You get to know when the boss is displeased. Either you are summoned for an explanation or, if the boss is really angry, you are given the snub of snubs and left to live in constant fear of an execution without so much as a trial and an opportunity to mount your defence. Readers of mafia thrillers are familiar with this drill. So are inhabitants of the world’s largest democracy.

The largest political party in the country has perfected the art of public display of fixing accountability by summoning or snubbing without summoning. In this case, it is not clear which is the more severe of the two options for those in the dock. Suresh Kalmadi was supposedly, and widely reportedly, snubbed several times by the prime minister in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games but he stayed on to make the lengthiest speeches in the opening and closing ceremonies. Sheila Dikshit has been summoned several times to meet the party president Sonia Gandhi and explain the differences within the state unit but she has stayed on for three terms as Delhi chief minister. Minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor was however summoned by the prime minister only to be shown the door.

Each time Congress president snubs or summons somebody, though, the media goes to town with this development. Accountability is thus fixed and advertised. The culture of the high command is thus perpetuated. And democracy thus snubbed.

Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan is the latest fodder for the media fuss not so much because of the Adarsh Society scam but because he had been summoned by Congress president. Of course, the scam led to the chief minister being summoned in the first place but the drill ensures that the image of the high command as the final arbiter of political propriety within the party is further enhanced even as somebody within the party is found guilty of gross misconduct. Meanwhile, the high command takes care to steer clear of the dangerous drift in Kashmir and the ignominy of the inefficiency and corruption that marred the Commonwealth Games.