Of Senile "Buddhas", OBCs, India and Bharat

Now, before you accuse me of being an armchair critic, let me take up that tag myself, in the sense that I am not out on the road shouting slogans against Arjun Singh and planning to contest the next election against him. However, asking any and everybody who speaks up against idiotic government diktats to take to politics is too simplistic to be of any practical value.

I mean the likes of Arjun Singh have got no stake in the future, educational or otherwise of the country. They have lived their lives, have ensured treatment in New York for themselves whenever they fall ill and have amassed enough property to last the lifetimes of their next seven generations. Themselves, they are at such a juncture in their lives that they realise that had they been able to secure a position in history by some real meaningful initiatives, it'd have already happened. Now, in this twilight hour and if the need to be in history is very strong, the only recourse is do something, any damn thing to get immortalised - even if it is completely shortsighted, suicidal for the booming economy and a professional harakiri in the life of the country. What it does indicate is that Arjun Singh is not as senile as he might sound while it also doesn't indicate that he is as sensible as he tries to pose.

Isn't this ironic that the decisions having potentially far reaching impact on the lives of so many young Indians have to be taken by a "Qabar mein paon latkaye", senescent old man whose only perceptible and even achievable mission in life remains to be stuck with Fevicol to ministerial perks for whatever years gods plan to have him unleashed on our land.

That brings us to another very pertinent question. Somewhere or the other, our high handed snobbery, "Ooooh, voting is for illiterate people in villages of Bihar" attitude is responsible for this. How many educated, intellectuals go to vote - its as if, we, the millenium generation live in India identified with global brands and multiplexes and voting is a thing thing too retrograde - only to be relegated to those wretches still living in Bharat. I read an improvised cliche once, something to the effect that those who condemn politics to be the last refuge of the scoundrel are bound to be ruled by those scoundrels. There is more truth in that than it appears to be, prima facie.

Why is it so that while the international community keeps going ga ga over the Indian middle class while the same middle class has absolutely no political identity in its own country. Why do the politicians think in terms of forwards, backwards, SCs, STs, OBCs, Muslims and not middle class. Saying that we number too little is being evasive and simplistic. I don't have the statistics but I am sure that in at least a few constituencies, we should be in numbers enough to make a difference - provided we make that count. Said simply, provided that we vote.

I know that currently, the numbers may not be high enough to make it a vote bank but then shouldn't we start somewhere.

What this quota chaos has done is that it has removed the artificial protective layer that said, "Oooh, politics only affects people in Bharat, not in India". No my dear friend, it affects each and every person on this land. While we are here, we cannot be detached from the systems, processes and policies here. And its not something insignificant.

In the end, as Amitabh Bachhan said in Deewar, "Agar aapne ise mazaak samjha to baad mein bahut royenge..."

Da Vinci Code and Maai Baap Sarkar

So we have the whole - "Hurt sensibilities, protests and government ban" drama being played once again. This time, Christian sensibilities are hurt and the government first decided to ban the movie, then the IB minister saw it and declared magnanimously that the Censor board will take the final call.

It seems that though, the license raj has long been touted to be over, the government is yet to get over the hang over. Apparently, it will take some more time for the government to realize that keeping a control on how much rice people eat, what TV channels they see, what radio station they listen to, what car they ride on are things it will have to get out of. That patients are dying because of Doctors' stir, that terrorists gun down people in day light and blast away temples on festivals, that power situation is getting grimmer by the day even in the national capital, that road network still sucks in the age of information superhighways and that people who try to stand against deep rooted muck in government systems get shot down seems to be something a shade too insignificant for the government to expend its bandwidth on. Let the governance go to the dogs, I need to watch that movie.

Another interesting corollary is this growing tendency of intolerance amongst us. You are free to say anything as long as I agree with you. Forget about resolving differences sitting across the table, if you utter something that I don't believe in, I will rush to the government to gag you shut. Chances are, the government too will oblige depending upon the weed, the concerned minister smoked that morning.

A sensible person has only three choices - a) develop a rhino's hide, b) go into deep depression, or, c) take to guns. Option (c) doesn't go well with civilized sensibilities, option (b) is too harsh on the protagonist and hence no wonder people prefer option (a). I am thick skinned and unless a harpoon hits my backside, I give a damn about what happens to yours.

Why does Arjun Singh love Reservation ???

This was way back in 1990. In UP, owing to the BJP, Sangh-Parivar sponsored Ram JanmaBhoomi agitation, a word like minority appeasement first entered the consciousness of a 13 year old that I was. I never understood why would a party go to extremes to appease a community forming 20% of population - to tell them that they were super special through blatantly flagrant means - even amending constitution to accomodate prima donnas (words like "Shahbano case", article 365, uniform civil code etc were hot those days) while continuously showing the middle finger to the 80% community. How could you afford to snub 80% to win favour of 20% was something I never understood.

Now I know, I was really innocent. I might have been an avid reader of newspapers and magazines, a staunch follower of political happenings even at that young age, but was too unripe to understand the intricacies.

The fact is that the Hindus are not a community - infact I am afraid, we never were a community. We are a collection of Brahmins, Thakurs, Baniyas, Yadavs, Kurmis, Kayasthas, Dalits etc. Thus, the 80% block I earleir thought existed is, in reality a collection of several 10%, 14%, 12%, 8%, 7% blocks. The logic of appeasement politics is simple - capture enblock 20% and tag along a couple of smaller blocks from Hindus. Thus we have a Muslim-Yadav combination for Laloo, Muslim-OBC combo for Mulayam, Mulsim-SC combo for Mayawati and so on. And though, it is fashionable to attribute all the gandgi to cow-belt politics, their counterparts in far away Bengal, AP, Kerala and TN are no better.

And herein comes the relevance of reservation as a political tool. Bring in reservation, divide the Hindus, create acrimony so that these 5-7-8-10-12% blocks remain water tight, create imaginary clashes of interest and then pose as the messiah of certain groups. Keep them divided for it is best if they remain divided.

Post Mandal-I, a lot of acrimony which had been created between the forward and backward Hindus was on the ebb by now. And then we have the Mandal bomb once again.

I sincerely want to believe that Arjun Singh is really moved by the plight of OBCs who have not been allowed to enter IITs and IIMs owing to the Manuwadi system which only focusses on performance in the Entrance Tests, hell, I even see tears in his eyes at the anguish and agony of the OBCs. My heart goes out for him.

However, there is a cynic in me who just stands in a corner giving a dry, twisted smirk.