The more discerning among my readers would have noticed that in India, the flavours of the season change with, well, the season. In July, it was the humble cockroach; in August, it was the foot-in-the-mouth Chief Justice of India (again); in September, it was the redoubtable Tukaram Mundhe. Come the cold edge of October, and the flavour has changed again — it is now 'regime change'. The chill in the air is not due to the approaching winter alone.

This is the new four-letter word these days. Every WhatsApp 'Unkle and Anty' is talking of nothing else. BJP spokespersons, whose English hitherto extended only to "What goes up your father's? (tere baap ka kya jaata hai?)", and darbari anchors, whose IQs are lower than their TRPs, can't get enough of it. The phrase is being tossed around on prime-time TV every night like a piece of dung at a dung beetles' convention.

It has replaced the Original Sin in the BJP/RSS playbook, and I have no doubt that the BNSS shall be amended very soon to make it a crime, in the company of sedition and treason. Expect the Supreme Court to approve it speedily, for a regime change there is also being talked about in hushed tones.

In most countries, regime change would mean a........

© National Herald