In Indian politics, irresponsible utterances are commonplace, especially by leaders who put their party’s ideology supreme in the public view if only to trash their rivals. And so, on the day that Shiv Sena announced its support to Pranab Mukherjee of the Congress for the post of President, we are reminded of one such casual statement by Sena founder Bal Thackeray. “Congress is a party of eunuchs,” he had told his listeners once. The Congress party, on its part, had paid no heed to it saying, it is Mr Thackeray’s wont to speak like that.

That statement was conveniently forgotten on Tuesday, when Thackeray wrote a front page editorial in his party mouthpiece Saamna that the Shiv Sena would support Mukherjee’s candidature for President. For good measure, he described Mukherjee as “the right candidate”, and sought unanimous support for him.