Straws in the Wind

Straws in the Wind

In a “those were the days” kind of way, time passing can seduce us to think of a perfection encountered long ago. This is, of course what myth is made of, with every inconvenient inconsistency air-brushed out of memory.

But certain things are dug too deep to evaporate in the mists of time. The inequities and savage barbarisms of racism, for example, or the blood soaked wounds of religious feud. But even such fore-knowledge and genetic memory can be, and often is, suppressed on the altar of expediency. The question, in evolutionary terms however is, does an old trick work in perpetuity?

The covering up of elephant statues in Uttar Pradesh while turning a blind eye to the numerous schemes and themes named after Jawaharlal Nehru and his stick-to-power family of successors, is one such straw in the wind.

Income Tax raids on the UP Chief Minister’s crony capitalists, not in the routine course of a work-a-day week, but pretty much during state elections, is another. The barring of controversy’s child Salman Rushdie’s visit to a literary festival at the instance of a hard-line Deoband is yet another.

But not all our straws in the wind portend the pessimistic. The once unassailable bastions of Western prescription, the venerable Time magazine and Newsweek too, now routinely feature Indian, Asian, even Iranian lead-writers, even on their covers, using their non-Caucasian by-lines. No more are such people confined to the footnotes and acknowledged for “inputs”.

Newsweek’s international edition even boasts an Indian-American Muslim Editor, though nothing can apparently save it from going the way of all print in the West.

The poignancy in such “establishment” publications turning fair-handed and liberal at the point of death may not be lost on all. What are they expecting now--Asian White Knights or perhaps resurrection in Hindi and Mandarin? Why not, after all, it is happening all over in business and industry. Not only are Indians and Chinese snapping up Western businesses but even the once Western glamour-struck Arabs are beginning to invest in India, having lost billions down the plughole in Europe and the US.

But, all in all, the belated fairness does rankle, and makes for hard-hearted negotiations. One should pause before blaming the Chinese for this, and perhaps take a cue from them instead. Or have we already begun to do so?

The new “make-nice” is a departure from arch imperialist Rudyard Kipling’s back-handed compliment to Gunga Din, the selfless water-bearer of his famous poem. Gunga Din’s day is decidedly done. He is seen to be as anachronistic as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom. Sweet as the tales may have seemed once, they are slurs and swear-words now.

American Actor Will Smith says he is a Star because of the success of the Civil Rights Movement. President Barack Obama acknowledges as much too. There were, of course, early White sympathisers, but history shows us that morality turns into reality when economic compulsions force the conversion. The American Civil War and the abolition of slavery is a case in point.  

This was also the reality during Mahatma Gandhi’s struggles too, both here and in South Africa before that. And how women got the vote in the West, and later, man-size jobs, battered and depleted as men-folk were by the ravages of two world wars.

 Interestingly, even though as a nation we hesitate to overtly express hard power, having been born in the crucible of non-violence which encompasses, at least in concept, thought word and deed; we sometimes do manage to make our intentions plain.

Acquiring a nuclear sub at last on lease from Russia, albeit for the second time, but this one in the context of our own nuclear weapons carrying indigenously built nuclear submarine Arihant about to be inducted, some say, before 2015, is a clear message to China which has six such subs in its navy already.

Our buying some USD 20 billion worth of the French Dassault Rafale state-of-the-art Fighters is a departure from our default position of buying Russian. Though we will continue to hang on to that line of military supply for other items, including Sukhoi -35 aircraft and that much delayed and awaited aircraft carrier.  

We can’t, and won’t, win an all-out war with China today or any time soon, but we are not going to be a pushover as we were in 1962. And that is why we are raising another mountain regiment for Arunachal Pradesh and getting on with roads, bridges, helipads and air strips there. Also, why we are talking to others in the Pacific maritime region which China wants to convert to a Pax of the Dragon pond.

The British and the Americans might be sorry to lose to the French, but we may have done something, for ourselves, based on merit, of both the aircraft and the accompanying commercial deals. We may be giving shape and fuel to our long-term ambition to actually make our own Fighters, not by just bolting them together, but inclusive of the technology development.

France needed us to buy its Rafale aircraft, unable as they have been to find international buyers so far. We needed a good aircraft to see us through today’s challenges and twenty years ahead and the possibility of developing indigenous fifth generation Fighters one day. China is already doing all this, but this decision says, after five pondering years, that we are not giving up the ghost either.

There are other hopeful straws in the wind. The FII gush of funds into India in January 2012 may portend the revival of the Indian stock markets after all. Our markets do represent viability and long term potential in a world that has largely let itself down.

The FIIs can apparently see their way beyond the current softening in growth rates and seem encouraged by the successful curbing of food inflation. The RBI and Ministry of Finance too have started injecting financial liquidity into the system and this is definitely good news.

Politically, we continue to appear chaotic, but a consolidation of public opinion in favour of good governance and the candidacy of Mr. Narendra Modi for Prime Minister per a recent opinion poll is a good sign for the next general elections.

Mr. Anna Hazare may have been eclipsed for the moment, but his anti-corruption crusade has certainly touched a chord with the public. Besides China, the West and the Arabs may decide to curry favour with a deceptively mild-mannered India now, instead of perennially trying to show us our place. And Pakistan too won’t be in a position to exploit the difference.

(1,098 words)

February 2^nd, 2012

Gautam Mukherjee


Published as Leader Edit on the Edit page of The Pioneer as "Hopeful straws in the wind" on 8th February 2012. Also published online at www.dailypioneer.com and in The Pioneer ePaper and archived at www.dailypioneer.com under Columnists.