Beg your Pardon

  "I beg your pardon", is this what the prodigal son said to the President , who heard him, despite his increasingly impaired hearing and sure  enough like a good Christian, he forgave him. After all it was Christ who implored upon the Lord "To forgive as they know not what they have done" and as the saying goes "to err is human and to forgive divine". Actually the son probably had just stepped on his Dad's toes and was being courteous for his inadvertent act. But Daddy Dear was just waiting to hear this as they say "Seek and ye shall be given", so it was given. It was always a given, that there is no doubt about, just that it had to formalised. The President elect I am sure will not just follow this illustrious path, but will do one better and grant the President’s pardon to himself. Charity does begin at home!

How I wish Putin had similarly  said these magic  words and the war in Ukraine would be over, even the Ayotallahs of Iran need to take a leaf out of Bible, "....forgive and you will be forgiven". Even Islam being a religion of peace propounds the same. The conflict though could be as to who will forgive whether God Almighty or Allah the Merciful, but bottomline being that a good deed has been done before it was too late. But then singling him out may not be correct, as political leaders the world over have been following this principle when in power and decry this as misuse of power when in opposition. Take the case of our own ED and CBI, they unearth all kinds of misdemeanours on part of the tainted leaders, but miraculously they have a change of heart seek repentance and all is forgiven. Someone somewhere has been benevolent and helped a good cause.They can start with a clean slate once again.

The only sad part is that this benevolence is restrictive and not all encompassing, since times immemorial it was the King's prerogative to grant royal pardon to anyone he felt pleased with. While in an unequal world, this was acceptable, but today we are a democracy and so is the US, the oldest one at that, where everyone is supposedly equal, so all crimes and criminals must also be treated at par. Reminds me of the old Hindi saying, "Andher Nagari Chaupat Raja, take sare bhaji take ser khaja!", which means in a state where the ruler is an idiot, chaos prevails. So as George Orwell's prophetic novel  "Animal Farm" mentions in principle "All men are equal but some are naturally more equal than the others!"

We Indians are quite unforgiving types, see we refused to grant pardon to Ajmal Kasab nor did we forgive Afzal Guru, we are so vindictive that even after more than four decades of Mumbai blasts, we are still seeking Dawood Ibrahim's extradition. After all they were merely indulging in some terror activities which some of their ancestors  have been practising over centuries.  

There is one relationship, where the word forgive is forbidden, no prizes for guessing. Obviously wifey dear, she neither forgets, nor lets you forget any misdeeds intended or unintended, here there is no pardon, just the gallows. I am sure the POTUS is well aware that even this good deed of his can not let him off that hook ever.