Guides, Their Bearings Lost!

Mamata is India’s Donald Trump with her politics of thriving on deadlocks. Her refusal to resign, for instance, and also her claim of 9 million votes eliminated by the SIR. She should rather focus on why the anti-incumbency factor hit her so hard. Instead of doing that, she is busy moving the court with the argument that SIR deletion destroyed TMC chances in 30 odd seats when she lost 129 seats to the BJP, which is facing the unenviable task of accommodating the loyalists and the opportunists. Just take out this chunk of 129 and BJP is back to where it was. Suvendu will have tough days ahead in showing that he is ‘Adhikari’ too!

The whole world is in a spin—going round and round without direction. Trump is biting his own tail; Starmer under siege by his party men; Netanyahu berserk to destroy all enemies of Jews; Putin trying desperately to return to centre stage by occasional jibes at Ukraine; NATO members confused finding the language of a non-US dominated international entente; Pakistan jumping at the prospect of mediation between US and Iran but realizing that both sides are adamant to teeth and won’t give an inch; health experts faced with a new virus –the hanta…

Having met his match in Iran, Trump is busy with damage repair. An Arab head of state, the British Royal Couple (looking like the child-hating old couple in the Disney movie ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ - absolutely ludicrous!). He has totally lost the meaning of a ceasefire and world peace. His words, though patently irresponsible, make stock markets hum and haw. He also visited China, probably on his own invitation! It’s funny how both the decent and uncouth politicians have a fatal China attraction-Nehru, Stalin, Nixon, to name some. China consistently betrayed them all. Wait, Donald, you too will get the sting of Chinese ‘acu-puncture’!

The rift in NATO is a positive development in the context of the containment of the US in world affairs. It remains to be seen whether Eastern European countries will have a regional agenda, but that’s unlikely to happen unless the Russia-Ukraine man-made imbroglio is settled. Both Trump and Putin challenge the legitimacy of the constitutionally appointed governments of Iran and Ukraine. See? Thuggery has no ideological bias! Trump wants to free Iranians from state despotism by propelling another Shah to power. Putin wants the developed parts of Ukraine by place his stooge at the helm in Ukraine! Iran would have gone the Iraq way (Sad-dam assassination for suspected biological weapons of mass destruction) if the Iranian leadership had buckled with the killing of two top level leaders-political and military. One would like to point out to Trump that US has another Vin Laden in Iran because during the honey moon with the ousted Shah the US helped Iran to modernize its defences.

In fact, the US effrontery in Iran would have passed unchallenged if Iran did not possess the strait of Hormuz- the bottleneck of half the world’s oil supply. But with Europe being the worst hit, NATO began to crack, and Trump’s brash adventurism boomeranged upon him. How many feet can you put in your mouth, Donald?

That’s the scene outside. Things inland may not be identical but are in the same fashion. Tamil Nadu (TN) has freed itself from the DMK yoke after 60 years of the same wine in different political packaging, but its replacement doesn’t even know the A-B-C of power politics and governance! The Hindu political brigade has finally won West Bengal (WB) but not without half their legislators belonging to the old party in power: the TMC. Moreover, it will be too early to infer that now both TN and WB will be part of the mainstream national politics. For one thing, there is already the demand of annihilation of Sanatan Dharma, the trump card of BJP and its allies. WB politics has already turned violent with the killing of the new CM’s close aide—remember Pramod Mahajan and his pa?

Theatre and theatrics have been the soul of TN politics since the DMK was founded. It successfully used theatre for the dissemination of ideology. That ideology had following tenets: No God, No Vedas, No Brahmins, No Congress and No Gandhi! Consequently TN was always politically isolated vis a vis national mainstream. Yet in practice it has been a typically Indian entity with dynastic hegemony, hero worship, psychophancy, putting heart ahead of head, obsession with the ethnic past, populism and failure to check corruption and criminalisation . Right now almost half of TVK legislators have at at least one case in courts. Moreover, Vijay is so impatient (for none of his faults) that he messed up at the swearing in ceremony and also proclaimed that he will be the be all and end all of power- forgetting that he is heading a coalition. I want this sweet boy from the world of make-believe to prevail upon the seasoned, defeated and hateful by habit DMK bigwigs and busybodies and quote Shakespeare to him—give every man thy ear but few thy voice. He will have to do a pre-independence Rajaji to consolidate his victory into structured political establishment and bring TN in national mainstream(maelstrom?)

Also Read: Roll Back: Emerging Style of Governance? (Vinay Hardikar)

Let’s have a look at WB in reference to national political mainstream. The BJP has done well in the fact that after the demise of Shyamaprasad Mukherjee the Hindu identity has asserted it self—it had to wait for seven decades! In doing so the BJP hands have not been tarnished by new sins-with the exception of voter deletion but that is being done all over the country and even disinterested researchers have opined that the election results would have not drastically changed! But in the larger national context the BJP politics is inclusive only for itself and its allies-the NDA. Outside of that BJP and NaMo are inventing daily new and more hurtful personal abuse on the opposition! NaMo refuses to shun Nehru baiting even after erection of a gigantic statue of Patel; Ram temple in Faizabad and supervising the revival of Somanath—exercises in rewriting history? How long are we going to waste the nation’s time in raking up the past and blame attribution?

It’s remarkable that NaMo has changed tack after winning WB; he has suddenly turned Gandhian! He is trying to be persuasive for a change and is entreating his followers to shun the temptations of gold, foreign travel, chasing comfort and conspicuous consumption. Devil quoting the Bible in a different way! It’s not a confession of policy failure as the permanently adolescent Rahul has quipped; it’s just NaMo’s inability to find the courage and language to tell people that ‘bure din aanewale hai’! Yes such an appeal did not fall on deaf ears when LB Shastri asked countrymen to give up rice for one meal every week but to be respectful to Shastri let’s drop the comparison.

That is why the words of Cecil Day-Lewis are so apt after almost a century. These leaders, though constitutionally in power, are no statesmen to guide the huge masses of people looking up to them for ‘achche din’! They are just power limpets- got the steerings in their hands but not going even north by northwest.

- Vinay Hardikar
vinay.freedom@gmail.com
(The writer has been working in the public sphere of Maharashtra for the last five decades. His versatile personality has several dimensions, but the primary ones remain to be that of an established writer, journalist, editor, critic, activist, and teacher.)

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