Oh Krishna, Where are you?
"Yada Yada Hi Dharmasya/Glanirva
Bhavathi Bharatha,
Abhyuthanam Adharmaysya/Tadatmanam Srijami Aham'.
Abhyuthanam Adharmaysya/Tadatmanam Srijami Aham'.
Whenever and wherever is decline of righteousness and a predominance of
unrighteousness prevails, at that time I manifest myself personally. This is
Lord Krishna’s answer as to when he will manifest himself.”
The marked decline in personal and public morals in our nation in the
last two years and the charges of corruption during the earlier UPA government
have made many of us wonder if Lord Krishna
would keep his word. All we read
and hear in the newspapers and over the TV channels is about rape, murder,
loot, violence, predatory business practices, juvenile crimes, sexual
perversity, road rage, uncivilized and uncultured speeches and actions… the
list is endless. Even more alarming are
the hairsplitting arguments among our lawmakers about nationalism and anti
nationalism, tolerance and intolerance, the right to dissent and the state’s
duty to stifle it, democracy and anarchy , the esoteric and exoteric aspects of
religious beliefs- driving a wedge in
the society, leading to irreconcilable ideological and religious conflicts
besides spreading venom and hatred among the contending groups. The principles
of democracy that guarantee individual liberty have also come under dispute and
the nation is currently in the vicious grip of unrest, disharmony and
disquietude. India after Independence has never seen such volatile commotion
and unease as is happening in the last year and a half. If one gives credence
to Lord Krishna’s words, one feels crying in angst and despair the famous lyric
of Pt.Ravi Shankar : “ Krishna! Krishna! I am missing you, Oh
Krishna, Where are you? I am missing you, Oh Krishna, Where are you?”
Many political writers have hailed the arrival of Kanhaiya, the jailed
and released student leader from JNU. Kanhaiya coincidentally is another name
for Lord Krishna. Leave aside the media
hype, it is a fact that this young man, the president of JNU Students’
Union(JNUSU) had struck a sympathetic and spontaneous chord with everyone who
heard him and who read his speech. He
was media savvy when he gave his interview to different TV channels. He had a cheerful smile, he displayed no
trace of rancor even after having been
unlawfully kept for three weeks in
custody, spoke eloquently and even if he had slightly erred on historical
facts, that did not make his message one
of vitriolic denunciation of his political opponents in and beyond JNU. This
was at the opposite extreme of the Parliamentary speeches by the HRD minister
and by Rahul Gandhi and by the PM especially in his reply to motion of thanks
to the President in the Rajya Sabha. Kanhaiya
came across as a mature, seasoned debator who was well trained in the etiquette
of discussion and debate. He did not say anything new that we had not known,
but the way he expressed our concerns and anxieties was simple, elegantly worded
and followed the trend of the second
inaugural address by Abraham Lincoln: “ With malice towards none, with charity
for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us
strive to finish the work we are in…”. His right wing detractors find his
‘right’ as ‘left’ and criticize him as an ultra leftist whose slogan mongering
is aimed at whipping up Maoist hysteria and unleashing anarchy. It is inconsequential
at this point of time to debate about his ideology, but only see the positives
arising out of youthful freshness and idealism that augurs well for the
emergence of a decent and alternative political discourse, away from the trite
and abusive tenor of the present day discourses. Rather than dividing our young and painting them into corners of “left”
and “right”, (in JNU it is between AISU backed by the Left and ABVP, the junior wing of BJP) Indians would do
better by positively nurturing their aspirational dreams unleashed by Kanhaiya. Salil Tripathi commenting on
Kanhaiya’s speech observes: “One thing that emerges from Kumar’s speech, and
more tragically, from the suicide note left by Rohith Vemula, the Dalit scholar
in the University of Hyderabad, is how thoughtful India’s young are. Vemula
wanted to explore the mysteries of the cosmos; Kumar reflected on transforming
the Indian universe by looking at two bowls in the jail—one red, one blue; one
left, one Dalit; and in seeking to unite the two, he sees hopes of building a
new India that fights caste and class. Bliss it is in this dawn to be alive,
and to be young, the very heaven.”
The nation has been waiting for this moment when bitterness, rancour,
intolerance, hatred and animus would give way to good will, spirit of
accommodation, love, tolerance and geniality, when caste and gender
discrimination will give way to equal opportunities for everyone without the
caste and gender tag. Anna Hazare had
provided a glimmer of hope five years back when he descended in Delhi’s Ramlila
maidan like a cloud burst to wash away the corruption that was widespread in
the country at that time. He was hailed as the new messiah, a new Gandhi to
fight to bring back honesty, transparency and a corruption-free State through
establishment of a Jan Lokpal, an institution to act like an ombudsman with the power to deal with corruption in public
places. But his influence waned because he was not ready for an iota of compromise
on the rigid stand he had taken that it should be only his version of Jan
Lokpal and nothing else. There were other issues such as his insistence on the
Dalits of his village to adopt vegetarian food or else to be tied to a post and
flogged, alienated him from the politicians of all parties as his attitude
appeared more dictatorial and passe’ and not in sync with the 21st century
India.
Five long years later,
the waiting for a new messiah continues with the nation sliding regressively in
all aspects, displaying a lack of civility, culture, cultivated speech, politeness,
grace and tolerance. The fall in civilized behavior has been the trend that started
from the time of the last General elections and continues today. PM’s speeches
abroad have a polish (despite his frequent unseemly references to the
opposition parties in India) that is distinctly missing in all his election
speeches back home( particularly galling , delivered after his massive victory
in the general elections). The so called ‘fringe’ group of his Sangh parivar
and his own cabinet ministers use crude and coarse language against anyone who
dares to oppose them or question their partisan vehemence against other
religious followers in their single aim to spread saffronization. The
opposition in turn, is taking the cue from the shrill cry of the BJP to
orchestrate its shriller outrage and attack on anything and everything the
government proposes. Contrary to Modiji’s clarion announcement that he would
give India minimum government and maximum governance, we have minimum governance
and maximum verbiage ( more of abuse and attack). The new nursery rhyme echoing
through the Parliamentary hall sounds as follows:
BJP and the Opposition sit in the Parliament,
BJP and the
Opposition have a wordy engagement ,
So uncultured and uncivilized is their
argument
All the men and women could
not bring them together again.
The nation’s waiting
for someone to lift it from the morass it had been fallen into seemed to get a
respite with Kanhaiya’s unexpected and catapulted arrival. The Media began to
fawn upon him “All hail, Kanhaiya, hail to thee/ Thou shalt be the new Messiah”
forgetting that for all the adulation he had been given, Kanhaiya is not Lord
Krishna. The comparison stops at the tip of that coincidence of the
names-Krishna and Kanahiya.
Kanhaiya has a long way
to go to grapple with the serious issues plaguing the nation. It is not just
economics where the debate revolves around the Left and the Right ideology-
about Capitalism and Socialism, about Public and Private enterprise, about
taxation and inflation. The more serious issues are about the prevalence of
unrighteousness and decline of all values that are essential to sustain and
preserve the well being of society. Krishna was known as “Draupadi mana rakshaka”(the
protector of Draupadi’s honour) . What
we see today is hundreds of Dussasanas and Duryodhans whose aggressive rapism sends
the shivers down our spine. A million policemen cannot equal Krishna the
protector and savior of Draupadi. Our society needs a million Kanhaiyas to
speak about gender justice. There have been voices against Kanhaiya in the last
couple of days and reprehensible statements have been made to tarnish his image
in particular with the opposite sex. What is true and not true in today’s biased media
is not easy to arrive at. But it highlights the need for the modern Kanahaiya
to articulate and inspire his generation strongly to bring a rape-free India.
When we think of
Krishna, we recall the Mahabharat and when we recall the great epic, we recall
the one and only Karna, the tragic hero of that magnificent work which is best
epitomized by the couplet
What is found here is
found elsewhere
What is not found here
is found nowhere.
Let us study the case of Karna- the tragic
character of the Mahabharat and who is today represented by the Dalits and the
most underprivileged classes of our society. Karna though unaware of his
Kshatriya credentials and brought up as
Sutputra (son of a charioteer)shows his extraordinary prowess as a skilful
wielder of the bow, a man known for his loyalty, gratitude and friendship towards the
wily and envy-filled Duryodhan (who had made him the king of Anga), for his truthfulness
and filial duty by promising his mother that he would not engage in any battle with his Pandava brothers
and kill them except Arjun, for his generosity as he gives away his
protective armour and earrings( that guaranteed him immortality) to Indra who comes to him disguised as a Brahmin. Karna triumphs over the casteist prejudice
through his sadharna dharma(Eternal or Universal dharma) of truth, loyalty, honesty and commitment.
One Kanhaiya and before him one Rohith Vemula
cannot help in establishing Sadharana dharma just by continuously questioning the eons of unjustness heaped on
the underprivileged classes. We need a lot more Karnas to bring up a new social
order where everyone is given the platform to rise up irrespective of his caste
and religion. Kanhaiya cannot and should
not repeatedly express anxiety over his social position based on his caste but
rise above to make a casteless society that encourages all classes of men and women
to realize the Sadharana dharma i.e. the ethical principles common to all.
It
is true in the Mahabharat, Krishna’s cleverness brought Karna down and when
Karna laments that he had always followed Dharma, but Dharma failed to protect
him, Krishna answers that Dharma cannot be a one- time principle to be adhered
and asks Karna where was his dharma when Draupadi was shamed, when Duryodhan usurped
the kingdom of the Pandavas or when Abhimanyu was encircled and killed by the
Kauravas. Will Kanhaiya rise up in stature and protest against the heinous
killings and maimings of civilians and law protectors by the Maoists? Will he
be able to articulate the subtle distinction between individual democratic
right and constitutional obligation for every citizen to be law abiding? Will
he speak about the freedom of expression which when unchecked may lead to
anarchy? Will he be able to inspire the youth not to rest content with just protests
against casteist discrimination but rise above them to realize their potential? If he fails to do
so, all his magnificent speech will be empty words.
The most important
aspect of Krishna’s attempt at restoring righteousness was the art of
diplomacy-often mistakenly cited as guile or trickery. Anna Hazare’ s attempts to weed out
corruption have failed to stop
corruption at all levels of governance. Because mere preaching without
practical efforts is akin to letting go of a wounded tiger or a hurt snake. His
disciple Kejrewal for all his antics is
to be lauded for taking up the responsibility to govern Delhi, which is not
even a mini state. His constant battle
with the Centre have made him out to be a constant fighter and a whiner,
nevertheless he has succeeded in taking a few small steps towards fulfilling
his major poll promises. Success comes to those who dare and act and seldom to
the deserter or in modern parlance to the armchair philosopher. Anna Hazare
exited from mainstream dissent as a disappointed man as his movement was not
structured and his 12 day fast was not
followed by any follow up action. Now
Kanhaiya is trying to take the crusader’s path but without any thought about
the shape it will take. His brilliant speech has been applauded for its candor,
its lack of rancor, its new found spirit to take the fight to the ruling party
that had jailed him. But then in the last one week he has made some startling
charges against the Indian army, that has evaporated all the euphoria his
earlier speech had generated. Krishna went into the battlefield not by listing
criminal charges against the Kauravas but only after all his reconciliation
efforts failed when Duryodhan refused to yield even five villages to the Pandavas. If he inspired the Pandavas to fight, it was
to restore justice and righteousness. His inspirational advice to Arjun - the Bhagavad Gita- is an exhortation to Arjuna
to fulfill his duty as a warrior to re-establish Dharma. Kanhaiya
is not Krishna and he should realize that mere speech, however well delivered
will end as an empty vessel that makes noise and nothing beyond.
We need many Kanhaiyas
who can articulate a new political testament, a new set of belief that is
practical, implementable and is well within the framework of the Indian
Constitution. Till such time let us not exalt Kanhaiya as the new Krishna; he
has to prove that his life and preaching, his eloquence and exhortation, his
criticism and constructive actions complement each other.
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