Hullabaloo in the nuclear orchard?

Illustration from The Telegraph

Our man in the US, Ronen Sen, has ruffled many chicken feathers with this comment in an interview to Rediff:

"It (the nuclear deal) has been approved here (in Washington, DC) by the President, and there (in New Delhi) it's been approved by the Indian cabinet. So why do you have all this running around like headless chicken, looking for a comment here or comment there, and these little storms in a tea-cup?"

Even after Sen’s clarification claiming the term “headless chickens” was a “tactless observation” on some of his media friends, MPs are outraged at being referred to in such terms. As I argued in the previous post, this debate about the deal is no longer about the deal. We are now arguing who’s a chicken, who’s a vegetable and who’s got chikungunya. Here’s a sampling of some hilarious quotes on this latest fiasco:

“If a diplomat called journalists headless chicken, then his brain is nothing but a vegetable.” – Priyaranjan Das Munshi

“If journalists are headless chicken, MPs are boneless chicken and government’s got chikungunya" – Mamta Banerjee

"I have been shown to be not just a headless chicken but a brainless one too." - Yashwant Sinha, who was named by Sen as one of those who objected to the deal.

“Nobody’s a kid. No chacha (uncle) of any bachcha (child) can accuse our government of playing with India’s iqbal (prestige).” – Laloo Prasad Yadav

“We have an ambassador in Washington, who seems to be the ambassador of President Bush, not the ambassador of India.” – Prakash Karat