The zero can be many-splendoured

Quantity has a quality of its own. Yeah, yeah. We’ve heard that. And it’s so passe. Everyone from an op-ed writer talking about ‘mandate’ to a jaded wonk going on about ‘demographic dividend’ have turned that once-smart observation into a cliche. So, when the smart toffee in the pack, Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav, recently observed that quality has a quantity of its own, we sat up and broke into suitably-wowed ‘Irshad! Irshad!’ Yadav’s Wittgensteinian observation following Congress drawing a blank in the Delhi polls needs quoting: ‘…this time, the zero that we secured is much different from the zero that we secured last time – the reason being that after this election, we are hopeful that we will be able to win back the loyalties of our core voters.’

Now, in classical mathematics, there’s only one type of zero – no different ‘types’. It’s a neutral number, neither positive, nor negative. You can’t have nothing of various shades, shapes, sizes or other qualities. But in Devenderian mathematics, zilch can be milched to give us different flavours. To be fair, in number representation, terms like ‘leading zero’ and ‘trailing zero’ can be used in the context of describing the position of 0 within a number. As far as Congress’ shunya seats ‘won’ in 2025 Delhi is concerned, the party should be brimming with pride with that feat.