Lies rot. Truth springs anew. What’s new? What’s visible to the eye and heard on the grapevine is – the knife doesn’t run through the cake anymore.
It’s hard rock that has to be pierced to make a way. To end the puzzle, it is not for nothing that the BJP hasn’t been able to elect, sorry, select its new president for so long. Those days are over when Modi’s writ ran unchallenged. There is resistance from within. The RSS isn’t willing to give in to Modi-Amit Shah duopoly. They want a BJP president who isn’t just a proxy for Shah.
They want freedom from the suffocating grip. They want a political outfit called BJP, not a Modi support system. The tug-of-war has delayed the appointment.
The tussle is real and intense. So intense that the RSS has gone so far as to suggest the name of Sanjay Joshi, Modi’s bete-noire, who was unseemly kicked out of the mainstream political framework because of a sinister conspiracy.
Joshi, a perfect gentleman, lost face as a fake video showed him in a sexual act with a woman. RSS knows Joshi doesn’t indulge in such activities. Joshi remained loyal to RSS all this while, silently suffering the ignominy instead of hitting back. Mohan Bhagwat now wants to restore his pride. His name was suggested for the post of president, though obviously not acceptable to Modi-Shah. But the messaging was clear. The very choice was an expression of no-confidence in Modi-Shah dominance. This dominance will be challenged now.
The RSS appears determined to blunt the weapon that enforced the diktats like a Tughlaqi firman. A Manoharlal Khattar for Haryana, a Mohan Yadav for Madhya Pradesh and a Bhajanlal Sharma for Rajasthan! Who are these gentlemen? Manohar, Mohan, Bhajan…? Questions will be asked. That’s what has sprung anew. If anybody thinks the truth is frozen in 2014, think anew. Remember, what’s frozen rots. Lies rot.
Bihar voters
Who is responsible for protecting the sanctity of the electoral process? Election Commission? If allegations of a sinister conspiracy to prepare a curated voters’ list to put the ruling party in an advantageous position is levelled by major opposition leaders central, what should be the response of the Election Commission? Obviously, to call the stake-holders for a purposeful dialogue and resolve the issues through a consensual approach.
But that doesn’t happen and opposition parties feel compelled to lead a public protest and approach the Supreme Court for relief. The Supreme Court finds the exercise problematic and suggests correctives. The mainstream media, however, abandons its responsibility and passionately defends the special intensive revision despite tell-tale signs of wrongdoing. While documents were sought to establish citizenship of voters to begin with, forms were submitted with forged signatures without requisite documents to complete the exercise in a hurry.
Media’s messaging was obviously viewed against the backdrop of its alignment with the ruling dispensation. The alternative media, exposing the infirmities and illegalities in the exercise, is sought to be suppressed. FIRs are registered against those raising valid questions.
The cliché that the prime minister hawks in foreign countries – India is the mother of democracy – cannot enforce democratic norms on the ground if institutions do not work honestly.
Look at the long list of people who failed in their duty in this shocking episode: the prime minister, chief election commissioner, officials executing the project, media and all the political parties which refused to see the flawed process.
Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale University, who has done remarkable work on totalitarianism, says, “If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die under tyranny.” If citizens are left to fend for themselves, they must rise before it is too late.
After all, the poor people need democracy more than a few babus of the election commission and the ruling party bosses.
Modi’s foreign policy
Sattais (27), the media screamed. No, that was not about the number of times American President Donald Trump publicly announcing how he stopped the India-Pakistan war. That count is only 24 so far. The bigger number is about the awards that Modi has received from different countries; yes, 27. The BJP staged such a song-and-dance about it even as Indians were mystified, delving into Google to find what that Philip Kotler award meant.
Students rummaged through the world map wondering which country gave the “highest civilian award” to our supreme leader. What these awards are given for is not known to lesser mortals like us. But we are duty-bound to feel proud because even Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru didn’t get so many awards. There is no point in crying down Modi’s pleasures. If he is happy with these nondescript awards, why grudge it? But what his astonishing personal achievements accrued to our great country should be dispassionately assessed.
India, which raised the Non-Aligned Movement consisting of over 120 countries during the deeply-divided world of the Cold War era, didn’t get even some moral support from many countries in the recent conflict with Pakistan. Our neighbours have aligned with China, traditional friends like Russia are striking military deals with Pakistan and America is bullying us without a reason. Modi conceals the basic information, spicing up the public discourse with filmy rhetoric like “mere ragon mein garm sindoor bah raha hai (hot vermilion flows in my veins)“ but Donald Trump leaves him cold with such a fundamental revelation – five Indian jets were down!
High time India probed Modi’s foreign visits on merit, instead of getting swayed by the titillation of Modi-Modi chants by arranged crowds. While the foolish chants of ‘Vishwaguru‘ burns the ears, Modi’s unique habit of addressing public meetings on foreign soil doesn’t appear to be in tune with the demands of diplomatic finesse. While China quietly built its strengths and international networks, Modi frittered away India’s advantages of being the trustworthy moral voice in the international community.
Controversies around unseemly misadventures in Canada and America and Modi’s alleged patronage to Adani’s business interests further blotted India’s diplomatic copybook. If an objective analysis of loss and gains from Modi’s fanciful foreign tours appeared in Indian media, the country would not have suffered such a rude awakening after 11 years. Suppression of free speech, ignoring critics and promoting sycophants in the media can have their own drawbacks. It is known to mature politicians – don’t get swayed by the false propaganda designed to fool the gullible. Reality will catch up, sooner or later.
Poet Waseem Barelvi’s subtle message may help the politicians who think their control will never loosen:
Jab tak hai dor hath mein tab tak ka khel hai/Dekhi toe hogi tumne patange kati hui.
(The game lasts till the time the thread is in our hand/You must’ve seen kites severed).
Morality in politics?
The Indian nation-state was founded on the sacred concept of Satyagraha. Mahatma Gandhi said, “From the path of Satyagraha, a transition to the path of ‘a-Satyagraha’ is impossible.” Naïve? Or, Gandhi’s belief in the nobility of Indian people was just a subtle messaging to extract a commitment to stay on course of morality?
He wrote, “There are only two methods – one is that of fraud and force; the other is that of truth and non-violence. The first responsibility of the political leader was to strictly adhere to principles of morality.”
Who are the moral exemplars in politics today? Let the answer come from the rulers themselves. Because the blind bhakts who pounce on contrarian views with brutal force and filthy abuses, will dismiss any objective observation as biased. Let the RSS-BJP system offer a credible answer and the nation will show the stomach to digest the truth, or the lie, without a whimper of protest.
Is Prime Minister Narendra Modi the moral exemplar Gandhi so desperately prayed for? The supreme leader “who brought Lord Ram back to Ayodhya” – Jo Ram ko laye hain – as they sang? Or the home minister, Amit Shah, fits the bill? No…? More worthies from the Sangh Parivar stable – that Ali-versus-Bajrang Bali Yogi Adityanath or Vyapam-fame Shivraj Singh Chauhan? Or the imported icons of bigotry like Himanta Biswa Sarma?