Lightning Rods

Lightning Rods


Lightning: impressive as it always looks, never strikes in the same place twice. And yet, you can’t ignore the notion that it might strike just that once with a zillion blue volts of devastation. Ergo the lightning rod.

It’s Benjamin Franklin who is credited with the invention of the roof-mounted lightning rod in 1749. But, you don’t see them very much on modern structures. That’s because they have been supplanted by multiple “earthing” devices to cover all bases instead. So, the classic lightning rod continues in the popular discourse mainly as a metaphor.

Lightning Rods today are mostly people who take the flak for others. They tend to be pioneers, with a yen for path-finding. Some, of course, are employed for the purpose, hapless assistants, aka “fall guys” or “scapegoats”.

But in their more elevated avatars, Lightning Rods can be messianic, men of destiny, politicians yes, but those who tend to be larger than life. These are reformers that voluntarily put themselves at risk. Theirs is a courageous, ground reality altering commitment, a game-changing gambitry. It’s not lip-service, research-led, sound-byting, platitudinous, voter-friendly. Though this kind of appropriate seeming is happily adopted by many professional politicians, and not a few captains of business and industry also.

Benjamin Franklin was a politician/diplomat; a founding father of the United States of sufficient heft to inspire his likeness onto the 100 dollar bill. He not only invented the lightning rod but was path-breaking enough to epitomise the metaphor.

Successors include former US President John F Kennedy, who moved the Civil Rights agenda forward from where Abraham Lincoln had left off, and current African-American US President Barack Obama. And in India, Chief Ministers “Dalit ki Beti” Mayawati of Uttar Pradesh and ex-RSS Pracharak Narendra Modi of Gujarat, are also bonafide, modern day Lightning Rods. And they all attract an avalanche of criticism as a consequence of their temerity.

Just think of the media speculation over whether President Obama has what it takes. There were assessments descriptive of his professorial (law) demeanour, his cerebral and dispassionate approach, his vacillation, his closet Communism. There were racist slurs and doubts cast on his seeming inability to implement his plans.

But suddenly it’s all turned into fawning admiration. Mr. Obama has pulled the impossible off with the passage of the compromised but still substantial Health Reform Bill. All at once he is deemed to be determined, wise, visionary, bold. He is no longer called a “Big Government Pinko”. Now he is cast less as a hapless Don Quixote too small for his job, and more as a St. George slaying dreaded dragons.

But at least in America people learn from their mistakes! So now, as President Obama targets Wall Street and big- ticket financial regulation next, the erstwhile nay-sayers will definitely be more careful.

From the Indian perspective, the hyper-sensitivity we display with every US initiative towards Pakistan is equally misplaced. It is we, not the US so much, that persist in yoking ourselves to a perpetual bracketing with our troublesome neighbour.

The US is simply trying to make the impoverished Pakistani establishment fight the jihadis on its behalf. We are not even willing to fight them effectively on our home turf! But to the Americans, if throwing money and guns at the problem will make it go away, then great!

Our plaintive argument that all arms supplied by the US will ultimately be used against us rather than the Taliban is bound to fall on deaf ears. So at best, the Americans can only see our fears and concerns through a collateral prism. Despite this, we refuse to change diplomatic tack.

We must urgently realise that we are in a position to help ourselves. On our own, we can accelerate our defence preparedness via Israel, via France, via Russia, even the US, all of which countries are more than willing to meet us half-way. We are no longer poor and helpless and should further strengthen our decided economic advantage to our benefit.

But instead of getting on with putting distance between Pakistan’s begged, borrowed and stolen capabilities and ours; we expend large amounts of diplomatic capital complaining fruitlessly.

Similarly, at home, the partisan coverage on Mayawati’s currency garlands and mania for building parks and memorials glorifying mentor Kanshi Ram, herself and her Party, borders on the pathological.

It is as if there is a reluctance to give any credit to this third-time CM of Uttar Pradesh, the latest term with a majority not seen by any political party in the state for 17 years.

She has not only spearheaded a “will to power” for the Dalits of UP but in the last Assembly Election put together a most impressive “rainbow coalition” from seemingly opposed constituencies of Muslims, the higher castes and Dalits. The next elections may indeed demand a furtherance of the narrative, but CM Mayawati deserves respect for what she has achieved so far.

As for motives, it would probably surprise most of the commentators who see themselves as modern and progressive if they were called closet casteists. This, while letting many others, equally, if not more culpable of possible corruption, abuse of power, nepotism, and cynical vote bank manipulation, to get away with it.

The same kind of venom is reserved for third term Chief Minister Narendra Modi of Gujarat, allegedly a communalist and Muslim basher. That Narendra Modi was Chief Minister when the Godhra Riots took place is factual enough, but many commentators have routinely implied he is also its chief perpetrator without any evidence to support their done-deal thesis. From name-calling of the order of “maut ka saudagar” to constant disparagement, very little has been done to restrain the vilification in certain quarters.

In counterpoint, every one of Mr. Modi’s admirers have been portrayed as misguided, whether they are the common voters of Gujarat or Captains of Industry such as Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani. And the economic performance and progress made by this leading state of the Union is seen as a mere device to refurbish Mr. Modi’s tarnished image!

Perhaps it is time to retrospect and see if there is any merit in going back to portraying both sides of the story in a fair manner. But meanwhile we can be sure the Lightning Rods amongst us are too busy changing things to hold their breath.

(1,054 words)

27th March 2010
Gautam Mukherjee