Adjectives were flying high inside the seat of power and with plenty of import and meanings. The parliament on Thursday witnessed an intelligent play of words and politics of different opinions. While the opposition parties thought the government was adamant on not letting Prime Minister Narendra Modi make a statement on conversion issue, the government called the opposition arrogant for holding the session for ransom.

Curiously, the political parties seem to take these adamant and arrogant positions too often, especially when they cannot get their way in or out.

When Amit Shah’s rally in Kolkata snowballed into a controversy the words adamant and arrogant were used by both the BJP and the ruling TMC in Bengal.

Last year when the AAP in Delhi insisted on the suspension of Delhi Police officials involved in an incident with their party leader, the Aam Aadmi Party was branded as adamant and the government obviously was arrogant.

Even in the US, when the administration and the Republicans were wrestling for funds to spending cut logjam, the air was thick with arrogant and adamant attitudes.

Hollywood’s famous director Oliver Stone has been quoted as saying that “in politics, the right wing, outspoken, adamant, hardcore gets far more attention than those who bring ambiguity and a softer approach.”

However, the Art of War book describes adamant attitude in a most positive manner. It says: Use your credibility as leverage for your projects. Go into every situation with an open mind. Avoid being easily predictable. Then the opposition cannot spread rumours against you. Even the most adamant opponent cannot counter you.

And arrogant is one emotion that always gets pushed to the negative side. America’s well-know journalist Sydney Harris said once, “nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.”

But then, a situation can be rescued and restored with dignity if one reflects on what the great Austrian-American actor Theodore Bikel proclaimed. “All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice,” Bikel once said.