Our new Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde could do with a few lessons on what to say and, more importantly, when to say it. He began by doing what a number of ministers have now made a habit of — profusely thanking UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Thank you for giving a ‘dalit’ the responsibility of this critical ministry, he said, automatically implying that caste could have a bearing of some sort on how a person executes a particular role.

He went on to remind us all, for reasons known only to himself, that he was only the second dalit to hold the key post after Buta Singh. What that statement was supposed to mean is still unclear to us.