The soap opera that is the Lok Sabha elections has left its imprints on our social media timelines, TV ad-times and roadside hoardings and banners. So basically, all the places – physical and virtual – that people went to to look at beautiful women trying to get them to buy something unnecessary, has been taken over by greasy politician-salesmen trying to sell their wonderful ideas about how the country is to be governed. Talk about being worse off.
In the cacophony of noises regarding different parties, PM candidates and leaders, no one has been as discussed, as mentioned and as dissected as NaMo The Great. Now, let me make it clear that I am no NaMo The Great bhakt. I have no reason to be one. I mean, he probably feels I’m an illegal Bangladeshi living in the northeast, and so wants to deport me to Pakistan (don’t question the Supreme Leader’s logic) all thanks to my ‘ajeeb, ajeeb naam’. Now, the section of rich, upper caste Hindus who call themselves communists may sit in their libraries and call this behaviour unconstitutional and ‘against the spirit of democracy’ and all that jazz, but I don’t think such characteristics have ever deterred the ruling class in India.
Now the commies are a joke and anyway, this post is not about them. This is about their caste brethren who have hitched their rides to NaMo The Great (NaMo NaMah!). Living in India with an ‘ajeeb ajeeb naam’, I am aware of the love that fosters between Hindus and Muslims, tribal and non-tribal, linguistic majorities and linguistic minorities, upper castes and lower castes in different parts of the country. It may seem unnatural to a soon-to-be-deported-to-Pakistan liberal like me, but it is a fact that people across the world don’t like people who are too unlike them. So that religiously non-drinking/beef eating/bearded/skullcap-ed Muslim guy is on average going to be less popular than a drinking, pork-eating, nonreligious Muslim in a classroom/workplace full of Hindus. And vice versa. (If these politically incorrect and generalising statements are making you uncomfortable, you belong with the commies and certainly not on my blog.)
So it is alright to hate Muslims, to want them to be butchered and parceled to Pakistan, to want lower castes to know their place and not eat up all the lucrative IIT and IIM seats, to hate gays, to have unquestioning faith in the Hindu Rashtra, to think Hinduism is the greatest religion and India the greatest country just because you were born a Hindu Indian, to…well you get the drift. It is also alright to expect to gain from a Modi administration and so supporting him. Maybe your business interests are going to be served by his policies or maybe some distant relative of yours is expecting a plum posting there.
What is not OK is to garb these thoughts of yours with terms such as growth or national pride (the Constitutionally approved variety) or anti-corruption. Because all Modi has done growth-wise is show growth (not the same as development) in a historically pro-business state with good infrastructure to begin with. A man accused (if not convicted thanks to his being the State himself) of overseeing the butchering of a thousand minorities being the Prime Minister of the country is not really a great thing as far as national pride goes. And if the Congress’ corrupt record is what turns you off, then may I introduce you to the Aam Aadmi Party which brought the issue of corruption centre-stage, not NaMo The Great’s party whose candidate list is a mirror of the Congress’ as far as criminal and corruption charges as well as tendencies towards dynastic politics is concerned.
Be honest with yourself. The BJP and its allies are a B-team of the Congress as far as economic policies (remember FDI in retail?), corruption, criminality of candidates or propagation of political dynasties are concerned. The difference may lie in the fact that the crooks of the Congress are educated at Doon School and Delhi University while the BJP’s aren’t, but then you have Subramaniam Swamy now to tilt the scales back.
Don’t insult the intelligence of intelligent people by saying these are the issues in these elections. They aren’t. The real issue is the resurgence of upper caste Hindu pride and antagonism towards other socio-religious groups. So stop blabbering about growth models and the like and proclaim your communalism. We already know about it. It is OK.
carvaan 