The New Age Political Weapon: the Art of Mudslinging

 The New Age Political Weapon: the Art of Mudslinging

 

Mudslinging is the game that comes with ease to contemporary politicians. It started with Aam Admi party that was founded on its avowed manifesto to highlight corruption and financial misdemeanours against elected representatives and their kith and kin. First it was Kejrewall who gave his nation a dishonourable sobriquet as a nation of crooks and criminals by his daily press briefings to unleash some alleged criminality of X,Y, Z  and vilifying all political parties on issues of corruption and misgovernance. Though he never lodged a FIR to set the process of criminal justice in motion against those whom he alleged as cognizable offenders, he succeeded in damaging the reputation of many political leaders and painted them with shades of grayish black tinge. With state elections currently reaching a feverish crescendo, all politicians at all levels have followed suit and sharpened their knives to let out a wordy blood bath of innuendoes and insinuations against their opponents. And they do not stop at attacking their present opponents, but stoop so low to drag in all their fathers and forefathers, who they allege of having committed great criminal acts such as conceding to re-draw fresh geographical boundaries that have shrunk the nation and to bring forth worthless progeny to perpetuate dynasty.

What a pity that the present day politicians have no understanding of the legacy of GNP(Gandhi-Nehru- Patel) who had given us the idea of India from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Kolkatta to Kutch. Thanks to this noble triumvirate the different regions of India with different cultures, languages and religions coalesced into a single nation Bharat and adopted the democratic form of governance that continues till today. On hindsight, some of the economic policies of the first thirty odd years have come for scathing criticism today for having given rise to permit-license-quota raj that has made India in a seemingly precipitous decline, relative to the world. Such a hindsight analysis suffers from a failure to see that they do not merit censure since the intentions of the erstwhile leaders were beyond reproach. No single ideology or model has a staying power beyond a certain period. Unfortunately after six and a half decades to win brownie points during the election campaign, the current politicians have indulged in vilification of leaders of those times, when for a huge and fledgling democracy like India with a huge population in abject poverty, the socialist pattern of governance was better suited. Today allegations and counter allegations fly thick and fast, bringing down the political discourses to all time low. The current theatre of political absurdity runs true to the Panchatantra tale about the wolf and the lamb, where the wolf accuses the lamb of having dirtied the water and if he has not done it, it must have been his grandfather! It is indeed a sad reflection on the maturity and understanding of our current politicians that there is no appreciation of what Nehru and Patel had contributed; on the contrary there is a deliberate attempt to pit one against the other and to show who the better of the two was. What a far cry from the cultured, civilized and noble way of the two stalwarts -Nehru and Patel-  working together  despite differences in their ideologies, views and ideas. It is their legacy of democracy that has given these contemporary politicians the right to speak even to the extent of instigating an illusory rivalry between Nehru and Patel where there was none. People who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by their remote descendants. It is to be borne in mind that ‘every generation enjoys the use of a vast hoard [of knowledge] bequeathed to it by antiquity, and transmits that hoard, augmented by fresh acquisitions, to future ages.’

The language used by the present day politicians against their political opponents, their searing personal attacks, and mimicking of their opponents’ personal traits are signs of the new low they have reached. Almost all of them have resorted to demagoguery that leaves a bitter taste in their audience. They seem to appeal to the base emotions and prejudices of people without a thought of how such vituperative attacks will bring an irreconcilable division in the country. It is a pity that none of them know what it is to be a gentleman -politician as delineated by Macaulay when he wrote about Addison, the satirist turned politician. Macaulay had paid a glowing tribute to Addison saying that he was   ‘an unsullied master, accomplished scholar, master of eloquence, consummate painter of life and manners… who alone knew how to use ridicule without abusing it, who without inflicting a wound, effected a great social reform; who reconciled wit and virtue after a long and disastrous separation during which wit had been laid astray by profligacy and virtue by fanaticism.’ Unfortunately our politicians today hold on to the disastrous separation between wit and virtue and resort to rabble rousing with half lies and quarter truths.

RAM-LEELA

                                                              Ram-Leela    

                              The PIL against the title Ram-Leela, the protests outside theatres against showing the film without a title change, the Madhya Pradesh court’s injunction against its release – all these are a bit of déjà vu in contemporary intolerant India where throwing stones and raising a hue and cry at perceived hurt to religious sentiments are routine happenings. How dare anyone talk about Ram, described as “Oka Mata,Oka Bana, Oka Baarya” i.e., One word, One Arrow, One Wife –as indulging in ‘leela’ or dance that is a sanctified privilege given only to Krishna for his Rasleela- to dance simultaneously with a number of gopis in Brindavan. The Rama Bhaktas are up in arms for denigrating Maryada Purush Ram by associating him with leela that is an exclusive right conferred on  Krishna. That is why they have never objected to films with titles like Natwarlal,  Banke Bihari, Bhol Bhulaiyya etc as Krishna is an acclaimed and the most loved prankster.The Judiciary In Madhya Pradesh in its wisdom factored in the wounded feelings of Ram

Bhaktas to order a stay on the release of Ram-Leela despite the producer’s plea that Leela is the name of the female protagonist of the film. Even the Producer’s willingness to use capital ‘L’ for Leela and hyphenate the names Ram and Leela  to make the distinction  between ‘Ramleela’ and ‘Ram-Leela’ has fallen flat on the Ram Bhaktas. For them to equate Ram and his ‘Oka Barya’(one wife) with the story of Romeo and Juliet is seen as the worst sacrilege of the Ramayana even though with due apology and nervous trepidation one has to point to the commonality of enduring love between the two pairs.

The New Age Ram Bhaktas are practising cultural atavism citing divine sanction to punish all those whose semantics defy  any relationship between signs or symbols and what they denote. In India intolerance of other points of view specially related to religion has been on  the upswing as we have seen this periodically happening starting with the ban on Ram Swarup’s Understanding Islam through Hadis(1982), Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses(1988), Taslima Nasrin’s Lajja(1993) and Dwikhandito(2003), James Laine’s Shivaji-Hindu King in Islamic India(2003),-to name a few. This Cultural fanaticism seems to be  the new aristocratism of the masses arrogating to itself the right to be inhuman, and making cultural rights the prerogatives of the inhuman.

The recent uprising against Ram-Leela takes the cake. How can any character with the name Ram be seen dallying and therefore they cry against the term Ramleela. This begs an important question whether those, whose parents have dotingly  christened them ‘Ram’ live like Ram? The alleged charges against  AsaRam Bapu is enough to show that there is no link  between name and character.

                      

The best course is for the Ram Bhaktas to file a PIL in the Supreme Court seeking a divine copyright on the name Ram and a ban on naming anyone as Ram.  These pious devotees can even come out with a list of names that should be out of bounds for ordinary mortals. Maybe this can even be one of the election promises that an ingenuous political party can make use of.    

                         

It is interesting that in the West one hardly comes across the name Jesus. There is one and only one Jesus of Nazareth.It is a rare surname : 1 in 100000 families. This is not by a governmental fiat or by a

religious injunction, but it is a part of  the Western tradition and culture to  respect the Son of God.  It is the same with Islam. There can be no second Allah . In Hinduism, giving God’s names is to make it easy for  all to utter God’s names as and when those with divine names are called.

But those who cry against the desecration of the name have in ignorance woven a halo around the name Ram and have not understood the  significance of the oft-repeated question: ‘What is in a name?’ The best way to understand the correlation between name and personality is to read Gottfried Lessing’s play Nathan der Weise(Nathan the Wise) published in1779 which is a parable of three rings to bring about religious cohesion among Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Nathan a wise Jewish merchant was asked by Sultan Saladin as to which religion  was true.  Nathan narrates to him a parable about a heirloom ring that had the magical quality to make the owner of the  ring pleasant in the eyes of God and mankind. This ring was passed on by the father to his most beloved son generation after generation. Once it happened that a father had three sons whom he loved equally and promised the ring to each one of them. So he made two replicas of the ring and gave the three to them without identifying which one was the  genuine  one. The brothers quarreled as to who had the original till a wise judge admonished them saying that it was impossible to  identify the original, as it was quite possible that all three were replicas and the original could have been lost.  To find out, whether one of them had the real ring, it was up to them to live in such a way that they could prove their ring's powers  by living a life that is pleasant in the eyes of God and mankind rather than expecting the ring's miraculous powers to do so. 

So should each one of us live true to the ideal exemplified by Ram than debate about whether Ram is Romeo and Leela is Juliet or  whether Ram gives himself to leelas without remaining true to the original  ‘Oka Mata, Oka Bana, Oka Barya’. This is well phrased by  Gertrude Stein who says ‘A rose is a rose is a rose’ meaning, ‘things are as they are and not as they should be’. The New age cultural atavists will have to understand that in earlier times, a creative artist  could use the name of the thing and the thing was really there. Over long periods, the thing has lost its identity and so to cavil at titles like Ram Leela is both a sign of their ignorance and intolerance- far removed from  the attributes of the Lord  whose nobility they seem to espouse..

                           

                           

                       

                          

                         

                        

                         

                         

                        

                         

                         

     

                        

                          

                         

                       

                       

                    

                     

                     

                            

                                

                              

                         

                          

The Ascent of NaMo/RaGa and the Descent of Indian Polity

 

                The Ascent of NaMo/RagGa and the Descent of Indian Polity

 Even if NaMo and RaGa are like chalk and cheese, their ascent to leadership of their respective parties has dented the health of the Indian polity. The current run up to elections has seen an upsurge of communal clashes that had been almost extinct for the last few decades. While it is easy and modish to bash the UPA government for its commissions and omissions, for all it has done and for all it has not done, everyone has to accept and admire- even if grudgingly- that till Modi was anointed as the PM designate by the BJP-RSS combine, there had been hardy any communal clash of the Muzaffarnagar scale in any part of India in the last nine years. Even the dastardly 26/11 evoked no retaliation against the minorities. The Muzaffarnagar riots were the first one to surface after a long interval and they continue to simmer even after a month with four more deaths reported last week in communal violence. The Patna serial blast was a retaliation for the UP riots resulting in five more deaths and leaving eighty three injured.

This article is not an exploration of the whodunnit mystery for that does not bring back to life those eclipsed lives in the Muzaffarnagar riots and  in the Patna serial blast. That is the pastime of the political leaders to indulge in blame game and follow it up with the political drama of proffering handkerchiefs to those in tears. But for the common man- not the politically inclined aam-admi who revels in tarring black all politicians other than his own cadre- it raises fears of communal uprising and violence underlined by impotent anger and despair over the mindlessness of fatal clashes between two communities that had been living amicably for the last 66 years barring a few incidents. Everyone who claims to be a politician has to necessarily express deep sadness and use the  social media, electronic media and all political platforms to issue strong condemnation of communal riots while  overworking his/her lacrimal glands. But the tears of all these politicians cannot wash away the pain and agony, the anger and despair, the helplessness and defenselessness of the riot and blast victims.

In the midst of all this tearjerker farce RaGa and Namo charge at each other and then both join to accuse the ruling parties in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for negligence, incompetence and slackness and vice versa.  The tragedy ends here for all these politicians who expect the killings to lay the golden votes for them. How cynical and tiring do they sound when their hearts bleed for the victims and their hurt feelings seek restoration of  peace and unity! The art of today’s politicians is to suavely package communal violence into votes. RaGa sees ISI ghosts where there are none while Namo sees the hand of the Gandhis behind all violence. RaGa’s every faux pas strengthens NaMo while Namo’s half truths and full lies are ammunition to the Congress.

NaMo looks strong like a Pehalwan(wrestler). He has a strong voice to match his strong physique. He is a powerful speaker who does not bother about civility, nicety, grace and truthfulness so long as he succeeds in making his audience laugh at his mockery of Shehzada and his mother. He once told his audience that SoGa had totted bills amounting to 1880 crores for her treatment in US and when it was shown as absurdly false, he tweaked his attack on why the government had not shared the information on the expenses. NaMo has a flair for Nazi-like false propaganda and without compunction indulges in mocking at RaGa and SoGa as his legitimate means to reach the PM’s chair. He flaunts his Gujarat model of development that has proved good only for Gujarat urban towns without realizing that he is spreading it too thin by talking about it as a model worth replicating in the whole of India, known for its diversity.  He talks about development and the moot question is which politician worth his salt will not talk about development. But there is nothing beyond laying on thick the word ‘development’ and he has hardly anything specific to say about it. So he turns to his favourite pastime of mocking at UPA, PM, RaGA and SoGa. There is nothing but a leonine roar when he mentions Pakistan but he has no strategy to speak of as to how to deal with Pakistan and he converts the roar to mocking laughter at the PM and the UPA for puss pussing. Beyond that  is his  huge swipe at all his opponents with nothing concrete emerging as to his understanding of national and international issues. He has not said anything about the plight of Tamils in SriLanka, he is silent on India’s relationship with its Asian neighbours, gives a wrong information about China spending 20% of its GDP on education, has very little knowledge of Indian  history and is  mum on World economics and Geo politics. Yet his punches and his no-holds barred Modisms do create good sound bytes for the electronic media. His speeches are like the modern garba dance- high voltage energy dance, colourful with the  two parts of Garba in place -  the clapping portion and the other RAAS which is a lot of fun.

                                           In contrast is RaGa who makes headlines whenever he speaks –all for the wrong reasons.  Unlike NaMO, he neither has a strong physique nor a strong voice. He cannot match NaMo’s oratory and whenever he speaks, he sounds sentimental instead of sounding strong and in command. He harks to the past and talks about Food Security Bill and RTI which are no doubt UPA’s solid contribution to the people of India, but they are past issues and already executed. It is like a broken gramophone record-very much like Modi talking about Gujarat development model. RaGa hardly speaks of his vision for the future of the nation except inane remarks about empowering every section of the society.  He reminisces about his family to appeal to his audience’s emotion, but at the end it sounds like a nostalgic tale full of melodrama and impotent anger signifying nothing. Unlike Modi’s exaggerated gestures like finger wagging, Raga keeps rolling his sleeves almost like Sisyphus who is compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this action forever. If he continues talking about what had been achieved and not about what to be achieved, he may like Sisyphus end up as a representation of a life made meaningless because it consists of bare repetition.  

                                            With the fledgling aam admi party making a virtue of painting every politician black except those of its cadre and  seeking to rise to power by mudslinging with no evidence to prove the muddiness of those it targets, we are left with political vacuum. The regional parties are busy with their fiefdom that they prefer to guard zealously though some like Jayalalitha ,Nitish Kumar, Mulayam and Patnaik may be waiting to see if they can zoom up to the Delhi corridors.

                                            Ironically the ascent of NaMo and RaGa has created a vacuum at the top. The yearning of the youth, the aspirations of the middle class, the needs of the poor, the vaulting ambitions of the traders and the entrepreneurship of business people have been ignored by these two wannabe PMs as they  and their cadres are interested only in charging at each other like two mad bulls. When two cats fight the wise monkey like the aam admi party makes hay with slandermongering. Where does it leave the Indian polity? It is currently in shambles. There is no hope of it rising phoenix-like from the ashes.

                                           We need a change and that too a bold and courageous change to save the nation. As a nation, we should appeal to persons of impeccable character, erudition, dynamism and vision to stand for elections to be voted to power. We need Rajmohan Gandhi, Ratan Tata, Narayanmurthy, Nandan Nilekeni, Chande Kocchar, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Kumaramangalam Birla, Aruna Roy, Raghuram Rajan,Shobana Bharatia,Indira Nooyi, Senior Professors and Scientists- to name just a few.  India has many such worthy stalwarts known for their personal integrity, sagacity and dynamism. They do not need political patronage to win elections. Let the government be one of Independents who think, act and work as team leaders ( as Nehru and Patel had shown how to sink differences and forge unity). There is a distinct cry for change. It is in the air. If we lose this opportunity to get the best team to govern, we shall be doomed. This is an appeal to all those who read my blog to persuade people of distinction to take on the mantle set up by Gandhi-Nehru- Patel(GNP of India’s Freedom Movement) and help India regain its intellectual, moral and spiritual status  as an ideal state committed to the well being of humanity.