India isn’t free from its karm comment aEugene Correia It’s no secret The world’s strongest democracy and the world’s largest democracy, the United States and India respectively, are messy right now. The unpredicted victory of Donald Trump came as a shocker to those who believe in liberal ideas, just the BJP catapulted Modi into centre stage, and has hence turned into an autocrat. A popular US news website put Modi in the company of Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoðan as world’s “ strongmen”. While Trump is facing a stiff test, trying to reconcile himself with the nuances of governing a powerful nation, Modi is reinventing himself and pushing forward the BJP’s vision of India. Trump is fumbling badly since he entered the White House. His administration is showing cracks with reports of infighting and fractions. But despite all the stumbles, he continues to be held in high esteem by his large red- neck Americans and evangelical Christians who form his support base. Modi too is held high by the ultra- religious Hindus. He has grown in power and looks forward to winning the next elections in 2019. It’s no secret that his rhetoric has changed recently, and his emphasis on “ sab ke sath, sab ka vikas” is more evident than before. Though the “ achhe din” haven’t truly arrived, his first big move to demonetise money, his current chase to bring absconders who looted India, and the reopening of the Ayodhya case against Lal Kishan Advani, Uma Bharti and Manohar Joshi after 25 years can be seen as a move by the government to win over the both the pro- BJP and anti- BJP sections at the next election. Trump and Modi are the prophets of populism. The trend to please the electorate with what they want to hear and see is perhaps not new, but it is modified to calm the disquiet and anger among the people. Campaign promises necessarily don’t come to reality in governance. See the hurdles Trump is facing. Except for those backing the BJP, most of the other segments of society are wary of the things going on in the nation. The frustration of the people was reflected in BJP losing three states — Punjab, Manipur and Goa. It was only through morally corrupt ways that BJP managed to take control of government in Goa and Manipur. It’s an affront to the norms and ideals of democracy. What we see now is “ stealth democracy.” In a recent book, The End of Karma — Hope and Fury among India’s Young, by Somini Sengupta, the former bureau chief of the New York Times in India, she quotes, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, the father of the Indian Constitution, as saying, “ Democracy in India is only a top- dressing on an Indian soil which is essentially undemocratic.” She opines that “ Ambedkar was remarkably prescient. India still struggles to be democratic in everyday life.” Her book espouses the aspiration of young Indians to succeed and become globally competent. Taking into consideration the everyday life of Indians, we see how the state of affairs has gone from bad to worse. Just weeks ago, India celebrated the 126th anniversary of this visionary who worked selflessly for the downtrodden people of India, the dalits, and saw in his lifetime that democracy had penetrated deep down into the poor sections of the society. The dalits, the Schedule Castes and the Schedule Castes still struggle with everyday life, notwithstanding the progress in their livelihood over the years since India gained Independence. Despite the drama of fury taking place in some universities over freedom of speech, and some states over, freedom of choice in food, and the dance of democracy in Tamil Nadu over taking over Jayalalitha’s legacy, which no sensible politician must attempt to inherit because of its tainted stains of corruption, Somini says, “ Democracy has anchored itself in the minds of India’s young. It speaks to the triumph of an audacious idea.” To back up her impression of the India she left behind as a child and now seen through the eyes of a foreign correspondent, she quotes Nandan Nilekani, the man who thought of the Aadhaar card, which is making news these days, from his book, Imagining India: Ideas for at the New Century, “ For the first time, there is a sense of hope across the country.” For this new generation of Indians, the writer has coined the phrase, “ noonday’s children,” a take on Salman Rushdie’s famous book, Midnight’s Children, which highlighted the birth of an independent India. Somini admits that “ despite roaring economic growth…. nearly one in four Indians lives in dire poverty…” The economic reforms came in 1991 and given the Congress rule at the centre, there was demand for a change. Just as in Goa, the Congress corruption forced the people to change the government, and then again force a change when BJP proved unworthy of itself. BJP had to resort to a coup to snatch victory from the jaws of death, thanks to the scheming and manipulative ways of Manohar Parrikar. The ghost of the past seem to have come back to haunt India. The vision of Hindu India, as proposed by those of the like of Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and other Hindu nationalists, is now front and centre. One dreads to know if this is what Modi means by New India, as he took the first step in making the firebrand Yogi Adityanath the chief minister of UP, the Hindu heartland of India. The battle cry for “ beef ban” and “ cow protection” has seen violence, including the lynching of a poor farmer, when the issue of suicides by farmers should deserve the government’s undivided attention. Votaries of Hindu nationalism are on a rampage, destroying the secular heart of India. Muslims and Christians face the wrath of extremist Hindus, reminding past histories of communal hatred. The Sangh Parivar is hell- bent on making India in their image by their repeated harping that Hinduism is a secular religion and that India will remain a secular nation. Let us not be fooled by such devious political mantra. Elucidating the title of the book, Somini mentions, “ The post- 1991 generation had been led to imagine it could rewrite its destiny, that it could shake off the karma of past lives. The country was utterly unprepared for this.” Considering that young Indians are at the frontlines of social tension and religious warfare, it’s delusionary to believe that India has finally escaped its karma. ( The author is a senior journalist.) Sent from my iPad
