There's a desi version of the movie Father of the Bride being played in a state in our country. Now what's new about a wedding you may ask? This, let me tell you, is no ordinary wedding. It was so high profile that it's been jostling for space among major headlines in top newspapers. Elaborate security arrangements, villages being spruced up, and the list of invitees containing virtually the who's who of political parties. It's definitely not a run-of-the mill wedding. To say that it was ostentatious would be an understatement. What makes it all the more newsworthy is the infamous history of the bride's father. No other man can claim to have governed his state while languishing in jail. No other man pulled the carpet from under his detractors' feet by crowning his wife Chief Minister even as he was being packed off to jail.

The father of the bride in this case is an extremely shrewd personality. Were he to write books on management and get-rich schemes, I'm sure he would beat all existing best-selling records and his books would sell like hot cakes. Let us take a look at this only-one-of-a-kind personality. Born in the year 1948, he was elected to the Lok Sabha at the young age of 29. He soon occupied the Chief Minister's seat and remained there for a considerable amount of time. Just like every father begins to save for his daughter's wedding, so did our man. But the means and ways were vastly different. Crime rates soared during his reign. The state gained notoriety and infamy. A fodder scam that involved more than 16 crore rupees became his political watershed. People used epithets like "political vampire" to describe this man because he "sucked the state and left it weaker and drier, almost dead." The only good thing (if you can call it that) to have happened during this man's reign is the deluge of jokes that were spawned in his name on umpteen Indian websites. While we laughed at his capers and antics, this clever and shrewd man made a joke out of the whole nation.

And now it is celebration time in his household as his second daughter gets married. Our man is all aglow with pride as he supervises the arrangements being made for the grand wedding. Never mind the period he languished in jail, never mind the assorted cases pending against him - for our slimy politicians it's a matter of pride to be associated with him. They vie against each other just to be one among the VIP invitees.

It's indeed a unique nation of ours where honest taxpayers' earnings are used to fill the coffers of such political vampires who then conduct lavish weddings of their children.