Look for the Stars, they shine for You

                                          Look for the Stars, they shine for You               

The five state elections are over. The euphoria of the winners and the dolefulness of the losers have once again taken centre stage. Parrot-like pearls of wisdom like “we accept the verdict with all humility and we will introspect” from the humbled Congress and the resounding arrogant BJP slogan “All hail to us. We have made Modi’s ‘Congress mukht Bharat’ a reality” echo forth from the two parties. 

Democracy has had its last laugh on Tamilnadu exit polls that had predicted the rise of the nonagenarian Karunanidhi like the legendary phoenix and the eclipse of the redoubtable Amma.  Ammavote is now  the new entrant into Amma brands like Amma idli, Amma dosa, Amma vada, Amma water, Amma medicine etc with  Ammanadu singing “Jaya ho”. We also see the might of another strong woman in Dididesa(West Bengal) where Didi is  going strong punching all her opponents. The hand and the sickle together could not reap the votes in Dididesa.  However in God’s own country(Kerala) the sickle has harvested the votes without the hand to wield it and the lotus has opened its account with a solitary flower, leaving the rest of the blossoms to flower in Assam. This Northeast state has shaken off the 15 year old umbilical card from the cow and the calf.  Down, but not out, says an enfeebled Congress taking a consolation prize in Puducherry winning 15 out of 30 seats. The hand that had rocked the cradle of democratic India for almost 35 years (17 with Pandit Nehru, 13 with his daughter Indira and five with his grandson Rajiv)  has now lost its grip and  been replaced  by Jora ghas phul( grass and the two flowers) in West Bengal, by two leaves in Tamilnadu, by the lotus in Assam and by the sickle in Kerala.  Only in Puducherry the hand remains unsoiled –may be to prove an exception to its all round displacement by the new emerging powers both at the Centre and in the states. .

On the day of the announcement of poll results, I dreaded to switch on the TV channels for the evening news analysis. I was afraid my ear drums will get punctured by the non- stop diarrhea of wisdom from our anchors sporting an omniscient look, and displaying  caustic indulgence towards their favourite whipping boy, the Congress.

With curiosity outweighing the fear of cacophony, I switched on the TV to have the evening entertainment of verbal fights without the fisticuffs. The BJP, though has won only one out of the five  states that went to polls, was in its ever arrogant best, tom- tomming that it is the only national party with a pan India presence. The BJP spokespersons known for their sneer and smirk whenever the opposition -in particular the Congress- mews, have   a talent for over shouting the debaters , cross talking  and interjecting  even before a word could be uttered by the hapless losers. Today was a special day for them. Though their take-in was 1/5 or just  20%, they talked with pomposity, laced with  a high sense of self righteousness bordering on hubris. The media, ever alert to be on the side of the winners had no compunction flogging the dead horse.

 The pathetic Congress reminded me of a mime Act Without Words by the Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett, where on a scorching sunny day, a man in severe thirst hankers for water. As he spots a carafe with the label ‘Water’ descending from nowhere, he lunges forward only to find the carafe going up. This happens a second time, a third time and on the fourth occasion, when the carafe comes down, he does not move. Maybe he is in coma, maybe he has no energy to rouse himself up, maybe he is aware of the futility of his effort to reach the carafe, maybe he is dead.

What is the status of Congress? Is it in comatose or is it finished for good or is it without hope, without will, without energy, without strategy to bounce back? It is certainly not in comatose because one is said to be in comatose only if he does not respond to external stimuli. In the case of Congress ,since there is no external stimulus( as it continues to be  busy with introspection), it is unlikely to be roused and therefore not necessarily remain in comatose. The BJP says with glee Congress is finished and it has thus fulfilled at least one of its many promises-i.e. to bring a Congress- mukht Bharat. Since Congress  has now a foothold in Puducherry  in addition to Uttarakhand and Karnataka, it is more likely that it is on the ventilator and unless it gains strength to breathe on its own, it will be on the ventilator at least till such time  these three states also bounce out of  its hand.

Is it good for the country to have one of its oldest parties on a ventilator? I read today that the next target for the BJP is Nitish- mukht Bharat. That means it will strive for one party to rulea nd thus provide a new definition for Indian democracy - rule by BJP, of  BJP and for BJP.  This may not augur well for the future of democracy in India.  If there is only a single ruling party with no opposition, it sounds the death knell of democracy.

 The BJP is happy to  open its account with a lone win in Kerala. Let us hope in its euphoria, let BJP not destruct itself by destructing democracy. Let it face the truth- it has been rejected by four states and it has managed to open its account  in Kerala.  Despite all its fanciful slogans of Make in India, Digital India, Skill India, Swachh Bharat, and its vigorous rechristening of all roads, organizations, official bodies and associations that had been earlier named after Nehru and the Gandhis(not the Mahatma ),  despite all its efforts to hug and embrace foreign nations to prove India’s  fraternal bonds, there has been no significant change in the social and economic conditions for a majority in the country. There is nil growth in employment, no lessening of prices of essential commodities for the common man, hardly any qualitative improvement in our lives. What extra benefits have accrued to the people of India except for some welcome contributions made by the Railway ministry and the Power ministry and to some extent the Transport ministry?  Corruptions at high places continue as evidenced in the case of Lalit Modi’s infamous association with BJP leaders- Sushmaji and Vasundhraji, in the hoarding of  Black money in safe dark vaults outside India and in the day to day corruption in all offices. Maybe one notices less of corruption at much higher levels of governance. The foreign policy for all its fanfare has not yielded the desired results. Our neighbours who enjoyed the hospitality and embrace of our PM do not miss an opportunity to attack us and scorn our overtures. After the Modi-Nawaz bonhomie, it is raining artillery shells from Pakistan. Even the only Hindu nation of the world-Nepal- has turned against us. Growth, employment, achche din continue to be pre- election promises. The disturbing acts of lynching persons who had allegedly stored beef in their homes( an allegation that had been proved false), the attacks on freedom of expression and on personal  freedom to eat what one wants, to read what one likes, to pay obeisance to the motherland in one’s own way, to follow one’s belief and political ideology  have all caused fear and anxiety among the citizens about a possible reversion to dictatorship and Xenophobia.  The two years has seen the government going hammer and tongs at all Congress big wigs spreading the perception that the grand old party is corrupt from top to bottom. As for education, The Universities in the past had recognized that the quality of education is not strained; it  had blessed all those who contributed to academic scholarship and blessed all those who received it. But today the only perceptible change that is brought in our institutions is to question the wisdom of great academicians of the earlier era and replace it with new scholarship that has yet to stand the scrutiny of academic, historical and textual integrity. Autonomy had been the strongest bastion of our higher learning centres- Universities, IITs, IIMs,  Medical institutes and research organizations. Unfortunately that fortification is now attacked and destroyed and one dreads to visualize the destruction of academic scholarship and academic integrity. It is BJP’s good fortune that Congress is on the decline. Otherwise with nothing much to show over the last two years- which seem to be a continuation of the earlier regime- it could have been hauled over the coals had there been a strong, articulate and intelligent opposition. Had the reverse happened with Congress in power and BJP in the opposition, the latter would have beaten the former to within an inch of life.

The ruling party is good at smear campaigns to create false perceptions about their opponents. The idea is throw mud so that something sticks till such time you have the water and the soap to clean it. The BJP spearheaded by its two top leaders have shown the opposition rule as mired in corruption and for ten years in a perpetual state of policy paralysis.  Though partly factual, it is three to one exaggeration. There were many in the previous government starting from the then PM, Man Mohan Singh who were not touched by the greed for extra pelf. The partial truth is a few blacksheep in the Congress and UDA had shown themselves to b  far from being  clean, efficient, compassionate, honest and strong. Post 2014, It has shown itself to be effeminate, whining, complaining, corrupt and rudderless. The choice before the electors has thus been between bluster and babble.  What democracy in India has shown is there is no alternative except to choose between tweedledom and tweedledee. No leader of proven integrity, with wisdom and vision has come centrestage bringing decency and cultured behavior in action and speech. 

It is well known that powerful people are those who operate from commitment. And those who are powerless always operate from complaint. BJP has a visceral hatred of the Congress and in particular of the Gandhis and is committed to banish the party into wilderness. It has almost succeeded and has also grown powerful. It has of late been sounding paternalistic and intrusive almost to the point of promising people to provide those needs which it would decide and at the simultaneously denying them their rights and responsibilities. The grim prospect of a paternalistic state is not just an imaginary nightmare, but too close to us for comfort. Milton Friedman wrote that "the paternalistic ground for government activity is in many ways the most troublesome to a liberal; for it involves the acceptance of a principle--that some shall decide for others--which he finds objectionable in most applications.”

 The Congress which had till now been a national party is seen operating from complaint and is not committed to any new vision or plan. One of its top leaders has hit the nail on its head when he said holding to the 1970 slogans about Garibi hatao has no meaning in the altered narrative of present history. The young and the middle aged are full of aspirations irrespective of their economic status. The senior citizens desire security, care and comfort. Everyone desires to live a qualitatively improved life. As for the state leaders, they think to win elections, offer freebies. This would ultimately turn their countrymen and women to modern day Oliver Twists, asking for more and more and without striving to earn them.

  What is sorely lacking in India today is the development of the mind, the inability  to discern between empty promises and implementable  vision  for the betterment of individuals and society. This is the Age of Social Media, Twitter and What’s APP.  In short, Groupthink Is the blight of our Age of Information and this has bred mediocrity and poorness. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote: “Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius".  We have not nurtured talent and intelligence sufficient to recognize what is true and what is false, what is exaggeration and what is meiosis, what is cultured and what is inelegant speech, what is genuine talent and what is extravagant boasting.

 We need a new revolution- though as I had often said, it should be like the Velvet revolution of East Europe in its attempt to free itself from the authoritarian rule of Soviet Russia. We need intellectuals to come forward to educate us on new politics of discernment. We need to educate our people and make them understand the concept of true citizenship and collective welfare of humanity. True education consists in developing discerning minds that recognize the difference between individual and society and seek new measures to include both to benefit materially, mentally and spiritually. We need a new breed of leaders who can bring about a synthesis of individual genius and collective talent, of the wisdom of the Ages and the progressive outlook of the moderns, of freedom and restraint, of aspiration and ambition, of equity and justice, and last but not the least of svabhava(one’s intrinsic nature) and svadharma(one’ s duty/role in the social and cosmic order) .

 Many may look askance at such idealism and describe this write up as empty rhetoric. To them my only answer is ( as the Velvet revolution exemplified), to make people aware of  binary concepts listed above and make them realize a new vision that seeks unity in duality. This is not ideological revolution, but intellectual revolution. It is for the University professors, academicians, school teachers ,educationists, scholars and writers to come together to foster this new vision among our people. It is time our intellectuals and our young bright minds get out of their cocooned space and enter the bigger political arena to create a new idealism that is realizable in our land. Is it wrong to ask to look at the sky and discover that the stars shine still?