Twenty-five years is such a long time. That’s the space Salman Khurshid has taken to don a new mask and make his Jinnah-like proposition. One can understand his frustration. But let me assure you, he wasn’t always like that. He was once a suave Class 1 in Jurisprudence from St Edmund Hall, Oxford (later Liu Po Shan Lecturer in law at Trinity College). He was, and some argue still is, a decent playwright. I can still remember the wonderful evening we hosted him in St Stephen’s College, on his forthcoming book, ‘At Home in India, A Restatement of Indian Muslims,’ a copy of which he gave to me as I happened to chair the session. Louise, his wife, sat in the front row, edgy and wanting to speak on his behalf. Not one of us left the room without feeling a little safer that in the author, Indian politics finally has a star who shall combine empathy with urbanity. Sadly, beneath the classy oratory, the central questions Salman tackled that evening still remain unanswered: Do Indians need a Muslim leader? Why is there no such leader? Can Muslims resolve the conflict of progress and conformity? Is there a separate Muslim view?

That evening, Arun Shourie was pretty much central to Salman’s discourse. Speakers those days didn’t have to bother about instant tweeting and covert filming. So, Salman, with deliberate tactlessness, likened Shourie to Don Quixote. The book, we discovered, had a chapter by that name! Now, Shourie, like Salman, is a Stephanian too. We could have him in the Informal Discussion Group (IDG) a few months later. Salman’s points helped us, cocky 18-year-olds, push the mighty journalist. Not much, but just a bit. It was like moving a mountain, but move he did. Such was the power of Salman’s liberal ideas.

Much water has flown in the Yamuna ever since. Salman is in mortal combat with another Stephanian, chief election commissioner SY Quraishi, another fine historian and author. The vital difference is that the fight is across the media landscape. Thousands are tweeting crying for blood. Most want Salman’s. Those who’re attacking Quraishi are confined to accusing him of not doing a Seshan. In this theatre, blood must spill. Not many bother whether outright cancellation of polls in Uttar Pradesh, where Salman, the law minister of India, has brazenly challenged the might of Quraishi’s election commission, would hold in the eyes of the supreme court. Tweeples want Quraishi to act decisively. They don’t see much hope in his Presidential reference against Salman. I disagree. It is an unprecedented constitutional situation where the law minister a) claimed administrative jurisdiction over the EC, b) made those unauthorised assertions over enhancing Muslim quotas, c) dared the EC, and d) is now falling back on the classic Digvijay Singh gambit of denying what he said on tape!

I wonder whether the EC will release transcripts of what Salman and his lead lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi said in the commission’s court last week. They first took the stand that what was said by Salman was nothing but a recitation of the Congress manifesto. To that the EC asked for a copy. After some demurring, manifestos of 2004, 2009 and the instant one were produced. None mentioned a specific number. EC reminded Salman that he chaired the manifesto committee. He mumbled something to the effect that a newer version is in print! Not surprisingly, the legal team on the complainant’s side, led by Ravi Shankar Prasad, left Salman pretty badly bruised.

The battle has now moved to our prime minister’s doorstep. Given half a chance, the poor man would have wanted Madam to guide him out of this mess. Salman is close to the First Family. His grandfather Zakir Husain was an associate of Jawaharlal Nehru, rising from AMU vice-chancellorship to becoming the President of India in 1967. Salman’s father, Khurshid Alam Khan, was a minister and governor. At just 28, Salman (b.1953) was made Indira Gandhi’s OSD, no sooner he was in India in 1981. So, he belongs to a charmed circle that Manmohan Singh, a cautious regent, would like to stay a mile away. Plus, Salman has the ear of Rahul baba. But in the instant case, Sonia is unlikely to get into the mess. She’ll leave it to the prime minister and stay briefed via Ahmed Patel and Pulok Chatterji. If the PM tells Salman to rest, he might avoid the political isolation he felt in Sharm Al Sheikh. If he doesn’t, legal options before the EC may kick in. These include arresting the law minister, excommunicating him from entering the boundary of Uttar Pradesh, and/or freezing the Congress’s election symbol. So, keep a close watch on @PMOIndia on twitter. And don’t believe a parallel handle @PM0India, where 'O’ has been cleverly substituted by 'zero’. Ironically, if Salman does manage to get fired, his career as a Muslim politician would zoom. Good for him. Oxford, Stephen’s and the book can go take a hike!