When the SC took suo motto notice of the tweets of Prashant Bhushan and classified them as contempt of Supreme Court, it forgot a very recent lesson.
During the IAC struggle, P Chidambaram, then Home Minister thought that he was very smart and that he could break the agitation by arresting Anna Hazare, the leader of the agitation.
He sent his Delhi Police goons (yes they remain goons under any government) to arrest him.
But he never anticipated what would happen next. Delhi reacted, under the prodding of RSS/BJP Cadre and laid a siege of Tihar Jail where Anna had been taken after arrest. This created a major backlash for the government.
So much so that the government developed cold feet and asked the police to release Anna Hazare.
But Anna was smart, he refused to leave the jail. The jailer requested him to leave but he would not budge. The crowds meanwhile were swelling outside the jail. Anna dug his heels and wanted to spend the night in the jailers cabin instead of going out into the free world.
Finally, the government had to plead with him to leave and when he left Tihar, he had become an unlikely hero.
The Supreme Court, RSS/BJP who probably scripted the Prashant Bhushan Saga forgot that recent historical lesson too quickly.
Today, they made a hero out of Prashant Bhushan and this will have long term effect on the people of the country where the Supreme Court will get a stick if it punishes him or lets him go with a mild slap on the wrist.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. But in this case everyone who wanted to teach a lesson to Prashant Bhushan has ended up relearning a lesson.