TsuNamo2.0

TT

TsuNamo 2.0 is pounding the opposition with a velocity unimaginable-almost with a nuclear intensity. The results have banished the brother-sister duo, the Bhuva-bhatija duo, the MGB castle dream of Chandrababu Naidu and Mamta as also the imaginary dreams of KCR and YSRCP of being the Kingmakers  There is no need to wait for Congress to leave for exile , if not for Agyaat Vaas(living incognito) for the next five years. In fact the scholarly Professor Yogendra Yadav has expressed a death wish for Congress, though at no time he extended his party Swaraj India to support Congress in its fight against Goliath, the non-sicular giant.  Following Yadav’s pre-mortem analysis, there will be a whole lot of post- mortem wisecracks on the irrelevance of Congress. The FM, Mr.Jaitley had written a clairvoyant blog a few days back that the Congress of today is a non sequitur.  The floodgates of social media will be thrown open to millions of posts waxing eloquent about the non Lutyen, non Khan Market philistine warrior demolishing the well heeled, angrezi educated Harvard and Oxford returned pretenders to Indian culture and civilization. The media channels will be patting their backs for their accuracy in predicting the results while the newspapers will be full of articles on “didn’t I say so?” In this melee, hardly will there be an analysis of what went wrong as the enthusiasm to be on the “right’ side will make all the media barons chant ‘Namo, Namo’ and speak about how Namo made the right noise at the right time, during his whirlwind tour of India , how he .was on Maunavrat on tricky disturbing issues of his sarkar for the last five years,    how the chaiwala emerged from a cave in a sartorial outfit that would put to shame all those millions and millions of our saffron robed sanyasis....

 I write this with a stuffed laddoo in my mouth( I have taken a selfie  I can show if needed) I for fear of being lynched if I do not participate in the Laddoo festival. I do not want to be called anti national and bumped off to Pakistan. The one good thing about the Laddoo festival is it somehow lessens the noise pollution with the Bhakts’mouths stuffed with Laddoos, arresting the “Namo’ chant from reaching a crescendo. As for the losers, they don’t even have a voice to squeak. Sitting at home watching the numbers flashing on the TV screen, I have switched on the ‘mute’ button to give some rest for my ear drums from the excited cry of the anchors and their chosen commentators for they all know the way to Modi’s heart is through the ears.

In the quiet of my home, I sit and try to analyze what has caused this TsuNamo? The youth knew that jobs were not there for the asking, the farmers  have had the most stressful five years with increasing number of suicides, the economists were worried about the decline of economy and alarmed over the fudged data put up by the government to say all is well with economy, liberals were aghast at the decline of secularism, freedom of speech and all institutions established for just and honest governance, educationists were disturbed over the loss  of autonomy  and the covert efforts to encourage private universities at the cost of Central and State universities, the critics of the government were dismayed over the draconian arm of the CBI and the police to house arrest honest people who raised their voice for justice,  the brushing aside of all inquiries about Rafael deal, about the Nirav Modis and Chokseys , the total avoidance of any mention of its non performance  and last but not the least the divisiveness that have been brought within India in these lastfive years …. And despite all these TsuNamo has drowned everyone of the opposition and liberal intellectuals.

The simple answer is  this is the victory of frenzy over rationality, best  seen in the victory of Pragya Sadhvi with her fulsome vitriolic against Hemant Karkare and Gandhi, her extolling of the fall of Babri masjid ( and her own contribution to this mighty act) . The hype over nationalism by showing all those opposed to Modi as anti nationals , the macho image of the leader crying like our ancient kings “Aaakraman”  and prodding the otherwise lazy, fun-loving soldiers  to fly and bomb Balakot, his deafening silence over the number of our army men killed in Uri, Pathankot and Pulvama  but shattered by a photo-op with Abhinandan to show the oozing of the milk of kindness and grace,  and his war cry  with lies and half lies and barbed attacks on the dead and forgotten PMs of the past, created the right hysteria that got translated into votes.

Leave aside all these. The undeniable truth is all those who believed in the old values of decency, honesty and truthfulness have been relegated to  the dustbin. These are old timers like me now inching their years into the seventies and eighties. Not much is left of them to fight irrationality with rationality,

hatred with compassion, prejudice with objectivity, frenzy with moderation.  Whatever is left of our  frail energies to speak of fair means towards a destined end  was uttered  sotto voce lest we should be trolled and labeled  as antinationals. Our geriatric  group is slowly on its way to oblivion and the new generation has not shown any inclination to follow us as that demands a great deal of intellectual exertion. There is a perceptible decline in IQ among the youth and the middle aged groups and all their so called information is from twitter that  demands the least exertion to think and analyze. Twit-twit-twit, instantaneous online shuttle shots. No time to spend on in depth understanding, thinking and forming discerning judgement. Even in developed countries of Europe and America, we notice the slow spread of intelligence crisis. In India also we see this decline in cognitive skills. In a thought provoking article Evan Horowitz writes “One leading explanation is that the rise of lower-skill service jobs has made work less intellectually demanding, leaving IQs to atrophy as people flex their brains less”.  Our educational system in India right from CBSE to graduation is tailor made to cater to the lowest common denominator.  The young men and women who come to college and universities and the school leaving 18+ boys and girls are hardly tested on their problem solving abilities .As such these crucial years which constitute the learning period are frittered away as no demands are made on them to apply their minds to larger social , economic and political issues of the day. Barring the really bright students who form a miniscular minority(and who disappear going  abroad seeking newer pastures) , the average youth is getting dumber and dumber and experiences a steady decline in intelligence. Skills are no substitute for intelligence in making analysis and  discernment that is so essential for the preservation and sustenance of democracy. To quote Evan Harowitz “a global intelligence crisis that undermines humanity's problem-solving capacity and leaves us ill-equipped to tackle the complex challenges posed by AI, global warming and developments we have yet to imagine.”

It is not a question of who is winning  but what bothers me and should bother every right thinking individual is how is one  winning. Do we succumb to hysteria and frenzy over hyper nationalism and hyped up patriotism or do we learn to understand and be discerning on questions that are knocking down the very foundations of democracy? Can we have the courage to raise questions “was it a fair poll?” or demur in fear “All is fair in war and elections”. The victory by a huge margin seems to me a pyrrhic victory for it has annihilated the opposition that is a major force in democracy.

As I write this the skies have opened to heavy thunder and lightening. I do not know what this thunder means, but I know the last lines of the last section “What the Thunder said” in T.S.Eliot’s poem The Waste land . The lines are Datta, Damyata, dayadvam

                                               Om shantih ,Om shantih, Om shantih

The poem ends with a series of disparate fragments from a children’s song, from Dante, and from Elizabethan drama, leading up to a final chant “Datta, Damyata, dayadvam/ OmShantih Om shantih, Om shantih”—the traditional ending to an Upanishad. Eliot, in his notes to the poem, translates this chant as “the peace which passeth understanding,” the expression of ultimate resignation.

N.B. I am neither a Lutyen nor a Khan Market hanger on. I belong to the average middle class, who had been educated in ordinary government schools and  colleges, , a person who had come up in life through hard work, a  self developed individual who had imbibed the philosophy of the East and the West and a proud practitioner of Gandhian  thought and ideals of simple living and cultivating humanity,  a modest academic who follows Tagore and understands nationalism as an inherent part of larger humanism.

TsuNamo 2. has come again. Though the full results are a few hours away, there is no need to wait for Congress to leave for exile , if not for Agyaat Vaas(living incognito) f or the next five years. In fact the scholarly Professor Yogendra Yadav has expressed a death wish for Congress, though at no time he extended his party Swaraj India to support Congress in its fight against Goliath, the non-sicular giant.  Following Yadav’s pre mortem analysis, there will be a whole lot of post mortem wisecracks on the irrelevance of Congress. The FM, Mr.Jaitley had written a clairvoyant blog a few days back that the Congress of today is a non sequitur.  The floodgates of social media will be thrown open to millions of posts waxing eloquent about the non Lutyen, non Khan Market philistine warrior demolishing the well heeled, angrezi educated Harvard and Oxford returned pretenders to Indian culture and civilization. The media channels will be patting their backs for their accuracy in predicting the results while the newspapers will be full of articles on “didn’t I say so?” In this melee, hardly will there be an analysis of what went wrong as the enthusiasm to be on the “right’ side will make all the media barons chant ‘Namo, Namo’ and speak about how Namo made the right noise at the right time, during his whirlwind tour of India.

At home I have stuffed  a laddoo  for fear of being lynched if I do not participate in the Laddoo festival. I do not want to be called anti national and bumped off to Pakistan. The one good thing about the Laddoo festival is it somehow lessens the noise pollution with the Bhakts’mouths stuffed with Laddoos, arresting the “Namo’ chant from reaching a crescendo. As for the losers, they don’t even have a voice to squeak. Sitting at home watching the numbers flashing on the TV screen, I have switched on the ‘mute’ button to give some rest for my ear drums from the excited cry of the anchors and their chosen commentators for they all know the way to Modi’s heart is through the ears.

In the quiet of my home, I sit and try to analyze what has caused this TsuNamo? The youth knew that jobs were not there for the asking, the farmers  have had the most stressful five years with increasing number of suicides, the economists were worried about the decline of economy and alarmed over the fudged data put up by the government to say all is well with economy, liberals were aghast at the decline of secularism, freedom of speech and all institutions established for just and honest governance, educationists were disturbed over the loss  of autonomy  and the covert efforts to encourage private universities at the cost of Central and State universities, the critics of the government were dismayed over the draconian arm of the CBI and the police to house arrest honest people who raised their voice for justice,  the brushing aside of all inquiries about Rafael deal, about the Nirav Modis and Chokseys , the total avoidance of any mention of its non performance  and last but not the least the divisiveness that have been brought within India in these lastfive years …. And despite all these TsuNamo has drowned everyone of the opposition and liberal intellectuals.

The simple answer is  this is the victory of frenzy over rationality, best  seen in the victory of Pragya Sadhvi with her fulsome vitriolic against Hemant Karkare and Gandhi, her extolling of the fall of Babri masjid ( and her own contribution to this mighty act) . The hype over nationalism by showing all those opposed to Modi as anti nationals , the macho image of the leader crying like our ancient kings “Aaakraman”  and prodding the otherwise lazy, fun-loving soldiers  to fly and bomb Balakot, his deafening silence over the number of our army men killed in Uri, Pathankot and Pulvama  but shattered by a photo-op with Abhinandan to show the oozing of the milk of kindness and grace,  and his war cry  with lies and half lies and barbed attacks on the dead and forgotten PMs of the past, created the right hysteria that got translated into votes.

Leave aside all these. The undeniable truth is all those who believed in the old values of decency, honesty and truthfulness have been relegated to  the dustbin. These are old timers like me now inching their years into the seventies and eighties. Not much is left of them to fight irrationality with rationality,

hatred with compassion, prejudice with objectivity, frenzy with moderation.  Whatever is left of our  frail energies to speak of fair means towards a destined end  was uttered  sotto voce lest we should be trolled and labeled  as antinationals. Our geriatric  group is slowly on its way to oblivion and the new generation has not shown any inclination to follow us as that demands a great deal of intellectual exertion. There is a perceptible decline in IQ among the youth and the middle aged groups and all their so called information is from twitter that  demands the least exertion to think and analyze. Twit-twit-twit, instantaneous online shuttle shots. No time to spend on in depth understanding, thinking and forming discerning judgement. Even in developed countries of Europe and America, we notice the slow spread of intelligence crisis. In India also we see this decline in cognitive skills. In a thought provoking article Evan Horowitz writes “One leading explanation is that the rise of lower-skill service jobs has made work less intellectually demanding, leaving IQs to atrophy as people flex their brains less”.  Our educational system in India right from CBSE to graduation is tailor made to cater to the lowest common denominator.  The young men and women who come to college and universities and the school leaving 18+ boys and girls are hardly tested on their problem solving abilities .As such these crucial years which constitute the learning period are frittered away as no demands are made on them to apply their minds to larger social , economic and political issues of the day. Barring the really bright students who form a miniscular minority(and who disappear going  abroad seeking newer pastures) , the average youth is getting dumber and dumber and experiences a steady decline in intelligence. Skills are no substitute for intelligence in making analysis and  discernment that is so essential for the preservation and sustenance of democracy. To quote Evan Harowitz “a global intelligence crisis that undermines humanity's problem-solving capacity and leaves us ill-equipped to tackle the complex challenges posed by AI, global warming and developments we have yet to imagine.”

It is not a question of who is winning  but what bothers me and should bother every right thinking individual is how is one  winning. Do we succumb to hysteria and frenzy over hyper nationalism and hyped up patriotism or do we learn to understand and be discerning on questions that are knocking down the very foundations of democracy? Can we have the courage to raise questions “was it a fair poll?” or demur in fear “All is fair in war and elections”. The victory by a huge margin seems to me a pyrrhic victory for it has annihilated the opposition that is a major force in democracy.

As I write this the skies have opened to heavy thunder and lightening. I do not know what this thunder means, but I know the last lines of the last section “What the Thunder said” in T.S.Eliot’s poem The Waste land . The lines are Datta, Damyata, dayadvam

                                               Om shantih ,Om shantih, Om shantih

The poem ends with a series of disparate fragments from a children’s song, from Dante, and from Elizabethan drama, leading up to a final chant “Datta, Damyata, dayadvam/ OmShantih Om shantih, Om shantih”—the traditional ending to an Upanishad. Eliot, in his notes to the poem, translates this chant as “the peace which passeth understanding,” the expression of ultimate resignation.

N.B. I am neither a Lutyen nor a Khan Market hanger on. I belong to the average middle class, who had been educated in ordinary government schools and  colleges, , a person who had come up in life through hard work, a  self developed individual who had imbibed the philosophy of the East and the West and a proud practitioner of Gandhian  thought and ideals of simple living and cultivating humanity,  a modest academic who follows Tagore and understands nationalism as an inherent part of larger humanism.

Nil Nisi Bonum

                                                              Nil Nisi Bonum

Knowing that there is very little time during the election season to read lengthy blogs, I will limit myself to just a few points for our remaining voters to assess for themselves our PM’s attack on the late Rajiv Gandhi who was his predecessor nearly thirty five years ago.

1.      Maybe our PM in his 20/24 whirlwind schedule of addressing rally after rally has barely any time to read, leave aside listen to voices, other than his own. Hence he has not heard the mewing and squeaking voices of the opposition that sotto voce say “De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est ("Of the dead nothing but good is to be said"). Given the quality of education in our schools and colleges, our PM has never been taught  in his mother tongue પરંતુ મૃત સારા કંઈ બોલીશ

                                                                    Parantu mr̥ta sārā kaṁī bōlīśa

What an index of our culture and education that has failed toeducate our venerable PM on the basic courtesy to be extended to the dead!

2.      Our revered PM knows and we all know that in election speeches,”sab chalta hai” Means alone ,matter for a desired end. Since the EC quivers at the name of Namo, our PM knows he can get away with anything and everything.  So  he walks in spotless white displaying high morality and purity, thereby highlighting the court verdicts that exonerated him and his faithful lieutenant( I hesitate using the more appropriate name from the Italian classic Don Quixote)of all complicity in Gujarat riots. PM’s memory is under  too much pressure on his memory that he fails to remember that his predecessor and ex Pm had been exonerated by High Court and that his own BJP under his mentors, shri Vajpayeeji and the present margdarshi shri Advanjii did not appeal against the verdict in the Supreme Court.

3.      Our PM has millions of minions, big and small to be His Master’s Voice. So they painstakingly dig out the alleged mistakes committed by the ex PM such as Shah Bono case, allowing pooja in Babri masjid etc( conveniently forgetting the good policies  ushered by him such as the Telecom revolution, Computerization, the Voting age to 18, anti defection law, the Panchayati Raj, the Punjab and Assam accord, the  New Education Policy that led to the establishment of Operation Blackboard, Jawahar NavoVidyayaya, Indira Gandhi National Open University, improved bilateral ties with USA and Europe, Maldives coup d’etat etc ). On hindsight one can make a historical assessment of whether the political decisions were right or wrong, but to justify  calling  the late PM Mr.Unclean or as Corrupt No.1 PM on policy matters  is in keeping with the Bhakts’ polemical strategy harping on ”The evil that men do lives after them/ the good is oft interred with their bones”. Their hatred for our first PM Pt.Nehru and his family is phenomenal.  

4.      Thir e logicis  tit for tat-that if Rahul calls our beloved Chowkidar PM “Chor’ why can’t we call his father a chor?

 Well Rahul’s  father is notalive  to defend himself,  while the muscular  chowkidar PM is all over India and forever in combative mode and can defend himself against all charges. When Rahul calls him for a debate for 20 minutes , our PM known for his oratorical skills can easily pick up the gauntlet. But why does he shy away from debate with Rahul just as he has shied away giving  après conference for the last five years except giving planted  and slanted interviews to select journalists

5.      Last but the most important point.If the Modi sarkar had accomplishments to boast of, PM  does not need  to stoop so low to speak ill of someone who had occupied the chair he is today occupying. A PM is not an individual but represents the thought, culture and dignity of the entire nation. He cannot lower the guard even for a fraction of a second. But our PM refuses t hold up the dignity of the office  which he was swornto. Does this stooping to conquer betray desperation? Time will tell.  

Letter to the Voter

Dear Voter,

The first two phases of our Dance of democracy are over. Five more on the anvil. The third is on today. I should have written this letter prior to the beginning of elections, but it is never too late. I do  not subscribe to the media phrase “ too late and too little”.  In today’s world I prefer the old age saying “many a little makes a mickle”. The reason for my hitherto silence  was I did not anticipate the level to which political discourse will descend as it has done today. Thank God, those who had sought votes in those two phases  are through with their steps and gyrations  on the political stage.  Many others are waiting for their turn to go on the stage. None of our political masters have till now set the stage on fire. On the contrary, the attempt by all the parties in the present  election fray has been to douse the fire lit by acrid political campaigners.

This election has so far witnessed the worst form of wordy duels v erbal gymnasticsminus informed debates and. It has shown the Election Commission (EC) not as a toothless tiger, but a tiger that is scared of using its teeth.  At best its feeble efforts to enforce Model Code of Conduct(MCC) appears  as a lick and  a promise  - a superficial effort made without any punch. I write this to tell the voter not to look at EC to guide him/her as to who has and who has not violated MCC but to come to one’s own conclusion before unleashing his/her  power to press the button.  What is important is elections as they happen today are centred round personalities and not on issues that require urgent attention by the newly elected leaders.. The Voter has to ask himself whether personalities matter or issues or how to match personalities with issues!

Indian democracy runs true to the universal concept of a cyclical order. As per the  Hindu mythology, the world runs through four Yugas- Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga,Dwapara Yuga and Kali Yuga which correspond to the western concept of four Ages-the Age of Divinity, the Age of Aristocracy, the Age of Democracy and the Age of Chaos. It is said that at the end of the fourth Yuga or the fourth Age, the cycle returns to the first order or the beginning.  I am reminded of T.S.Eliot’s description of  the cyclical order of the world:

 “What we call the beginning is often the end.

 And to make an end is to make a beginning.

The end is where we start from.”

India prior to its Independence experienced the Satya Yuga or the Age of Divinity under Mahatma Gandhi who inspired millions of Indians to follow the path of truth and dharma. The first halcyon years after Independence, despite the tragedy of partition, saw the ascent of aristocracy among our political leaders who worked in unity despite their diversity of views and thoughts. Nehru-Patel-Rajaji for example, were all distinct individuals with distinct convictions but they worked in unison to leave for the future generation a united pluralistic  India, strong and stable, tolerant and accommodating diverse faiths and religions. All the political leaders of that era with their firm adherence to the principles of democracy demonstrated the ideal of philosopher king where they regarded themselves as the first among equals. After those euphoric years with the transfer of greater power to the people, the Age of Democracy set in. While the principle of shared governance and shared power is at the root of democracy, it slowly became the rule of the masses where everyone felt he was the King, and had the right to get what he wanted. The right of the individual, the right of different groups formed on the basis of caste and class, the right of everyone to have a slice of the national pie polarized society and obfuscated the truth about democracy where the rights had to be subservient to duties of the citizens. He who promised to bestow rights  without insisting on duties became the leader to be voted in. Today what we see in India and in many parts of the world that claim to have democratically elected leaders is a return to a new form of  plutocracy where the governance is given to a ruling class that derives its power from being wealthy. In modern idiom plutocracy  advances  crony capitalism. In some cases plutocracy is on a reverse gear to oligarchy- government by a small group of powerful people, best described as bureaucratic monarchy, that is in evidence in India today. This is democracy disguised as the rule of a narrow clique where the power structure rests with a small number of people who have been give the license to rule by the voters. The simple strategy of  the new aspirants to leadership is to divide the society, promise crumbs( as there are not adequate number of loaves to be distributed to different sections in the society) and seek votes even if the promise remains a promise from the political pulpit.

India is in a state of ferment where the divisiveness is present in terms of wealth, ideology, education,  

caste, class and religion. But we can overcome the current state of binary conflicts between the haves and the have nots, between the rich and the poor, between the well heeled and those down at heel, between the educated, the semi literates and illiterates, between the right and the left ideologues, between majority and minority community- and abort the divisiveness and bring back united India by realizing the power given to us as citizens of the country. We have the power to press the button and that too judiciously without being hypnotized by those who make the loudest noise, whose promise of a moon seems superficially attractive, whose theatrical performances appeal to the lowest common denominator.  The last but the most significant pointer is to deny our votes  to those who galvanize people merely on hate. It is easy for humans to develop hate than love because the latter is founded upon selfless reciprocity of give and take while the former is an affirmation of selfish  anger over what one receives and not what one gives. Human beings are genetically wired to hate and this is exploited by those who seek power to rule them. The will to power, so strongly advocated by the 19^th C German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche for man to transform into Superman and create new values in place of the old values that  have lost the power to guide him is today (ab)used as the will to choose one’s actions to gain absolute control or power over others. The will to power is laden with narcissism, vanity, self glorification and we have to exercise abundant caution not to press this will to power to rule us.

Let us vote. Let us vote with our mind, intelligence and rationality. Let us vote back philosopher kings to rule us. You may ask “are there any” Well,  if none, press NOTA and wait for time to throw up the right leader at the chosen moment. The wait is not going to be a long wait as the nation is fortunate to have many thinkers and wise men who place duty before right.  The man of the moment like Mahatma Gandhi will appear at the right time.  We need to develop patience backed by faith (Shraddha and Saburi)-that the present moment , however dark it is, is a passing moment. The cyclical order that is in evidence in the clockwise  rotation of the seasons, in the alternation of day and night, of sunshine and moonshine, light and darkness will run its course .The Age of Chaos will have to yield to a new Age of Divinity which will be different from the previous saga. In this new Age, history will begin its course anew from the high point it had  earlier reached in the previous Age and  bring back the most powerful maxims of humanity that have till now sustained human civilization. All we need is patience and undying faith in the universal order.

Vote , vote with reason, vote for the party which promises to reinforce the idea of India that has been given as our heritage by our Constitutional fathers.  If no party stands for that Idea of India that had been gifted to us seven decades ago, vote NOTA and wait with patience and hope that the Age of Chaos will end and we will revert to a new Age of Divinity as a true manifestation of the Eternal Recurrence.