DON’T BLAME THE ELITES

They ask questions that political leaders have no answers to

THERE’S A CERTAIN irony, I’ve always felt, in finger-wagging that’s directed at some supposed “elite” by someone who belongs to the same elite. I felt that very sense of irony while reading Aditya Puri’s recent article, ‘Listen to the people’ (IE, April 4).

Consider: He muses about a certain “intellectualism”, wondering if it is “disconnected from reality”. He suggests that the “correct question” to ask is whether “the intellectuals are listening to the people”. He observes that there’s a “backlash against elites” around the world, and “we need to ask why”. And with that foundation, he weaves an apparently persuasive argument about the politics that surrounds us these days. The friend who pointed me to Puri’s effort did so with these words: “Here’s a reasonable article from an eminent man.”

Yet, it seems to me that this reasonable article could do with a closer examination, maybe teasing out its own connection with reality.

Start by asking about these “governing elites” who Puri claims have embraced a “politics which is only about economics and ignores equitable and sustainable growth and cultural and religious issues”. Now pretty much every single government that India has had has talked up such themes as growth for all, the fight against poverty, the right to education and more. Most of them have also talked up such cultural and religious issues as caste, a temple, personal laws, and more. They have had varying degrees of success — plenty of outright failures too — in these pursuits. But that they practised their politics using these themes is incontestable. In other words, politics in India has never been “only about economics”. That Puri claims the opposite makes me wonder what country he has really been living in.

But it’s true, there has been a backlash against elites. In our country certainly, but in others too, large swathes of people feel they have missed these buses named “development” and “progress”. As they see it, jobs are hard to find, prices rise, education and healthcare are poor, justice is out of reach, and through it all, the rich get steadily richer. The frustration of these swathes builds.

Who is to blame for all this? The “intellectual elites”? But it’s exactly these issues that they have been raising for decades now. It’s what the intellectual elites in any society do, because they have the voice and resources to do so.

Inevitably, along come populist leaders who are acutely aware of two things. First, that many of their predecessors have lacked the political will to really address these issues, not just talk about them; and second, they have no particular ideas themselves about how to address these issues. So they direct blame for such failures back at the elites. Of course elites must be “out of touch”, of course they are not “listening to the people”. Naturally, the large swathes mentioned earlier must aim their wrath at these folks who are so “out of touch”.

And right on cue, enough of the elite will themselves regurgitate this rhetoric.

Having done so, they turn to a “vision” for the country that, for them, this PM has articulated. Well, what I see in this “vision” is a collage of something like this: A temple consecrated by the PM, critics punished, minorities made to feel like inferior citizens, corruption charges forgotten by the simple act of joining his party — I could go on. This may not be what Puri discerns. It may also be that there are enough people who admire this vision anyway. My point here is that there are a lot of us who don’t.

Still, for Puri, the flip side of what he thinks the PM is envisioning is that the Opposition has not similarly articulated its own vision for India. Yet, I think it has, and these are some parts of that collage: A hearing for every voice, attention to the needs of the poor, respect for every faith, justice for all Indians, I could go on again. And again, this may not be what Puri discerns. But there are a lot of us who believe in this vision, in an India that will sincerely address these themes. And we think India will be a better country for doing so.

In the end, that is the question that faces us today, whether we are intellectuals or ordinary people: What will make us a better country?

If trying to answer that question means I belong to some elite that Puri disparages, I don’t particularly care. But he should never think that I will stop trying to answer it.

It’s true, there has been a backlash against elites. In our country certainly, but in others too, large swathes of people feel they have missed these buses named ‘development’ and ‘progress’. As they see it, jobs are hard to find, prices rise, education and healthcare are poor, justice is out of reach, and through it all, the rich get steadily richer. The frustration of these swathes builds.