Depending on its usage, Moral is both; a noun and an adjective.
While moral in ‘moral of this story’ is a noun, use of moral in ‘high moral standard’, an adjective.
That leaves me in a state of quandary.
How to classify the word ‘moral’ used by Rahul Gandhi?
Noun? Adjective?
But as I probe deeper, to me, it appears to be an oxymoron. Merriam Webster describes it as ‘a combination of contradictory or incongruous words.’ So aptly, it describes the mumbling of a bumbling dynast.
His utterances cease to surprise anyone, anymore.
When I got up this morning in the night, Congress is not a party but a soch, escape velocity, poverty is a state of mind, and the list is exhaustive. Also, this morality runs deep in his family. When Indira Gandhi was ousted, after losing elections, even she had claimed it to be a moral victory. Every sore loser, unable to accept and face defeat, conveniently takes the refuge of ‘moral victory.’
But that leaves the nation wondering.
After all, elections in a democracy are nothing short of a festival, celebration of a mandate. It is the only ‘moral’ victory a political party can boast of—given by the people, for the people, to rule and govern, impacting their lives an future. So if Rahul was bestowed this right, if the mandate was against him, claiming ‘moral’ victory defies the tenets of democracy. If his victory was ‘moral’ where does it leave the BJP? Immoral victory?
Going by this logic, Nitish’s win in Bihar, Capt, Amrinder’s win in Punjab, Kejriwal’s win in Delhi and every single win of any political party was immoral as ‘moral victory’ belongs to the losing party.
Hilary was also the ‘moral winner’ so was Milkha Singh and every other who missed the mark. However, this logic makes Rahul the biggest ‘moral’ winner as he has 29 moral victories to his credit.
Voicing this sentiment is deep-rooted in dynastic autocracy where defeat is not palatable. After all, no one, I mean no one could have the audacity to utter such delusional statement after losing two straight elections the same day. But for Rahul, losing Himachal was justified as it had anti-incumbency after one term but losing Gujarat was ‘moral’ which was facing anti-incumbency of 4 terms? Rahul, please claim the loss of Himachal also as your ‘moral’ victory, the nation won’t mind.
His scriptwriters must have told him to attack, as it is the best form of defense. But what they did not tell him that it made him look like a moron.
Someone should have told him that morons using oxymoron is a bad combination.
