Tiger! Tiger! Burning Bright

Tiger! Tiger! Burning Bright

This country’s tectonic plates are shifting, and not just under Sonepat. It is a phenomenon occurring deep down in its unexplored innards. But on the surface too, there is much sensed excitement, like monkeys chattering in the forest to herald the approach of a tiger.

The old formulae, such as the much abused fig leaf of “secularism”, used to dupe the largest minority, and fear-monger amongst the smaller ones, have not totally lost their relevance, but they no longer command blind faith.

The perception of the people has become much more sophisticated as a consequence of greater prosperity and exposure to the world via satellite TV. The left-liberalism of the ruling party has undeniably yielded some benefits over decades of being in power, most of them continuously, but now this success at lifting the lowest common denominator, has come of age with its concomitant changes in aspiration.

This change, in aspiration and sophistication, is evident also in the reception given to the new wave commercial cinema coming from younger directors, and even the success of original music men such as AR Rahman.

Some of these new movies do not have the de rigeur songs; others lack the elaborate masala-mix of melodrama; others still, dare to explore elephant-in-the-room topics. As for AR Rahman, it is a me-and-my-studio-effects phenomenon the old school would not consider seriously. But it is AR Rahman with the international recognition and the Oscar and not any doyen of the old school.

This may all be a middle class and multiplex phenomenon, a metaphor stretched too far, but even then the size, spending power, education, exposure and clout of this segment cannot be denied. This has turned it from a passive “petit bourgeois” mindset, fearful of losing its hold on precarious “respectability”, into a more assertive and expressive one.

The change in the air is also evident in the realm of public affairs in the way the people are proving resistant to the old explanations, the mealy-mouthed platitudes, the lip-service, the sloth, inefficiency, waste and hypocrisy, accompanied by the routine passing of the buck. The inaction and ineffectiveness is resulting in an audible, if not yet loud ticking of the clock, even in the silence of this quartz-batteried and digital age.  

The usual nostrums and broad spectrum stock explanations are not working. Nobody believes the cant being handed out. Truth be told, they never did, but added to the existent disbelief is a certain impatience and unwillingness to put up with it anymore. Even the tele-evangelising apologists for the ruling dispensation are having trouble mustering enthusiasm for the lines they are required to mouth.

As for the sycophancy towards the ruling family at the apex of the Congress Party, and indeed most of its allies, similarly topped by can-do-no-wrong satraps, it all has a tinge of desperation. And no minister of Government or party big-wheel wants to be less sycophantic than the competition, lest it costs one much more than one is willing to lose.

Out on the street meanwhile, the trouble is that the institutions and mechanisms of redressal are themselves dressed in cobwebs and rust. So there is nothing to do but mobilise on the streets, hopefully under the gaze of the force multiplying media.

We may not be part of the Arab and North African “Jasmine” revolution, mostly against dictators and absolute rulers backed by military juntas, but there too, dangerous as it is, it is the street that is the forum.

We in India are ostensibly democratic, but our functioning has always been decidedly feudal, autocratic, even colonial, with brown men replacing white ones. This malaise of obtuse arrogance affects all who get elected to office or occupy those inordinately powerful and unsackable posts in the Government.

The agitation over corruption that has caught the popular imagination is actually a symptom of deeper causes. It is probably the thin edge of a wedge that will open up Indian society to review and reform all that is antiquated and redundant in our country.

And stimulated by these yearnings for renewal, catalysed by this banner of obsolescence, it is difficult to point at even a single area of our daily experience not in need of overhaul. The frightening thing is that the framework and human resources available to bring about such comprehensive change is simply not available in-house to the Government.

Nor can our grasping politicians in faux people-friendly mode and fancy dress to match, cope effectively within their ponderous parliamentary procedures and the moribund Soviet style checks and balances. These are now seen by the public to be  redundant mechanisms and excuses for doing nothing. What we have is a legion of yesterday men and women baffled by the demands of tomorrow, clueless, floundering, ageing, rigid, impotent and unresponsive.

And in the midst of all this, there is the spectre of a tiger approaching, with all the “fearful symmetry” of the four-legged one from William Blake’s evocative poem. Czar Nicholas must have felt like this when a determined Lenin took him and his centuries old monarchy head on.

Mr. Narendra Modi can unite the country under the truth of equal rights and opportunities for all communities, as opposed to the ruling dispensation’s time-worn strategy of playing Peter against Paul and living off the difference.

The Congressional Research Service of the United States has recently acknowledged Mr. Modi’s possibilities as a future prime minister, even before he and his party have enunciated their own positions. 

This comes on top of an abstruse Supreme Court ruling, best understood by competent lawyers in its entirety, but which, the man on the street may be forgiven for construing as a “clean chit”.

In plainspeak, Modi is not Himmler, let alone Hitler, despite strenuous smear campaign efforts to that effect. He is undeniably a most efficient Chief Minister with a mission to deliver what he promises. And he can definitely do likewise at the national level given the chance. And this for Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Tribals and every other minority and community alike. Mr. Modi on his part, reacting to the propaganda against him, is working hard on refurbishing his image.

Therefore it is understandable that when the ruling dispensation puts the rise and rise of Narendra Modi in their smoking pipes, they can’t help but gag on the acridity. More so because the way things are going, the people of India could well see Mr. Modi, with his proven experience and effectiveness, as a better alternative to Mr. Rahul Gandhi for the prime ministership of India in 2014.

(1, 089 words)

15^th September 2011

Gautam Mukherjee

Published as the Leader Edit on the Edit Page of The Pioneer on Dussehra 7th October 2011 as "Time to slay our demons". Simultaneously published online at www.dailypioneer where it is archived under Guest Columnists and in The Pioneer ePaper.