Julius Caesar Re-enacted

Anna will sit on fast  with Baba Ramdev to press for Jan Lokpal Bill. He  has carefully timed his upcoming second version   to begin after the IPL games on June 3.  

Looks like a re-enactment of a scene from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar after Julius was killed by Brutus.

 A twist to Shakespeare’s play where Brutus speaks first, followed by Antony’s funeral oration. Here we have Antony speaking first followed by Brutus’ funeral oration. This is the 21 st century and we seem to be returning to the ancient Roman times to use rhetoric both as the art of persuasion and as an artifice used to veil intent.

Antony (Team Anna) Friends, Indians, countrymen, lend us your ears; We come to bury politicians, not to praise them; The evil that politicians do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones, So let it be with them ... The noble Anna Hath told you politicians are betrayers of our trust: If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously shall politicians answer it... Here, under leave of Anna and the rest, (For Anna is an honourable man; So are we all; all honourable men) Come we to speak in politicians’ funeral ...    Them, you all  trusted, faithful and just  and voted to power But Anna says they are ambitious; And Anna is an honourable man…. Anna  brought millions of you to Ramlila maidan, Whose bribes did the Politicians’ pockets fill: When that the poor  cried, the politicians promised happiness:       but only after they parted with their      purse or paise.:  This Anna calls corruption, ubiquitous among politicians of all hues. From his fasting  bed in the maidan, Anna thundered that all politicians are corrupt and should be grievously punished  Anna asked PM why was he ambitious when he is 79, and advised him to be like him who is only 74;  Sibal, he says is mad, Chiddu , arrogant and Khurshid,  suavely pompous; all have no concern for you and me and all ,all politicians are corrupt and ambitious;   And Anna is an honourable man.  You all did see that a year ago, he presented them his sacrosanct Janlokpal Bill with its powers to be  the prosecutor, jury and judge, That they refused as they feared the demise of their power   Falsely they lied to you   they  also wanted a strong Lokpal but refused the one and only sacred Anna’s JanLokpal Bill . Anna says they are insincere, false and crooked and appeals to you not  to wait for the next polls to throw them out. Kick them out now, he roared and the crowd chanted: I love Anna; Anna is India and India is Anna

Brutus(Voices unheard) Friends, Indians, countrymen!  hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear: believe me for mine honour, and have respect to mine honour, that you may believe: censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses, that you may be the better judge. If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Anna, to him I say, that my respect for Anna is no less than his. If then that friend demand why I differ from Anna, this is my answer:– Not that I love Anna less, but that I love our democratic India more.  Had you rather Anna was fasting and dismantling your democratic institutions, than that Anna was not fasting, to save them ? As Anna loves you and me, I weep for his anguish; as he fights corruption I support him; as he stands valiant and strong, I honour him: but, as he claims he is the only Voice of people,  I oppose him. There is tears for his anguish; support for his fight against corruption; honour for his courage;  but rejection of his claim  that he speaks for all of us I speak not to disprove what Anna has spoken But here I am to speak what I do know. You all did love your elected politicians once, not without cause: What cause withholds you then to heckle all of them? Some are bad, but not all. You have given them powers to legislate but Anna claims that  power only for himself to legislate and make JanLokpal  the  only supreme authority.  Unleash your anger, exhorts Anna, and let loose mobocracy to stymie democracy . You have the power, says Anna and asks you to act not with reason but with passion   A million mutinies shall descend on our nation when your judgement yields to unruly emotions and feelings Who is here so base that would oppose an anti-corrupt watch dog?   but who is here for a draconian JanLokpal  acting like the Big Brother watching you and me?   If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so unpatriotic that would desire an(na)archy? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so vile that would surrender democracy? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is there who fails to see oligarchy replacing democracy? If any, speak; for him I have offended. Who is there who acts on emotion and not reason? If any, speak; for him I have offended. Who is there who encourages aggressive egoism as opposed to give and take dialogue? If any, speak; for him have I offended. I pause for your reply.

Media (ir)responsibility

                                                         Media (Ir)responsibility

The UPAII government seems to have resigned itself to probable or inevitable defeat in the next General elections. That is bad news. If one dispassionately and objectively analyzes the present political scenario, it will be clear that any alternative is daunting and worrisome. Personal ego and arrogance, vaulting ambition and corruption at the cost of national interest among some state leaders, have revealed the chinks in the armour of the opposition.  No political party has crowned itself with glory and this is what is being taken advantage of by Team Anna’s ambitious and disgruntled persons to launch a no-holds- barred tirade against all members of Parliament.  One is tempted to show the mirror to Team Anna and ask them who is the foulest of all.  There is not much to choose but with the TINA factor in operation, it will be stupid to lump Team Anna’s cynicism and give up parliamentary system of governance that has been in force for the last sixty-two years. We need not fear that Indian republic will dwindle into a banana republic.

It is time for us to look at the present government with our own eyes and not with the media lens. Media and in particular, the electronic media revels in exposes to showcase its remarkable  investigating skills, its honesty of purpose and  commitment to ‘truth and nothing but the truth’ and its legitimate right to express anger by adopting a hectoring tone sans all civility.  Anna’s movement has come in handy for the Media to make corruption a quotidian event. Media has already written the obituary of UPAII for bringing down India from a shining pedestal (though no one knows when the media had given it the ‘shining’ tag) to a shaming base. Starting a year back with airing the dirty picture of Indian toilets and  exposes of India’s unpreparedness to host CWG, the Media made CWG hall of shame take centre stage relegating the CWG hall of fame to a footnote in the history of Indian sports. The cry of outrage became louder than the applause that greeted the Indian medal haul. It now views itself more and more aggressively as the modern Knight in Shining armour to protect the honour of the nation from the dishonourable deeds of UPAII.  

In the last twelve months preening itself on its exposes, the media has been baying for more blood as a curative therapy for corruption. The Assange leaks gave it the needed ammunition to become the Indian avatar of Assange, a modern buzz word meaning ‘the act of dressing up self-indulgence as piety’.  The media is now ubiquitous –here, there, everywhere-right from the PMO’s corridors to the Ministry of Defence to the office of the Army Chief to  CAG’s hallowed portals and has easy access to flash breaking news of a sensational and alarmist kind.  Scams from 2Gspectrum to Adarsh housing and land allocation, from mining lease to auction of coalfields with the startling disclosure of hypothetical revenue loss of many lakh crores have indicted all governments from Gujarat to Odisha, from Andhra to Puducherry, from Madhya Pradesh to Maharashtra, from Kashmir to Karnataka-not to leave out Delhi which is projected as the epicentre of corruption. Media has reveled in showcasing India as a corrupt nation. The latest in its salvo is lack of ammunition for the Indian army highlighted by an investigative scoop of a TV channel. The statistics reeled out by a TV anchor with a worried face in a distraught voice and angry tone suggest that India cannot last any war for more than a week- This disclosure came on the eve of the visit to India by Pakistan President. Earlier when the BRICS summit was on, the media went hammer and tongs on the same issue on the basis of an accessed letter from the army chief to the Prime Minister. The media with its penchant for high sounding falutin orchestrates trust deficit between the government and the armed forces as though the nation is on the verge of an army coup. It indicts the government for its policy paralysis when under the daily blistering attack on the government by the anchors, no one in the government is willing to stake his neck on any matter involving purchases or auction of coal fields or allowing higher FDIs into core sectors. There is no second opinion on the Media’s right to freedom of expression, but this right also includes the collective right of the people to know and be well informed. With its one point agenda to oppose the government the media does not allow anyone the time to reflect whether there are honest ministers, executives and judiciary at all in the UPAII government.  The sting revelations  by the media, while welcome to an extent has risen to such a crescendo to make the viewers believe that all parliamentarians-specially those of the ruling party are goons and we are ruled by a government which is of the corrupt , by the corrupt , and for the corrupt. Media does not speak of the hundreds of honest and committed ministers, administrators and judges who have done good and honest work despite the ubiquitous presence of corruption in some quarters.It seems as though 'no good news is news; all news is bad news.'

It was Thomas Carlyle who enlarging upon Burke’s three estates described the Press as the fourth Estate to emphasize its independence.  Oscar Wilde  wrote that ' Press  is the only estate that exists. It has eaten up the other three (estates)…We are dominated by Journalism.^’.  Harold Laski in 1945 wrote to the effect that what the 19^th century gained in democracy, the 20^th century has lost in information. But today more than corruption and inefficiency, the rhetoric of the fourth pillar of democracy is of the gravest concern.  The media has taken on the role of gutter inspectors. The electronic media competing with the print media give selective, slanted information under the cover of honest investigative socially responsible journalism. The media suffers from self importance without ever bestowing a thought on the havoc it unleashes by its scoops. This raises a pertinent question-which no one dares to ask the Media-. how does Media get their moles in the establishment? Doesn’t Media corrupt the government employees and make them disclose sensitive information? Is this not a case of bribery to make the government employee divulge sensitive information? The media may claim that it has to be a watchdog and there is nothing wrong in corrupting the babus in the government offices. For Media, fair is foul and foul is fair-all means to extract ‘foul’ deeds are fair.  McLuhan frequently punned on the word "message" changing it to "massage", to denote the effect each medium has on the human sensory and intellectual perceptions.  The effect of its daily dose of sensational breaking news has caused panic among the honest bureaucrats and ministers resulting in policy paralysis in the government.  Has not the Media revelled in the tantrums of Anna and of the opposition to spoil all reforms the Government had initiated- FDI in retail, insurance, aviation, railway budget, and last but not the least in setting up NCTC. Yet it is this government that has brought two the RTI and the RTE. This government has displayed great restraint despite a frontal attack on it by the Media. The Media ignores civility, politeness, tempered language and suavity exemplified by our Prime Minister and by his senior Ministers and sneers at them as means to cover their indefensible acts of omission and commission. Isn’t it time for Media also to show some restraint and civility- the lack of which are manifestations of corruption of the mind and spirit.

Media has a greater responsibility to educate its captive audiences to think, reflect and debate as mature persons,to  help them to analyze and rationally understand issues as responsible future citizens of this country. Let not the media destroy the democratic structures given to us by our Constitution, but strengthen it by setting personal standards of high integrity, commitment and morality. A tamil nursery rhyme tells children that the monkey does not know to build nests, but  know to destroy the built nest. There has to be a genuine partnership between the government, the  media  and the public pitched beyond hysterical perceptions. Let us not indulge in calumny, heckling and jeering but work to restore faith in our democratic institutions.. 

The truth is Media’s blitzkrieg against corruption has currently brought darkness at noon, but the same  Media has the potential and the means to dispel that darkness. There are still a very large number of voiceless millions in civil society whose voices should echo forth from the Media and help people to live by moral values and ethical principles.  Let media give us the comfort that

                                                      All is not lost with the world

                                                     The stars shine still.

.

The Cow and The Calf Symbol

                                                         The Cow and the Calf Symbol

In an interesting article in the Indian Express, Shekhar Gupta has queered the pitch for UPAII’s return to power in 2014 by listing out its misdeeds and its frequent self goals when pushed to a corner. But the most important reason he offers is that there is no single leader in the Congress and its allied parties comparable to Modi, Raman Singh, Chauhan, Nitish Kumar etc. This is a major problem despite the fact that the central cabinet boasts of many competent and well educated ministers with a modern outlook belonging both to the older and younger generations. But their new India vision has been stymied by political compulsions of running a coalition government and their inability to assert themselves before both their own party men and their allies who are wantonly still in the pre-liberalization era with no knowledge of the aspirations of a rising young post-liberalization generation.  Then there are the scams from CWG to 2G through Adarsh and land allotments- not to speak of Tatra deal and illegal mining of iron ore and coal that have brought Congress into disrepute though its direct involvement is limited to two of its ex chief Ministers of Mumbai in the Adarsh scam.  With the media jumping the gun to studio-marshal the ministers and the ruling party, and the opposition increasing its decibel to louder and louder orchestration of its one-point agenda -to dispose all reforms that the ruling government proposes such as GST, FDI, RPF, NCTC, etc or even an innocuous setting of a deadline to switchover to digital TV, the government is gripped with policy paralysis as neither any minister nor bureaucrat is ready to take responsibility for any action that may trigger a  real or imaginary scam.

But can the Congress repeat the 2009 miracle when no one after 26/9 had given it even a slender chance? It was not any great performance that catapulted the Congress to power, but the shrill and abusive orchestration of the BJP –not so much against the terrorists as against the Congress and BJP’s volte face in joining the left’s opposition to nuclear deal swung the polls in its favour. The suavity of Man Mohan Singh, the reticence of Sonia Gandhi against the barrage of attacks by the Sangh parivar, the UPA government’s strong and mature diplomatic approach to 26/9 terrorist attack without resorting to jingoism, paranoia and hysteria gave the government some degree of credibility and  acceptance in 2009.  Today that goodwill has dissipated and the Congress is the whipping boy for the Media who have piggybacked on Anna and his trusted lieutenants-Kejrewal and Kiran -to put on a holier than thou attitude to rile the government. If one looks at the issue of corruption dispassionately, it is clear that corruption is endemic to nations that are emerging economies and have felt the impact of globalization resulting in greater inequality between and within the nations. This is not to justify corruption, but to recognize that it has seeped into the nations’ bloodstream though the ruling party alone is regarded as the only offender. It has to be combated at different levels but team Anna’s strident talk about a Lokpal as the magic wand to dispel corruption is superficially artful, lacking intellectual understanding. The truth is Anna’s attack has mainly targetted the Congress while it has turned a Nelson’s eye to its own members’ questionable acts of commission and omission and those of the opposition. 

If this UPAII survives its full term till mid-2014, Congress has at least a year and a half to showcase itself that it is not half as bad as had been made out. It has to its credit framed many new policies specially in the social sector like the food security and health schemes with RTI being the piece de resistance. Even the performance index of Indian economy amidst world recession has not been too bad(except for the last one year of scams).  But despite a few good spokespersons who are good at English articulation, the Congress lacks good articulators in Hindi and regional languages to connect with the masses. The present Cabinet has many honest and intelligent Ministers to head important Ministries like Finance, Home, Education, Law, Environment, Science & Technology, Rural Development etc besides a lot of young dynamic persons at the next level. But the most unfortunate truth is the inability of the Congress to shake off its umbilical cord with the Gandhi family. Why is it that it has accepted Rahul as the heir apparent to the PM’s chair?  He is no doubt a sincere and well meaning young man but he has not been even a Minister of State or a deputy Minister nor has he any experience in the secretariat.  The Congress has given him powers to do backseat driving when he has no open vision of a front seat driver.  He has no doubt worked hard to get grassroots experience but has no understanding of power structures that govern the politics and economy of a nation. He is young and is yet to be fully educated in the intricacies of governance before he can be reckoned as the voice and force of the new generation. There are many young ministers who have greater experience and greater political understanding than Rahul. The pity is none of the younger lot is heard or seen. Occasionally when we see them on the TV, they sound intelligent, articulate, suave and logical. The Congress has to break free of the Banyan tree image that does not nurture growth of any sapling under it. Let Rahul join the cabinet, take part in Parliamentary dialogues, understand the working of Government machinery and the opposition strategy and formulate policies that are broadly acceptable and reformist in character. He should not be seen as a Don Quixote tilting at the windmills, but a real Knight in Shining armour to lead the country to a glorious future. The Congress needs a wise statesman well schooled in realpolitik- that is distinct from ideological politics.  He has to stand firm and not dictated by a fixed set of rules but remain goal-oriented, limited only by practical exigencies.  India is no longer the India of Nehru or Indira.  It has greater aspirations today to be a part of a welfare state that offers equality of opportunity and equal share in the State’s welfare services such as education, healthcare, childcare, housing and employment. Without talking about Utopian schemes or mouthing inane platitudes on ‘gharibi hatao’ lines, the country needs a new dynamic leadership that is both realistic and pragmatic.  The Congress’ dismal state today is not because its ministers are corrupt, but its failure to adhere to ethical principles and its compromise on basic tenets of ethics and good governance for political survival under compulsions of coalition dharma. Its Achilles’ heel is its lack of firmness in standing up to what it feels right (such as  Rajamaking merry with allocation of telecom licenses) - and pushing forward the reforms it had initiated in the 1990s. Man Mohan Singh cabinet that had often been castigated as ‘intellectually arrogant’ has paradoxically failed to uphold intellectual and artistic freedom and forcefully rein in the lumpen forces let loose on the streets by political opponents to curb it. It has shown itself to be pathetically supine, spineless and foolish on many occasions. The world salutes only the strong and the brave, it has no time for the weak and the cowardly. Had the government stopped the Machiavellian tactics of Raja, or reined in Kalmadi or allowed RamDev and Anna Hazare their right to speak as the nation’s Oracle or assured M.F.Hussein of protection if he wanted to return or refused to see the ghost of Satan in Rushdie’s visit to  the Literary festival or protected the Ramanujan essay and Laine’s book on Chatrapathi Shivaji – to list a few- , the Cabinet comprising liberal, modern and progressive ministers would have shown its strength of resolve to free India from shackles of bigotry and antediluvian attitudes. In recent times, it is seen to be caving into the blackmailing demands of Mamata without the strength to push through major reforms to bolster the nations’s GDP growth. It is comical to hear Modi, Patnaik and Jayalalitha arraigning the Centre as ‘overbearing’ when it has shown itself to be abjectly weak- kneed.

It is time for the Congress to rise up morally and intellectually  if it wants to be counted as a liberal force.  The younger generation wants a strong and upright leader with ideals and management skills to translate his ideals into reality. The Congress has to search for a new dynamic leader and this cannot be done if it continues to put all eggs in one basket of sycophancy and holds on to the apron strings of the mother and son.

Can Congress reinvent itself and like the phoenix rise from the ashes? It is possible if only it has the courage to give up sheltering behind its cow and calf symbol.