WHERE MONEY TALKS
My email inbox showed a message on the eve of Independence Day reading “Feel strongly about an issue? Have ideas & suggestions, which you believe have transformative impact? Share your inputs with the Prime Minister! Your inputs may find their way to PM Modi’s Independence Day Speech!” I wonder how many of the millions of Indians who received that casual invitation — if it can be called such — bothered to respond. Or how much that was belted out from the ramparts of the Red Fort had been public contribution.
A friend to whom I mentioned thinks hordes of recipients would be immensely flattered. The invitation is shrewdly aimed, he said, at the level of intellect that is convinced Ram was of flesh and blood, born where the Babri Masjid once stood; that ancient rishis, who were skilled plastic surgeons, grafted an elephant’s head on Ganesh’s tubby body in some superbly equipped laboratory tucked away in the Tapovan forest; and that Karna, the tragic hero of the Mahabharata, had emerged from Kunti’s ear. Surya had arranged this miraculous conception so that she remained a virgin.
Coming to our times, my friend cited a common acquaintance, who had taken part in a radio discussion. Since AIR contracts mention the President of India, rather in the style of passports, the man was convinced Pranab Mukherjee (this was before the present incumbency) had personally invited him.
Ours is such an intensely ignorant society that myth, legend and rumour become indistinguishable from reality. I remember a time in my pre-decimal currency boyhood when our neighbourhood was buzzing with servants’ gossip that the rupee would soon have 20 instead of 16 annas. It had been announced in the papers, said our mali with utter conviction. My mother asked to see the paper, which was promptly brought. The mystery was soon cleared. They had all been taken in by an advertisement, which promised 20 annas worth of satisfaction for every rupee spent on that particular product.
Such innocents are understandably excited when a message out of the blue tells them that Narendra Modi had said in his Mann Ki Baat programme, “On August 15, I get an opportunity to communicate with the country from the ramparts of the Red Fort. I am merely an instrument. It is not one single person who makes that address, but it is the collective voice of 1.25 billion of my countrymen that resounds from the Red Fort.” This was followed with the injunction “Write to PM Modi through Narendra Modi App or MyGov & share your ideas with him now!”
“Why not?” I can hear recipients murmuring to themselves. “The PM wants your opinion yaar! He might even quote you!” Everyone likes flattery. Even astute statesmen can be taken in by gimmicks. Singapore’s late Lee Kuan Yew told me that Jet Airways was one of the world’s best because when he sat down in his seat on the Bangalore-New Delhi flight, he found the latest issue of The Straits Times, Singapore’s national newspaper, neatly folded in front of him. Lee refused to believe this was not Jet’s normal service.
Independence Day is over and there’s no question of responding to that fatuous email. No doubt there will be others, for this government stakes everything on populism aimed at society’s lowest common denominator. But if ever I did respond, it would be to remind the authorities of what preceded August 15, 1947, and why it happened. I refer to the horrors of Direct Action Day, 1946, which I can never forget. I was only nine years old then but the stench of death remains with me. Of course, it was the Muslim League that organised that murderous demonstration, but underlying the frenzied bloodshed and the bloodcurdling cries of “Allah ho akbar!” that still ring in my ears was the stark reality of the Hindu-Muslim situation. Britain’s Divide et Impera policy may have cynically exploited it but there had to be something to divide, something to exploit.
Rajinder Sachar’s 403-page report highlighted that something 11 years ago. Stressing that while Muslims constitute 14 per cent of India’s population, they only comprise 2.5 per cent of the bureaucracy, his report concluded that the socio-economic condition of Indian Muslims is below that of even the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The streets of Kolkata may not run with blood again but the injustice and inequality Sachar exposed will always prevent true communal peace. Sadly, it’s not something the government seems disposed to address.