The Grey Tsunami

                                                                       The Grey Tsunami

India and the world in general have been hit by a ‘grey tsunami’, thanks to better healthcare and advanced medical technology. It is estimated that in the next three decades, globally the number of senior citizens will triple to 1.5 billion while in India it will be 0.3 billion i.e.,300 million. When even United States feels that it is unprepared to take care of its present 45 million people above the age of 65 and which is estimated to grow into 86 million by 2050, we can surmise how we can provide for our own men and women in their grey years. The latest news from the world of science is both awesome and terrifying as it relates to Computer scientists and AI (Artificial Intelligence) specialists  working on new programmes that will open the door to near everlasting life and usher in immortality. The research on ‘disrupting death’ has been successful on preserving an animal’s brain’s neural maps and it is now looking at the possibility of extending the technique to human brains. I am not going into the ethical and philosophical questions on this issue, but what is being mooted and what is currently attempted is continuity of life through digitization of neural circuits to enable the most cerebral human being to live in virtual reality. Grey Tsunami may become a virtual reality as much as it is a physical reality today.

I come from a family where on my maternal side, almost everyone had either touched or crossed 90 before they bade goodbye to the world. What was noteworthy was all of them had no physical or mental infirmity even in their ripe old age. It will not be wrong to say that they must have decided to call it a day because they wanted to start afresh as there was nothing more left for them to do in their present state. It may sound incredible, but the truth is they all died without regret, regretted by those they had left behind. 

I am now in my second half of my seventh decade. Though the maternal genes seem to be holding me well, modern life with all its stresses and tensions (mostly created by one’s own anxieties) fills me (and I am suremany others in my age group) with unknown fears about the coming decades, though philosophically I try to strengthen myself  with the thought that mental and physical decline are the inevitabilities of life before it comes to a full stop and therefore why  contemplate today about what will happen and when it will happen.

What are the factors that helped the earlier generation to still their anxieties and look forward to progress in years without a concern about the daily dosage of decline? My great grandmother with her experiential knowledge of masonry, was giving instructions to the mason to do some repair work in her kitchen before stretching herself on bed never to get up. She was full of life till the end. So was her husband whom she preceded, always on his easy chair with the newspaper that he would read through from the first alphabet to the last alphabet. He died reclining on the easy chair with the newspaper in hand. Not a flutter, not a ripple on the face; it was as though with absolute ease, the two moved into a new world. The foremost reason for such equanimity of temper was they were aware of a support system in the form of a joint family to take care of them in an emergency. Their homes never remained empty; they always had at least two or three people around and the fear of being alone was never there. Today old people go in search of assisted homes (which are few and far between) because there will be someone to assist when needed. In the present day nuclear families it is difficult to provide constant support to the elderly as the younger generation has necessarily to go out to earn their living and also enjoy the youthful phase of their lives. Unless one can afford to hire a full time nurse or a caregiver, the empty house causes unease and insecurity to the elderly. There are not many trained caregivers available in India.  Even geriatricians can be counted and this causes tension not just to the elders but to the young people who are caught between their professional commitments and youthful ambitions on the one hand and family responsibility on the other..

Yet another phenomenon of ageism relates to the newly superannuated groups whose parents are either octogenarians or nonagenarians. The post retirement life of this group in their 60s is no longer a time for them to indulge in a care free, leisurely life, enjoying the fruits of their 40 odd years of labour,  because they are the ones left at home to support their still older parents in their 80s and 90s.  A lot of tension and anger though tempered by their filial duty creates an unpleasant atmosphere at home.  In many cases, the wheel chair bound elderly people cause a lot of resentment to the new retirees and this is a new problem of ageism. In fact modern medical sciences have added decades to life, but as Linda Fried, Dean of Columbia University’s School of Public Health says,  “what we  have not done is take this immense success and turn into a victory for everybody”.

I list out four instances of how families have countered this problem of ageism. I start with two examples where I found the nonagenarian parents well looked after at home by their retired son and daughter. The remarkable thing is the nonagenarian couples of both husband and wife were parents to both of them. In other words, the son and the daughter played their roles by their parents and  their respective in-laws. They brought back the joint family system in a new way. All the four elders were in their late eighties and they lived a full life till the end. They were companions to each other enabling their son and daughter to freely visit their children living in US. I had seen four of them in good spirits, even after  the four got reduced to three and then two and then one and then none, but the spirit of living together gave them a dream life in their last years. This is a rare instance of two families living together.

 In the second instance a similar effort by the new retirees to take care of their mothers in their 90s with the help of hired assistants, has given the much needed comfort to the elders and freedom for their son and daughter to lead a life of their own. In both the cases, the fact that their own children, now in their 70s are around, has given the elderly parents comfort and security. While we all talk glibly about marriage between a man and a woman as the marriage of two families, in actual practice, this does not happen. Our custom and tradition allows only the son’s parents to be looked after which the daughter-in-law resents and the resentment gallops into hatred and deep rooted dislike of her husband’s parents. All family conflict starts from this point and the result is more and more divorces and greater alienation from the husband’s parents. The two illustrations show how companionship is possible to provide not with the younger generation but with one’s own peer group and that is possible with the coming together of two families.

The third instance is a reflection of our tradition where elderly people are given the highest respect and honour even if they are no longer actively participating in family affairs.  Even in her old age of 85+, the mother is looked upon as the patriarch of the family. She with her remarkable understanding of all religious functions gives instructions  on rituals, on books written in Telugu( her mother tongue), on cooking and even on observing economic prudence and these instructions are followed to the last letter by everyone in the family. The mother continues to be well taken care of by her two sons with active support from their spouses and children.  All the above three examples are pointers to possible solutions to the problem of ageism within the families. I do not think any of them ever thinks of Senior Citizens Homes or Assisted Homes not only for their parents, but for themselves also. The tradition of treating the elderly with respect runs through the families.

 But the majority of instances in India unfortunately border on mental cruelty and harshness towards the elderly people. The elders are seen to be a burden coming in the way of the daily routine-  even if thenext generation is  leading retired life . In India in many affluent families, the nonagenarians, who thanks to modern medicines are still mentally and physically active, are subjected to mental torture and indifference to the extent  they are forced to withdraw into their shell and gradually decline mentally and physically .The rapid rise in Alzheimer patients is not only due to loss of neurons that come with age, but also because of the cruel negligence the elderly are subjected to. If one is not allowed to participate in family affairs and share the day to day experience with the younger people, it leads to blankness which in course of time moves them out of the present to seek asylum in the past events. Very few people in their prime years take to reading, listening to music, involving themselves in social and cultural activities, enjoying life’s little pleasures… the result is they lose touch with the world around them. Maybe this is Nature’s way of helping the elderly to escape into an altogether different world, far from the present, where one is not wanted, leave aside needed. It is essential for everyone to cultivate the habit of reading or engagement of any kind with the mind such as doing cross word puzzles etc or listening to music, watching sports events etc. The latter is an excellent way ogf getting connected with the youth.

The fourth instance that I am about to mention is typical of many households today where the elderly are looked upon as a burden and who have  no value or use for anyone. The family that I shall refer to is a very well to do family, basically with good instincts, that has seen nothing but success in all matters-professional, financial and physical well being. Their success continues with their children who are also shaping well in all respects. The mother now in her 90s is mentally strong and tough, physically in fairly good shape except for  the age old decline making her slow in movements and physical activities. Good memory, strong speech, fairly alive to all happenings but a little irritable because she does not enjoy the status that her age demands. She had been running her home single handedly with the help of a maid for a good number of years, almost for six decades. But of late, she began to feel the need for a fulltime maid to assist her so that her home continues to be an efficiently run home. Being a little imperious, it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to get a helper to her satisfaction and the demand on her children to provide assistance,  companionship, support and respect was too much for her three children who are all into their late 60s and early 70s. Instead of giving her a little space in their well organized homes with drivers and servants, they felt that she needed only an assisted home service. They all live in spacious apartments , but did not want to keep their mother because she was getting more and more dependent, demanding constant companionship and attention. She wanted to sit with them, eat with them, talk to them about the  past glorious days she had with her high placed husband etc, but if it had been one day affair, her children would have displayed all their filial warmth and gratitude to their mother. But when they realized it would be a prolonged affair till she decided to cry halt, they began to resent her presence. They felt that they could not have evenings to themselves, go to theatres, watch movies at home in quietude and solitary splendor. The mother fixation drove them insane and they gradually worked on her mind to accept assisted home service as the best option. Well, she is now in one of the assisted homes and the son who had added to his own wealth the bountiful inheritance from the mother is ready to meet all the expenditure on the old lady at the assisted home, far away from where he lives amongst the well heeled. They tell everyone that was the best arrangement as the mother wanted and that she is presently very happy as she is well cared for by nurses and servants. She told me that she was made to feel that she was in some ways crippling the freedom of her children and that she was  asked voluntarily to follow our age old tradition of ‘vanaprastha’ and settle in an assisted home. She said she had no complaints as she was well looked after and she only had one question: Is this what one bargained for by living her entire life for the family? The missing quotient was the emotional quotient.

I was reminded of the lines from Yeats’ poem ‘Among School Children’. This poem was composed after his visit to a convent school in his 60^th year. Looking at one of the girls he was reminded of his beloved whom he now sees as an old lady with hollow cheeks and decrepit looks like an old scarecrow, as though she subsisted on the wind and the shadows in place of  water and solid food. No one can prevent ageing. He writes

What youthful mother, a shape upon her lap

…………………………………………………………………….

Would think her son, did she but see that shape,

With sixty or more winters on its head

A compensation for the pang of his birth

Or the uncertainty of his setting forth?

He wonders what the mother would have thought had she been able to see how her son who was in her lap had turned out to be. Would she have regarded him as adequate compensation for the pains of childbirth and all the inconveniences of bringing him up?. Yeats leaves the question unanswered.

Are we ready to face the grey Tsunami? Do we have to barricade ourselves against it as we do in the case of natural tsunami or do we remove all the barricades  to embrace the grey population with  gratitude and affection?. Like Yeats, I leave the question unanswered.

                                                                       The Grey Tsunami

India and the world in general have been hit by a ‘grey tsunami’, thanks to better healthcare and advanced medical technology. It is estimated that in the next three decades, globally the number of senior citizens will triple to 1.5 billion while in India it will be 0.3 billion i.e.,300 million. When even United States feels that it is unprepared to take care of its present 45 million people above the age of 65 and which is estimated to grow into 86 million by 2050, we can surmise how we can provide for our own men and women in their grey years. The latest news from the world of science is both awesome and terrifying as it relates to Computer scientists and AI (Artificial Intelligence) specialists  working on new programmes that will open the door to near everlasting life and usher in immortality. The research on ‘disrupting death’ has been successful on preserving an animal’s brain’s neural maps and it is now looking at the possibility of extending the technique to human brains. I am not going into the ethical and philosophical questions on this issue, but what is being mooted and what is currently attempted is continuity of life through digitization of neural circuits to enable the most cerebral human being to live in virtual reality. Grey Tsunami may become a virtual reality as much as it is a physical reality today.

I come from a family where on my maternal side, almost everyone had either touched or crossed 90 before they bade goodbye to the world. What was noteworthy was all of them had no physical or mental infirmity even in their ripe old age. It will not be wrong to say that they must have decided to call it a day because they wanted to start afresh as there was nothing more left for them to do in their present state. It may sound incredible, but the truth is they all died without regret, regretted by those they had left behind. 

I am now in my second half of my seventh decade. Though the maternal genes seem to be holding me well, modern life with all its stresses and tensions (mostly created by one’s own anxieties) fills me (and I am suremany others in my age group) with unknown fears about the coming decades, though philosophically I try to strengthen myself  with the thought that mental and physical decline are the inevitabilities of life before it comes to a full stop and therefore why  contemplate today about what will happen and when it will happen.

What are the factors that helped the earlier generation to still their anxieties and look forward to progress in years without a concern about the daily dosage of decline? My great grandmother with her experiential knowledge of masonry, was giving instructions to the mason to do some repair work in her kitchen before stretching herself on bed never to get up. She was full of life till the end. So was her husband whom she preceded, always on his easy chair with the newspaper that he would read through from the first alphabet to the last alphabet. He died reclining on the easy chair with the newspaper in hand. Not a flutter, not a ripple on the face; it was as though with absolute ease, the two moved into a new world. The foremost reason for such equanimity of temper was they were aware of a support system in the form of a joint family to take care of them in an emergency. Their homes never remained empty; they always had at least two or three people around and the fear of being alone was never there. Today old people go in search of assisted homes (which are few and far between) because there will be someone to assist when needed. In the present day nuclear families it is difficult to provide constant support to the elderly as the younger generation has necessarily to go out to earn their living and also enjoy the youthful phase of their lives. Unless one can afford to hire a full time nurse or a caregiver, the empty house causes unease and insecurity to the elderly. There are not many trained caregivers available in India.  Even geriatricians can be counted and this causes tension not just to the elders but to the young people who are caught between their professional commitments and youthful ambitions on the one hand and family responsibility on the other..

Yet another phenomenon of ageism relates to the newly superannuated groups whose parents are either octogenarians or nonagenarians. The post retirement life of this group in their 60s is no longer a time for them to indulge in a care free, leisurely life, enjoying the fruits of their 40 odd years of labour,  because they are the ones left at home to support their still older parents in their 80s and 90s.  A lot of tension and anger though tempered by their filial duty creates an unpleasant atmosphere at home.  In many cases, the wheel chair bound elderly people cause a lot of resentment to the new retirees and this is a new problem of ageism. In fact modern medical sciences have added decades to life, but as Linda Fried, Dean of Columbia University’s School of Public Health says,  “what we  have not done is take this immense success and turn into a victory for everybody”.

I list out four instances of how families have countered this problem of ageism. I start with two examples where I found the nonagenarian parents well looked after at home by their retired son and daughter. The remarkable thing is the nonagenarian couples of both husband and wife were parents to both of them. In other words, the son and the daughter played their roles by their parents and  their respective in-laws. They brought back the joint family system in a new way. All the four elders were in their late eighties and they lived a full life till the end. They were companions to each other enabling their son and daughter to freely visit their children living in US. I had seen four of them in good spirits, even after  the four got reduced to three and then two and then one and then none, but the spirit of living together gave them a dream life in their last years. This is a rare instance of two families living together.

 In the second instance a similar effort by the new retirees to take care of their mothers in their 90s with the help of hired assistants, has given the much needed comfort to the elders and freedom for their son and daughter to lead a life of their own. In both the cases, the fact that their own children, now in their 70s are around, has given the elderly parents comfort and security. While we all talk glibly about marriage between a man and a woman as the marriage of two families, in actual practice, this does not happen. Our custom and tradition allows only the son’s parents to be looked after which the daughter-in-law resents and the resentment gallops into hatred and deep rooted dislike of her husband’s parents. All family conflict starts from this point and the result is more and more divorces and greater alienation from the husband’s parents. The two illustrations show how companionship is possible to provide not with the younger generation but with one’s own peer group and that is possible with the coming together of two families.

The third instance is a reflection of our tradition where elderly people are given the highest respect and honour even if they are no longer actively participating in family affairs.  Even in her old age of 85+, the mother is looked upon as the patriarch of the family. She with her remarkable understanding of all religious functions gives instructions  on rituals, on books written in Telugu( her mother tongue), on cooking and even on observing economic prudence and these instructions are followed to the last letter by everyone in the family. The mother continues to be well taken care of by her two sons with active support from their spouses and children.  All the above three examples are pointers to possible solutions to the problem of ageism within the families. I do not think any of them ever thinks of Senior Citizens Homes or Assisted Homes not only for their parents, but for themselves also. The tradition of treating the elderly with respect runs through the families.

 But the majority of instances in India unfortunately border on mental cruelty and harshness towards the elderly people. The elders are seen to be a burden coming in the way of the daily routine-  even if thenext generation is  leading retired life . In India in many affluent families, the nonagenarians, who thanks to modern medicines are still mentally and physically active, are subjected to mental torture and indifference to the extent  they are forced to withdraw into their shell and gradually decline mentally and physically .The rapid rise in Alzheimer patients is not only due to loss of neurons that come with age, but also because of the cruel negligence the elderly are subjected to. If one is not allowed to participate in family affairs and share the day to day experience with the younger people, it leads to blankness which in course of time moves them out of the present to seek asylum in the past events. Very few people in their prime years take to reading, listening to music, involving themselves in social and cultural activities, enjoying life’s little pleasures… the result is they lose touch with the world around them. Maybe this is Nature’s way of helping the elderly to escape into an altogether different world, far from the present, where one is not wanted, leave aside needed. It is essential for everyone to cultivate the habit of reading or engagement of any kind with the mind such as doing cross word puzzles etc or listening to music, watching sports events etc. The latter is an excellent way ogf getting connected with the youth.

The fourth instance that I am about to mention is typical of many households today where the elderly are looked upon as a burden and who have  no value or use for anyone. The family that I shall refer to is a very well to do family, basically with good instincts, that has seen nothing but success in all matters-professional, financial and physical well being. Their success continues with their children who are also shaping well in all respects. The mother now in her 90s is mentally strong and tough, physically in fairly good shape except for  the age old decline making her slow in movements and physical activities. Good memory, strong speech, fairly alive to all happenings but a little irritable because she does not enjoy the status that her age demands. She had been running her home single handedly with the help of a maid for a good number of years, almost for six decades. But of late, she began to feel the need for a fulltime maid to assist her so that her home continues to be an efficiently run home. Being a little imperious, it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to get a helper to her satisfaction and the demand on her children to provide assistance,  companionship, support and respect was too much for her three children who are all into their late 60s and early 70s. Instead of giving her a little space in their well organized homes with drivers and servants, they felt that she needed only an assisted home service. They all live in spacious apartments , but did not want to keep their mother because she was getting more and more dependent, demanding constant companionship and attention. She wanted to sit with them, eat with them, talk to them about the  past glorious days she had with her high placed husband etc, but if it had been one day affair, her children would have displayed all their filial warmth and gratitude to their mother. But when they realized it would be a prolonged affair till she decided to cry halt, they began to resent her presence. They felt that they could not have evenings to themselves, go to theatres, watch movies at home in quietude and solitary splendor. The mother fixation drove them insane and they gradually worked on her mind to accept assisted home service as the best option. Well, she is now in one of the assisted homes and the son who had added to his own wealth the bountiful inheritance from the mother is ready to meet all the expenditure on the old lady at the assisted home, far away from where he lives amongst the well heeled. They tell everyone that was the best arrangement as the mother wanted and that she is presently very happy as she is well cared for by nurses and servants. She told me that she was made to feel that she was in some ways crippling the freedom of her children and that she was  asked voluntarily to follow our age old tradition of ‘vanaprastha’ and settle in an assisted home. She said she had no complaints as she was well looked after and she only had one question: Is this what one bargained for by living her entire life for the family? The missing quotient was the emotional quotient.

I was reminded of the lines from Yeats’ poem ‘Among School Children’. This poem was composed after his visit to a convent school in his 60^th year. Looking at one of the girls he was reminded of his beloved whom he now sees as an old lady with hollow cheeks and decrepit looks like an old scarecrow, as though she subsisted on the wind and the shadows in place of  water and solid food. No one can prevent ageing. He writes

What youthful mother, a shape upon her lap

…………………………………………………………………….

Would think her son, did she but see that shape,

With sixty or more winters on its head

A compensation for the pang of his birth

Or the uncertainty of his setting forth?

He wonders what the mother would have thought had she been able to see how her son who was in her lap had turned out to be. Would she have regarded him as adequate compensation for the pains of childbirth and all the inconveniences of bringing him up?. Yeats leaves the question unanswered.

Are we ready to face the grey Tsunami? Do we have to barricade ourselves against it as we do in the case of natural tsunami or do we remove all the barricades  to embrace the grey population with  gratitude and affection?. Like Yeats, I leave the question unanswered.

No Humour Please, We are Indians.

                                           No Humour Please, we are Indians.

The Hug and Wink episode certainly relieved the tedium of long Parliamentary speeches especially on a No trust vote. We Indians, as a race are singularly devoid of humour. The only time we hear Indians laugh is the exaggerated laughter recorded specifically for the innumerable poor comedy shows on our TV channels. The laughter reaches high decibel levels when a portly male dresses like a woman and performs unaesthetic acrobatics that mock all females and in poor taste. Our sense of humouris limited to Rabelaism(coarse humour) and never extended to Pantagruelism, i.e., dealing with serious subjects in a spirit of good and sometimes cynical good humour. On our TV channels, we see many of our political spokesmen grim faced and angry with no smile unless their lips twitch in mockery as the opposition panelist reels a list of inconvenient and unpalatable facts. When the opposition is in the receiving end- which invariably they are at all times, they have a grin and bear look.

Satirical humour is unacceptable to Indians and the only time they accept it and laugh is when satire is coarsely targetted at their opponents-in particular political opponents. Yesterday at the end of his fierce speech, Rahul Gandhi, fondly referred to by BJP as Pappu(a simpleton), gave a fright to the treasury benches that Pappu pass ho gaya.  Rahul prefaced his hug by accepting the pet name given to him and said he harboured no ‘naphrat’ (rancour) even as he is railed day after day as ‘Pappu’ by his political opponents. His dramatic act that followed, of hugging the PM was a gesture to say that he has no personal ‘naphrat’ against his Prime Minister. Though the PM with his clever oratory exaggerated the act by saying Rahul asked him to get up, the picture shows that he did not get up and he was hugged while he was sitting. What irked the treasury benches and the PM was it was a satirical humour(Horatian) that playfully criticizes some acts and speeches through gentle, mild and light hearted humour. The motherly admonition by the Speaker for violating the sanctity and decorum of the august assembly was like chiding an enfant terrible, a child who is terribly candid saying embarrassing things to his parents and others. Maybe Rahul could have sought her permission to cross over to the Treasury bench to do his little theatrical act. That was his mistake, though his intention was to make the point that mere spreading of hatred against him and his party was unbecoming of the ruling party. Rahul’s  “Munnabhai’ hugplomacy was his way of trying to win over his opponents. The real hidden satire was not lost upon the PM and his votaries. The PM’s hugplomacy has so far not yielded any positive results. He has visited 84 nations in these four years and has hugged many Presidents and Prime Ministers barring women leaders like Theresa May and Merkel. The foreign investment in billions of billion dollars has not filled our coffers as per his exaggerated claims, the release of Hafiz Saeed by Pakistan despite the PM’s hug of the now discredited Nawaz Shariff, the US’ approval of aid to Pakistan after his huge hug of Trump, , the unabated game of Chinese checkers despite swinging with the Chinese PM on the banks of Sabarmati, the backstabbing of Nepal and Maldives(who has lately refused to extradite Naik), are just a few instances of the wonderful results  of PM’s hugplomacy. Rahul also knew his hugplomacy will not result in a change of heart with love overflowing for him from the BJP leaders.

Was not the PM also at his theatrical best with his mimicry of the Italian accent, with his singsong rendition of his usual attack on dynasty vis- a-vis his humble origins, his Mark Antony like peroration that the opponents could not see all that he had achieved in the last four years and his seeking divine benediction for the opponents to get enough strength to bring another no trust motion in 2024? The speech was devoted to one single idea of Congress mukht Bharat. The treasury bench had their fill of hushed laughter as he mounted his attack on the Congress for all the failures of his own government. One dramatic act engendered another theatrical performance. His wink and his dancing fingers showed that he was a dramebazz. Soon after ina rally in UP the PM says since Rahul had no answers to any issue, he resorted to ‘unwanted hug’. Does this mean all his hugs were wanted  by international leaders. Wa she requested to hug them ? When does a hug become wanted and unwanted?

But the Parliamentarians had no stomach for  humour.   Was it lost on the viewers who watched the dramatic act of Rahul and the prime time theatrics of our PM? Who winked and who blinked? In our theatre of Parliament there is no place for humour. Yata praja thatha raja. If praja suffers from lack of humour, why blame the raja(s)? We are Indians, we need no humour.

The Ascent of Uncivility and the Descent of Decency

                                                      The Ascent of Uncivility and the Descent of Decency

The second half of the above title, ‘the Descent of Decency’ is the title of a forthcoming book by the Republican strategist and commentator, Evan Siegfried. I could not help borrowing it for my article as the relevance of Siegfried’s plea for civility in political discourse has greater need for us in India where the sparring between the ruling and the opposition parties have reached  abysmal level  since we started parliamentary democracy sixty eight years ago.  While Siegfried’s book is about the low level of American politics, his comments are not far off the mark when applied to Indian politics, especially now in the pre-election year,  if not the election year. One expects the PM  known for his sensational announcements to come up with an address to the Nation ( a la his demonetization bombshell) and announce General elections before the close of the current year. In anticipation of this announcement, all the parties are getting battle ready and first in the scheme of things is to unleash their verbal arsenal.

The rhetoric is vicious and very often they are lies built on half or quarter truths. These lies are repeated so often that they blur the distinction between genuine truths and fictitious lies. Though majority of our netas have sparse knowledge of the Mahabharata, they all seem to know the worth of the famous line uttered by Yudhishtra:”Aswathama atha kunjara”. During the great war, Drona of the Kaurava camp was on a rampage through the Pandavas. Krishna who wanted Pandavas to win the war and to re- establish dharma tells Yudhishtra alias Dharmaputra to  spread the word that Aswathama is dead. Aswathama is Drona’s son. Krishna knew that news of his son’s death would shatter the grand old warrior.  ‘Aswathama is dead’ is only the half truth. The full truth is Aswathama is also the name of an elephant which had died in the battle. Yudhishtra known for his honesty as the son of lord Dharma is reluctant to tell a lie. Krishna convinces him to say Awathama is dead and in an inaudible voice add “’Aswathama, the elephant.”
 The story goes how Drona heard the first part of Aswathama’s death but in the noise of the battle, did not hear that it was Aswathama, the elephant. He lays down his arms in grief and he is beheaded by Dhrishtadyumna, Yudhisthira’s brother-in-law.

This is being practiced in full vigour by all the political parties where a lie built on half truth becomes an illusion of truth. One recalls Winston Churchill’s famous sardonic remark: “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." So our political leaders have no compunction in converting half truths to full blown lies that would serve the immediate purpose of destroying their political opponents. This was first started by AAP a few months before the 2014 general elections and it fetched them great dividends. The shoot and scoot policy made them overnight heroes and they practiced it to the hilt. But when AAP leaders continued the same policy even after coming to power in Delhi, they could only shoot and not scoot and the law caught up with them. The Chief Minister had to withdraw his comments on the BJP leader Arun Jaitley and had to  apologize to him to escape a hefty penalty of ten crores. 

But unfortunately, the present ruling party and all the opposition  parties put together have resorted to  AAP’s policy to shoot irrespective of whether it hits the bull’s eye or not. The only aim is to shoot and as elections are on the horizon, no one feels the need to scoot.  The verbal assault based on a small fraction of truth and built on huge lies has become the stable diet for the users of the social media. The mob lunching and the gory death of  alleged cattle and  child lifters  have their origin in fake news spread through What’s App and other social media. Like primary cancer that soon gets metastasized, a mischievous lie uttered casually but deliberately spreads very fast and ends in community murder.

Every politician worth his name is now resorting to low level attacks on his/her opponents. The strategy is to give the dog a bad name and hang it too. Rahul Gandhi was given the nickname “Pappu” and it spread like wild fire among the BJP bhakts  to the extent that whatever he did or didn’t, whether he uttered the truth or made a gaffe, he was made fun of as “pappu pass ho gaya or pappu fail ho gaya”. The intention was to personally vilify him so that no one  takes him seriously. After the damage had been done, the magnanimous BJP leaders advised their cadres to stop calling him Pappu.  The stone had been thrown at the mud, the splash had soiled the shirt and no amount of soap or detergent can wash the stains off the shirt. This is stooping down low to attack someone in the most loathsome manner. It is an assassination of one’s mental caliber.

Post- 2014 elections the euphoria of a huge win was discernible in the spokespersons of the ruling party with their no holds barred attack on the opposition-in particular on Congress to keep in tune with the PM’s repeated call to establish a Congress -mukht Bharat.  The sneer, the smirk, the taunt and the mocking tone employed by them marked the hardening of uncivility in our political discourse. For the first two years, Congress which had been reduced to a negligible 44 seats in a house of 540 members could hardly mew in retaliation. They had to listen in shameful silence the cry of the victor likening the mother- son duo as Humpty Dumpty that had a great fall/ All the Congress’ scamsters and all their dynastic family could not put Humpty Dumpty back again. The over the top rhetoric by top leaders and spokespersons of the BJP accusing all the Congress  Prime Ministers of  zero, if not negative contribution towards  moral, ethical, economic and social upliftment of the nation-starting with Jawaharlal Nehru  and moving through Indira and Rajiv Gandhi and  coming down to Sonia and Rahul(fondly addressed as poor Pappu)  have had disastrous consequences. What is different in today’s political climate is the speed with which those insults have disseminated among both the ruling and the opposition parties alike. AAP called the PM a psychopath, while Mani Shanker Iyer, now suspended by the Congress made his infamous casteist slur on the PM. The PM went all blazing against our former PM, Cambridge educated Dr.ManMohan Singh charging him as entering into a criminal conspiracywith Pakistan  to dethrone him from the PM’s chair.  Rahul and his team constantly attack the PM and sneer at him for failing to match actions with his election promises. The minions of both the parties shout at each other on the news channels with no restraint. The Finance Minister(presently on sick leave) likened  Indira Gandhi to Hitler without ever wondering what genocide did she cause as Hitler did with six million Jews. On the contrary unlike Hitler, after winning the Bangladesh war, she returned the hundred thousand Pakistani soldiers without harming them. Taking the cue from Mr.Jaitley, the opposition was quick to return the compliment by calling the PM  Aurangazeb not knowing that Aurangazeb had killed his brothers and imprisoned his father Shah Jahan while the PM is known for his deep respect for his mother who is in her nineties.  The over-the-top rhetoric has achieved its ignoble purpose to further bitterness and hatred and irreparable damage to the political ethos of the country. The acrimony and anger have taken deep roots that it seems well nigh impossible to make our political  masters and their chosen disciples  change their tone and stop demonizing their opponent or anyone who differs from them politically, ideologically and in their articles of faith. We are living in fractured times that has seen the collapse of all values, cultures and  basic norms of civilization. The vitriolic rhetoric accuses all the political opponents as anti nationals and traitors to the country. Those who are at an impressionable age, those who have low self esteem as a result of unemployment, those whose aspiration for climbing up the social ladder has been betrayed, find in this acrimonious rhetoric a license  to wreak their vengeance on society. They are pushed to undertake dangerous and deadly actions which may meet with the approval of the political bosses and fetch them some small dividends. As Evan Sigfried  writes:  “It's not about "civility." It's about recognizing that the people with whom we disagree are also human and deserving of being treated with decency.” Our politicians must understand how recklessness with their words can have fatal consequences as evidenced in the lynching incidents that are today swamping the nation.  

 It is now up to the civil society to bring back civility in political discourse and responsible behaviour among our political leaders and make them stop dehumanizing our society. The only weapon we have is the power to vote. Let us resolve not to vote those who indulge in vitriol, falsehoods, demagoguery and over the top rhetoric. This can have a deterring effect on the abuse of language and uncivilized behaviour of those who demonize their opponents overtly or covertly. The Election Commission cannot continue as paper tigers. Let it function as an independent, neutral umpire and disqualify without fear of reprisal all those who do not follow the norms of civilized conduct. Civil society has  the power to bring back decency and civil discourse. NOTA is not an answer, but a rejection of candidates who lack restraint in thoughts, words and action will  have a salutary effect.