Prasad’s home state, at a place named after the Father of the Nation.

Be honest with India, Mr Prime Minister, were these really reasons to celebrate Republic Day?