[Reader-list] Chirkut Times

[Shivam Vij]

  'Chirkut' enters political lexicon

  By AKSHAYA MUKUL
  TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 2004 05:28:11 AM ]
  NEW DELHI: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/812898.cms

The "chirkut" brouhaha began with Satyavrat Chaturvedi of Congress
calling SP's Amar Singh a frivolous person and the latter countering
with the retort: "So what if am a 'chirkut'?"

Their "mutual appraisal" could best be left to themselves but it has
evoked a small debate, something the world of Hindi literature is used
to.

More than a year ago, columnist Prabhash Joshi called writer Ashok
Vajpayee "darukuta" (fond of wine, women) leading to a series of
exchanges between them.

Noted critic Alok Rai, who has worked on the history of Hindi
language, sees the "chirkut" debate differently.

"Sophistication is a kind of facade but it is necessary? 'Chirkut'
might be a common word in UP and Bihar but its free use in politics
should be desisted," he says.

He, however, concedes that few could still argue that free use of the
word denotes democratisation of politics. "I still feel sophistication
be retained."

Rajendra Yadav, editor of the Hindi literary magazine Hans, has a
different take. He feels that use of "chirkut" for political opponents
symbolises the death of ideology in politics.

"If you have ideological differences, you would counter them
ideologically. But the political class is the same and is there to
help each other. So they indulge in such language."