Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
The pen, we were told, is mightier than the sword. Like so many other sensible things they would say. But times surely have changed. Pen, having been demonized as a purchasable commodity, the mantra to have gained ascendency is might is right. The visual media, TV networks, showing not a wrinkle for the monumental effort made 24X 7 telecasts of rock shows, of milling crowds, of Gujarati garba dancers presenting their wares at the drop of a hat. Following Modi, the lambs, wherever he was seen; not to miss his storming of MODISON gardens, previously Madison gardens.
The Indian television’s was a monumental effort including the shifting to Washington of virtually all their Indian bureaus, panelists, to do the customary yelling, shouting their tops off, more like neighbourhood explosions in Syria, the garba dancers outside the make -shift studios offering sort of comic relief; but that came only after the Modi’s marketing machine, the event management companies, had planned the minutest detail : who would perform when and how many minutes, pauses for Modi to wave his arms more songs, more dance.
The sangh parivar, celebrating Modi’s emergence on the U.S. firmament, had ensured that the doors to every heart were opened, a gesture Modi handily responded to by offering a quid pro quo via the Doordarshan, the nation’s premier State-owned TV network, to have a live telecast of the RSS Chief, Mohan Bhagwat’s annual RSS rally on Dussehra, the founders’ day of the RSS. Forgotten was the day when Sardar Patel had himself ordered the RSS banned suspecting it of involvement in the Gandhi assassination. The Pradhan Sewak couldn’t possibly have overlooked Bhagwat’s stellar role in the RSS which had put him in the Prime Ministerial seat. The die was cast the day he called himself the Pradhan Sewak not Prime Minister.
High office teaches you that you may indeed be mightier than the rest, that you more likely, will have your way. It is a time tested thing and, indeed, even a cursory look at recent history will tell you how tempting it can be to pretend that you indeed are the chosen one, blessed by the gods to rule the pack however big or small.
In the short term, this thought sells well but not unoften does it bring the pretender to grief. How wrong in the long run have been those who have believed in the power of might. In such a frame of mind puny little men and women have tended to see themselves as a Chengez Khan or those forgettable warrior queens of yore. Yes, in the short run, say, five, or even ten years, it may look like the mighty powerful man or woman is having his or her way, fired by his or her belief in invincibility. You don’t have to carry arms and weaponry, your cunning, your guile and your burning ambition; these are the ingredients that make for your success.
Outwit and outmaneuver the opponent and you have made it. Indira Gandhi did it to her opponents in the old Congress Party and Prime Minister Modiji did deftly sideline the likes of L.K. Advani and other senior BJP leaders. In both cases the known stalwarts were left virtually sucking their thumbs. Such moments make you appear that you are capable of outmaneuvering the “junk” around you.
History has a habit of repeating itself and seemingly impregnable fortresses are also known to have fallen without a whimper. Frankly as long as we have amidst us men and women who believe in their own invincibility and see themselves as the history’s chosen ones, we have to face the truth that they will continue to be heard, and even trusted in the short term, as messiahs; their presence among us, ordinary mortals, a boom, god’s gift, the great men and women born not only to change the course of history, if you will. Such men, history tells us, have found easy acceptability among the masses of people whenever systemic failures are imminent, be it religious, economic, racial or institutional.
Such men and women have also found it not particularly hard to capture the hearts and minds of the populace, gaining access to levers of power, through popular mandate, subterfuge or even violent upheavals. Hitlers and Mussolinis sound so distant, to be mentioned here.
In our own country, India, a long subjugated nation for centuries, we witnessed within three decades of having regained our independence we have had a major encounter with might taking precedence over right when Mrs. Indira Gandhi sprang a state of emergency on the young republic because she believed that the exercise of might was an option to press on with her authoritarian plans. In the process it was the garib (the poor) who got virtually ‘hataoed’ (eradicated) rather than poverty being removed. For all her presumptuousness she came to grief within months along with those who had given her an exaggerated assessment of the popular mood which they convinced her had made India and Indira synonymous. This also suited the other power centre operating from her house, her younger son, Sanjay to act recklessly. He added his own bits and pieces to her plans, basically a programme of short cuts to achieve population control and other socio-economic objectives; the might of the State was simply misused, absolute power assumed.
It didn’t take the Indian worm long to turn and Indira was forced to lift the unconstitutional emergency and in the polls she ordered in a fit of overconfidence she was badly snubbed by the electorate. The media, like the other pillars of democracy, had been muzzled into submission, with strict censorship was in place all over the country, its judiciary humiliated.
And well you might ask what’s the big point I am trying to make by harping on Indira’s emergency and the undesirable trends it unleashed. It was a tragic episode which brought much grief to the country and its people. But the people of India and the democratic institutions showed the inherent strength to withstand these assaults. What causes worry now is the new Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s style of functioning. He seems to have quick-fixes for all our problems, domestic, foreign relations, economic, social. Why, he even has an instant cure to rid India o all its dirt, swachh bharat; all you needed was to get 1.25 billion long handled brooms hand these over to every Indian, Prime Minister down and lo and behold India will have been rid of its disgusting filth. Toilets would be available in ever rural hamlet. Only that we would not know what do with the waste. Modi’s quick-fix solutions to all our problems would indeed make happy country to be in. If only.
Unfortunately, Mr. Narendra Modi, the newly elected Prime Minister in a virtual landslide wins for his BJP. Mr. Modi doesn’t want to lose second in putting his imprimatur on everything happening. Questions have already been raised about Mr. Modi’s style of functioning; obviously not entirely trusting his own cabinet colleagues whom he would not allow even to have personal staff of his choice, even personal and private secretaries, not to speak of Secretaries to Ministries. Simply because the present Prime Minister appears to be giving a far more serious edge to personality cult than Indira ever did. Sounds rash but all the indicators point that way – an arrogant Prime Minister, heedless of advice that might be on offer and always sure of his being right. These are traits which were foisted on Indira by her kitchen cabinet and later allegedly by the so called Kashmiri mafia, sycophants, who, no doubt, had convinced her that Indira is India.
To conclude I must quickly catch up with Mr. Modi’s current rise and rise in power. We learnt in America that Mr. Modi doesn’t eat anything during the navaratra, except some honey and lukewarm salted water. Pity, President Obama, watching his guest sipping salted water at the banquet given by the American in the Indian’s honour. As someone said, a bully pulpit is not a substitute for governance. The Government has been quite indecisive on reforms, slow in appointments and in creating processes that can sustainably execute, we will also expect the pulpit will be used for only savory causes, Modi may have vested interest in the personification of power, but there is also a deeper story behind the idea that political and social change requires a communication overdrive. What society could not do, we now took to advertising to do.
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