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B. S. Raghavan

FROM body building to body politic? Well, that is the nature of the dramatic transition the former fitness buff and the current hero of action-cum-adventure packed movies, Mr Arnold Schwarzenegger has made in California by replacing the State's Governor Mr Gary Davis who was recalled in a sensational election. Such an event has happened only once before in the entire American history. No wonder the media have lost no time in likening it to a veritable political earthquake.

Mr Schwarzennegger, an Austrian immigrant who landed in the US with hardly a penny in his pocket, is a living monument to the American dream: Rags-to-riches, log cabin to luxurious mansion.

His first and the most abiding love was physical fitness in which he conducted many courses and competitions for more than two decades, making it to the President's Council of Fitness and Sports in senior George Bush's time.

Movies such as Terminator 1 and 2, and True Lies were a tribute more to his gutsy, guttural and Goliath-like persona than to his acting, but that did not stop him from becoming the darling of millions of his fans.

With the upsurge to get rid of the incumbent Governor gathering momentum by the day, when conventional politicians were jockeying for position as candidates, Mr Schwarzenegger, the darkest ever horse imaginable, jumped into the fray, in true Terminator style, and trounced Mr Davis, living up to two of his other films aptly named Total Recall and Eraser.

And all this he did against heavy odds, with only two months of preparation and at least 16 women from his past hurling allegations of sexual misconduct! Such was the intensity of disgust against Mr Davis that he managed to fall foul of virtually every section of public opinion within about two years into his term of office.

It is not just that Mr Davis was aloof, frosty and inaccessible — surprising in an average politician holding elective office.

Making it worse was his eagerness to recoup in double quick time the money he spent on his election by holding fund-raising dinners one after another, indifferent to people's expectations and his own constitutional duties.

The last straw was his tripling the tax on automobiles — and that too in a State where they are held dearer than life. The people had had enough of him and bundled him out.

The finances of the Golden State — the fifth largest economy (and incidentally of the size of Iraq) — are in a shambles. Mr Schwarzenegger is totally raw to administration, governance and management of finances.

All the world's eyes will be on him as the situations which hitherto he only wrestled with in movies confront him in real life.

And yet, who knows? He may turn out to be the most absorbing case study in self-development (just as our own N. T. Rama Rao was!) Also, how nice it will be to have a similar provision for recall in our Constitution also!

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