Political Cauldron

 

India is celebrating the 66^th Independence Day today! Nations are not supposed to be like humans, growing old with age; they are supposed to grow shinier like gold with passing years. The 66-year-old Hindustan but looks groping around for support like a poor patriarch that cannot support its horde of kids and grand-kids. It looks with its feeble eyes and dispirited face into the distances to find a benefactor, a saviour. Will a lotus bloom in the muddied political waters? With elections not even couple of years away, will the saviour arrive on the scene?

The Indian political scene is in disarray. It was bound to happen. Even after 66 annual democratic rituals, frankly speaking the meaning of freedom is as elusive like it was during the British period. Power is power, it corrupts almost by instinct. Its law is impersonal. Under its sway the colonial exploiter is as unsparing as the brown post-independence man. If with a pinch of salt, you can afford to rejoice at the idea that at least our own people are reaping the fruits at the cost of the collective good, it is then suitable reason to feel elated and take part in 15^thAugust festivities. But the real freedom and real democracy lie beyond such blind adherence to the rituals. We have to come out of the ever-forgiving festivities going on for almost seven decades and settle down to some real business.

So where do we stand post jesting Bihari-type political breed? Issues like political corruption were never accepted by the society at large as the ones capable of turning the political tides against the wrong-doers. So it is a folly to expect the political class to go into elf-remedial mode and cleanse the system by itself. It is simple: we the common voters never questioned them so they thought if the ones who carry our destiny on their thumb impression are comfortable with it then where is the need for changing the ways and mean of the political business.

So buddies we reached the UPA era. If coalition compulsions required the government to reach the pinnacle of compromises at all levels, against the background of teeming millions living like animals in their struggle and nonchalant educated middle class lost in the dream of reaching still higher rungs of an apolitical ladder, then what is wrong with that. But then the river of corruption broke all check-dams. It was only when the ever-rising costs of living stabbed deep into the so-called self-uprighteous, educated middle class that corruption became a major issue. It is simple mathematics. Hundreds of millions stashed in foreign accounts have not appeared from thin air. It is born of the pathetic conditions of the farmers who still continue to work harder, put more inputs in fields and are left with lesser and lesser money at the end of the season. Millions of daily wage earners add to the weight in dubious accounts through their ever-piling miseries through more work and less and less savings. Millions of salaried middle class people contribute to it through mindless spending on costlier and costlier consumer items and paying taxes. Simple: We work, suffer, struggle unquestioningly and they gather the rewards through direct and indirect means.

Thankfully the balloon of corruption burst finally. Everything has its limits man. Its blast shook the collective consciousness at many levels. Anna and Ramdev movements are nothing but collective sighs of dissent against the mindless compromises by the UPA government. If nothing more at least corruption is a political issue now. Anna and company might go into politics now. How will they manage to fight elections in an arena where the victory so far has been defined by money, violence and all the rest manipulative deeds, is a big question. At least they represent those Indians who are educated, earn their bread and butter through hard work in tough-tasked corridors. Their chances of success depend upon the rate of participation and growth in this section. If managed properly it can become a good counter-force in Indian politics. As far as Ramdev is concerned, he appears driven more by a stubborn self-lorn charisma that always keeps him on tenterhooks even though he amasses thousands of millions through his corporate Yoga. The target of his fury is too narrow to leave a holistic effect on the overall fates. He can hog nationalistic limelight through fiery statements like much-in-demand politicians, but we all still remember the weeping woman-cloth-clad-baba.

The BJP is still not as strong as it should be against the background of anti-UPA breeze. It appears undecided about what kind of top-tier leadership to stick to, unlike Congress which is at least true to its archaic aristocracy specific to a family. Within Congress the issue of leadership is accepted and spelt out clearly thus leaving little space for infighting, giving it with all the time, energy and resources to fight against the slingshots directed at it. It’s simple: One dissenter or enemy inside the house is far more dangerous than the hundred of outside foes baying for your blood. The BJP can learn a few lessons from the grand old party in this regard.

So what are our political prospects in the near future? It is very hard to tell. Just wait and watch. It’s really dicey! 

 

Nehru Vs. Advani

 

It had become clear that Advani’s dream to lead India will of course remain a dream. The octogenarian having failed twice before Sonia’s inexplicable charisma was being asked to step down from his claim to the throne and facilitate somebody still better to wage the next parliamentary battle. Political pundits might very well analyse it as a symbol of the democratic prospects in the BJP.

Nearly all political parties in India bear the same foul-smelling tricks and strategies in their secret books. However, in one democratic aspect the BJP scores over the Congress. We can call it intra-party democracy. The BJP can very well look above even those who literally shaped its rise. The Congress on the other hand is bound by its definition to only one particular legacy inherited by a specific family.

Let us start with their respective fortune turners in independent India—JL Nehru and LK Advani.

Nehru was a great statesman. Inevitably the legacy left behind by such impressive personalities cannot be expected to say a quiet bye to this world as soon as the holy flames kiss the body. It lingers on for a long period of time. In third world countries where the masses stay almost in animal state due to poverty and illiteracy such memories are carried over generations. After all they need a guiding light to their deprived selves; simply, because the masses have accepted to be the good followers of the God-ordained authority at the higher levels! There is paucity of charismatic and dynamic new leaders who can help the masses forget the past and move on with the times. So nothing wrong if the legacy escaping from the pyre of Nehru decides to stay back to serve his progenies!

Consolidation of the Nehruvian grasp over the very meaning of the Congress (and the consequent credit for winning the freedom for the country) was a natural corollary to the fact that much-obliged and jubilant masses as well as the second-tier leaders within the Congress clapped inapprehensively while the lighthouse of the Nehruvian legacy was slowly built up in the excitingly languid waters of free India during the initial decades. It overshadowed many a capable Congress leaders.

If we analyse Advani's efforts in taking a party having just two seats in the Parliament to the apostle of power within two decades, we can say that it somehow matched or even surpassed Nehruvian endeavour to turn Congress literally a family institution. But within the BJP the patriarch has been struggling to maintain his position amongst a fantastic crop of career-oriented politicians. The man who almost single-handedly took it to power has not been allowed to set it up as a sort of family institution. On this account, the BJP appears as a far more democratic set-up given the freedom of choice of leadership among its ranks.

On the other hand, when highly capable and very senior Congressmen line up to pay homage and kiss the Yuvraj's hands (the heir apparent), it unfortunately smacks of the typical Indian medieval mentality of treating rulers as the symbols of divinity. If Congress is a democratic party and believes in its rituals then it is high time we see its great leaders taking the centre-stage irrespective of the family they are born in. If Indians still accept Rahul Gandhi (the young man whose calibre and skills can be matched by many of the young Congress leaders) as their natural leader, it just tells that we are very God-abiding people and just would go behind anybody lucky to be born in the first political family of the country.

Sachin's Parliamentary Innings

 

In the summers of 2012 many of the non-congressite fans of the master blaster bore the brunt of Sachin’s political sixer and looked, their awful devotion dented with the mortal’s deft, humane leg-glance to a political delivery. Sachin accepted Rajya Sabha nomination by the Congress.

Of the millions of diehard fans of the batting God, a young man felt particularly let down. He claimed he was Sachin’s biggest fan in the world. The success and failure of his days was decided by the master’s willow in punishing the bowlers or staying stoic on a day. Sachin was the practical arm of his dreams, to soar his aspirations high in the sky with lofted shots, to pierce his ambition through the rivals with back- and front-footed punches to the fence. But there was an equally strong fact about the young man in that he was rabidly anti-congress. Only the Congress losing a seat somewhere could lit up his dejected face if Sachin’s bat did not speak some day and he got out on zero. His inherited hate for the Congress—his grandfather had been in the Zamindaar League, and his father had actively supported the Jan Sangh and had been to jail during the emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi—had made him shine in DUSU elections and after that a regional party had made him its district youth president to carry out his anti-congress tirade.

But the master blaster this time hit a sixer too high that landed in the pavilion and hurt many fingers and faces, the ball cascading across the sea of heads and faces. With Sachin’s consent to the Congress invitation of nomination to the Rajya Sabha, the young man was trying his level best to retain his worship for the cricketing God, but then political Gods are equally strong. There were many like him who voiced dissent, the erstwhile Sachin fans who criticised, jibed, expressed apprehension, showed soft anger and many like-minded reactions.

One thing was clear. It is almost impossible to be a successful Indian and still not be a politician at some level. Ironically the league of achievers, apart from the clean shirts, includes shadowy characters like big-time criminals, swindlers, tricky scamesters and all those spooky characters who cock snook at law and still be in influential positions. Now, coming back to the clean-shirted successful Indians. Sachin Tendulkar is in the front league of those whose cuts and pulls have helped the masses forget their individual miseries. He has given the Indian masses far too occasions to celebrate and be happy than they could manage with their limited capabilities. There might be a really bad day with any of the Indians but then the news of Sachin hitting another century found him/her taken in by the pleasant and welcoming pools of the sea of Indian humanity lost in the whirlpools of his classy hits. He has been the pain-killer and joy-giver. God bless him! Long live Sachin!

Looking at his apolitical strides on the path of inspiring and influencing millions of destinies, it appeared there were politics-free domains in this country where you can strive for perfection. But then how long an Indian after reaching the highest echelons and still not kiss the political maiden with its tempting pout?! It is just a matter of time. The inevitable countdown! So our Sachin finally surrendered to the temptation. Nothing wrong with that! But eating the political pie while still with gloves on was a bit disappointing. It would have been better with his willow in his restroom. Maybe he would have been in a better position to understand a bit of the Parliamentary game over public issues in the Rajya Sabha. Sachin, but, is Sachin—ever-lorn for new figures, targets and challenges. We agree that he does it for the Indians. Just wonder he will use the same single-minded determination in adding some voice of sanity to some debate over some bill. At least he can think of it when there is no Indian cricketing itinerary and the Parliament session begins.

Indians love him as the son of India. However, in a country where political opinions have the razor-sharp pugnacity to cut down relationships forever, it will be interesting to see whether he will lose some of his diehard fans because now he represents a particular party as well. By the natural law of it, all those who oppose this particular party may find Sachin less affable now. It is one of the toughest challenges in India to maintain a good relationship with a supporter of different political stream. Wonder there won't be a section of Indians who will jump with joy when the great man adds to the number of 0s in his kitty.

We can even surmise that the great man was just fed up with his status of the King of cricketing Gods feasting upon the mass accolades of hallucinated masses fed on rich cricket-opium diet. So just to realise his human avatar he like any of us wants to have some bad neighbours so that by hitting massive fours and sixes he can rub salt on their wounds and thus enjoy the sweet-sour taste of it. Excuse him please! It is just to be human.

 

 

The Dragon may Burn Out itself

 

There is every possibility that China may go the old Soviet way. Its impressive strides at the economic, scientific and military levels are being relentlessly fuelled by a collective national hoopla about mythical-level enemies in the outside world. It thrives on the mass hysteria of the nationhood and prevails over the shadowy undercurrent of well-managed antagonism to the prevalent system of powers in the world. Education is used to legitimise the collective insecurities against the backdrop of colonial facts of exploitation. Under such environment people get ready to sacrifice individual freedoms and profits to bask in the glory of more sophisticated weapons, more medals at international sports meets, more upswings in the graph of economy and trade, etc. But sorry to say, it cannot be sustained for a decent amount of decades. 


The power of such a dazzling rocket may impressively blind the eyes of supposed antagonistic outsiders, but the fuel in such a policy is not sufficient to land you in the stable geosynchronous orbit where the nation and its people will just effortlessly swim in peace and contentment. Hyper-specified distinctions as a race, as a nation cannot thrive unchallenged for too long in the ultramodern society. It somehow comes into conflict with the natural process of globalisation and integration. America is comfortably enjoying the superpower status for a long time. The reason is that the stormy drive towards massive achievements in different domains was not at the cost of individual freedom. Unlike China here the river of basic human freedoms was not tamed through check-dams of politburo to harness the human energy. Here it has always been allowed to flow decently free. The collective paranoia required to boost the rocket of superpower status was provided by the Soviet rivalry.

The Soviet rocket, on the other hand, fell a bit short of the desired orbit of stability and crashed. In technology they matched each other shoulder to shoulder, step in step. The extra fuel in the American rocket was provided by the deep murmurs of individual freedom in the common hearts of common Americans. It somehow provides stability; creates a sort of pedestal on which the results of super-rivalry can be enjoyed for a relatively longer period of time. China's rapidly rising balloon may also crashland. How can we ignore that behind the firm statistics in its achievement book, there are many statutes that strictly curtail basic human freedom. People will digest this as long as they are overfed with the diet of hate against a common, much vilified enemy. As the participants in this slowly smouldering cold war they think that they play a part by sacrificing a bit more due to more and more stringent rules. But after basking in the collective glory for decades, they will turn their heads back and analyse the sacrifices across generations.

It turns counterproductive. The sea of collective victory cannot sustain unless it is fed through the sinewy rivulets of small-small basic freedoms and enjoyments that create outlets for the common individuals to shine and feel victorious at the individual level as well. So this rising disparity between the verticals of its national glories at the international level on the one hand and the stagnant graph of political reforms may turn the table upside down, like it did in the case of the former USSR.

Smashed Dreams

 

‘Mother India’s dreams have been smashed,’ many who took out time to look at the scenario in 2012 appeared to pay the famed hypothetical concern. This concern is fuelled by the petty individual-level disappointments fathering little-little grudge-born cynicism, the latter then delivering its grandchild, the I-know-it-all attitude. There were many frogs croaking in different voices in the muddied pond. Everybody was taking pot-shots at the Congress, the grand old, wrinkled century-plus outfit, well past its prime, and getting mistreatment by the revolting grandchildren like they snatch the crown of authority from the ageing heads.  

Somewhere the retired professor was jotting down the collective fury, crowning it with his individual misery. His farewell speech indeed had ruffled a few local-level feathers. It had reached the university Vice Chancellor’s ears. As all of us know, during the present state of the affairs, this august position is a subtle, academically justified means of the state government to have its political share in managing the academic institution as per its suitability. So even though the issue had not raised any ripples in the state capital a good 200 kilometres away, the VC had deemed it fit to take it politically at his own level, feeling politically responsible, lest it created troubles for him later. So the professor’s post-retirement leisure and peace had been disturbed a great deal. A mini racket had been busted. For years most of the staff had been claiming LTA (leave travel allowance), like they do in most of the departments, without travelling, just taking a tiny short-cut, assuming it to be almost a legal right now because it gets done so easily and also all others elsewhere taking it--theses little impregnations of commonly allowed illegalities, to deliver a baby of malpractice when the situation demanded. So the last year’s case had been put under enquiry, and his pension put on hold consequently. Afraid to speak loudly, the professor was jotting in his journal:  

It is the time to rethink. Rethink at the collective level. The time is ripe. Any educated Indian will accept that the Republic has been mismanaged terribly. Overflowing wealth in Swiss accounts bears testimony to this. If we compare the wealth amassed in dubious foreign accounts in independent India with the wealth drain during the colonial regime, I am afraid there might not be much difference between the two figures. The only consolation we can draw is that instead of the White man it is the Brown man who is doing the same profiteering chores. Indian judiciary is incapable of catching these big fish, it eats up the little ones, the helpless ones.  

Do you remember the guy from the The Broken Dream who now slogged in the private sector for his bread and butter? He worked the hardest he could, looked back many a time at the prestigious position he had been deprived of by the Congress government in Haryana, again went back to work even harder, only to be stalled by rampant office politics that allows the politically smarter ones to move on, leaving the apolitical hardworkers in the position where they belong, the real hardworking, subordinate donkeys. The anti-congress political analyst in him raised tirade many times:

The question arises: Whom to blame? Even with a pinch of salt, majority of us will agree that the kind of political ruling class and culture that emerged after Independence is more or less sired by the Congress. As the juggernaut that fetched us freedom, it occupied a holy, absolute and unquestionable status. Dreamy-eyed Indians don’t question the illogical circumstances developing in their lives. They still worship their deities. Congress was a deity. Unfortunately public service rarely comes out of the bum feeling the warmth of divinity perpetually carpeting the throne. So for terms after terms the masses paid homage to Devi Congress by voting in its favour. But the religious trusts are rarely managed well by the priests.

Sukh Ram, the Hindu with a scared soul, and thus a natural supporter of the BJP, was irritated by default with whatever the Congress did. Lynched by the so called ‘Muslim-appeasement policies’ of the first political family, he was prattling about the multi-generation political business in India:

The lesser genies are just the offshoots of the same colonial hangover like the absolute power, milking the public resources for enlarging self-interests, using public authority to cut down any wind of change, family raj, etc. When non-Congress politicians amass wealth to lay a solid footing for dynasty-raj in their territories, they are just taking a logical and justified clue from the rulebook of the first political family in the country. It is tragic for the democracy. When as a legislator you lose sight of the constitutional objectives and responsibilities of public service for the masses and instead focus on establishing your lineage on the throne, then all the golden lines that were framed with dreamy eyes in the lengthy sessions of the Constituent Assembly take a backseat and become strings to a farcical puppet show of money, power and vagabondage.

The Frog Fella with his senses jolted had turned a philosopher. Very surprisingly! He could have lost his senses as well, but it happened otherwise. He was hammering his judgements with intellectual solidity and envisioning darker days for the democracy:

Indian democracy is supposedly evolving healthily. But in reality it has been a malnutritioned and unhealthy baby. Where is the political choice at the national level? Literally every Indian is using bad words for the UPA government. There are not too many praises of the BJP either. What will people do? A fractured mandate is a real possibility. The regional dynasty-rule-lorn satraps will enjoy the hotchpotch poultice brimming up in Delhi. Over-fed Congressites will belch and burp and happily welcome a break after enjoying the public resources for a decade during its latest innings at amassing wealth. The Yuvraj will go sight-seeing, relaxed and visit Dalit homes and try to find out the taste in the famed dal-roti of India. The Maharani will give more focus to her Hindi lessons. The BJP is trying to see beyond Lal Krishna Advani. Its house in disarray, how much it can cash on popular angst is still in doubt. Maulana Mulayam plays his cards well and always sees the throne in Delhi a distinctly achievable target. Mayavati is happy to rally all the historically mistreated dalits behind her and make them believe that merely voting for a dalit and showing the index finger to upper-caste candidates means the Buddha-sent justice for them.

The Kejriwal ignited soul--his disillusionment now healing like a wound getting the coagulated crust towards getting a political skin)--our ageing unmarried social reformer from A Fistful of Goodness was shutting up many lesser noises to raise his toot of a mini-white-revolution:

The question is: How long the educated middle class in India will continue with its famed apathy and allow the present kind of ruling establishment to thrive at the cost of the common good. The popularity of Civil Society Movement provides a glimmer of hope. But how long can a movement survive and sustain while harping from the clean pedestal of morally clean apolitical carpet? How can you fight evil politicians without jumping into the political cauldron? It is like hunting a lion with sling-shots. For an effective fight it has to be inside the political cage only: a hand to hand real fight. But the moment they try to do it, even their supporters point fingers in admonishments that they appear just lesser dirty politicians in this avatar.

Among all this hoot and holler, the red-nosed guy from Friends and Foes, his time buddy safely in his pocket, was telling his co-passenger in a noisy, rickety state transport bus plying on a pot-holed road:  

The main problem lies with the kind of political machinery that has taken the driving seat in the wagon of Indian constitutionality. So the main fight is there only. As far as the Civil Society Movement is concerned, we can do them a favour--clap when they take mud-shots at the so-called starched khadi wears by fighting with as much political force as possible. In the looming directionless scenario, I think this is the need of the time. Who knows this extra hand will come with a pleasant surprise. So Ramdev, Anna Saheb & Company, the soon-to-retire General and many others should be encouraged to draw as much politics into their movement as possible. At least politics played by educated middle class will be better than the one played by people like the buffoon from Bihar.