HVK Archives: The middle class parentage of Rao's fobbies; and a comment
The middle class parentage of Rao's fobbies; and a comment - The Indian Express
Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr
()
8 October 1996
Title : The middle class parentage of Rao's foibles
Author : Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr
Publication : The Indian Express
Date : October 8, 1996
Now that P. V. Narasimha Rao's political wheel of fortune
has turned, what is being said about the man is quite in
contrast to what was said about him when his star rose on
the political horizon five years ago. At that time, a
journalist said in an earnest tone, "We don't need char-
ismatic leaders any more. We want someone who works and
delivers." That was a common sentiment. Most intelligent
people badly wanted a break from the Nehru-Gandhi dynas-
ty.
Five years later and after Rao',, fall, they hold on to
the same views about the dynasty. But they are not able
to come to terms with the Rao contradiction. The 'intel-
ligent observers' are so confused on intellectual and
moral grounds that they are unable to explain the change
in their perception of Rao from being a Chanakya to being
a small-time politician caught in a web of omissions and
commissions.
Looking back, it is interesting to note that Rao was the
favourite of the Indian middle class. He brought to them
the fresh air of liberalisation. This was the class
which benefited the most from the switch-over to a market
economy. It is one of the paradoxes that Rao was most
popular among the class which was of no help to him in
the electoral battle. Though he is a typical representa-
tive of the middle class, he did not really go out of his
way to woo them.
The English-language media reflected this bias. Rao was
the one prime minister who never faced the kind of hos-
tile Press which was the case with Indira Gandhi, Rajiv
Gandhi and V. P. Singh. He outlived every scam which
erupted in his face while in office because the media did
not really hound him as it did Rajiv Gandhi in the Bofors
case and V. P. Singh on the Mandal issue. This despite
the fact that he never very much cared for the media, and
he did not even make any attempt to conceal his indif-
ference towards the Fourth Estate.
But after he fell from power, and as he slips into a
legal morass, the middle class has really turned a cold
shoulder to the man it admired secretly. Rao may be, or
may not be, alone in the Congress Party, but he certainly
has no friends in the urban middle class. Reflecting this
change, as it were, the media has turned into an unsympa-
thetic commentator of all his indiscretions. There are
no accolades any more for his matchless cunning and
browbeating tactics. All that he now gets is mere deri-
sion.
Whether it stands by Rao or not, the middle class cannot
for long blame it all on Rao and on the political class
for the venality and corruption which has crept into the
system. It is a natural tendency on the part of people
to shift all the blame on to a monster-figure and absolve
themselves of all responsibility.
It has happened earlier too. After the Emergency, Indira
Gandhi became the easy target. She was seen as the one
person who personified the evil of authoritarianism. The
others were all just helpless witnesses even when they
are not the victims. It was an easy escape route, moral-
ly.
Not too many people were happy when British academic and
political theorist David Selbourne pointed out that the
Emergency was not a sudden development, and that state
authoritarianism was inherent in Independent India's
political system. As a matter of fact, state brutality
became such a burning issue after the Emergency because
it was the political class which was the victim. But
state brutality was a familiar experience for the common
criminal as well as the innocent common man even before
the Emergency. And it remains so even today.
Similarly, not too many people would like to be told that
Rao, with all his faults, is not a lone example. He
represents a tendency which is a little too common in
Indian society as well as the polity. It is a moral
burden which people would like to shrug off as quickly as
possible. When an American historian had recently writ-
ten about the collective responsibility of the Germans in
Hitler's atrocities, there was a chorus of liberal pro-
test. One man's evil cannot be pushed on to a whole
people, the liberals said.
The Indian middle class cannot too easily shed its moral
responsibility for Rao's flaws and faults. A middle
class person may cry, "I am not Rao's keeper," but that
would not absolve him or her. Rao is the all-too-faith-
ful image of bourgeois complacency and arrogance born of
brahminical learning.
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COMMENT:
This is the way the psecularists try to explain issues. That this
is a perversion is a hall mark of such explanations. The
intellectuals are also essentially middle class - so do the
comments not make a poor reflection on them also.
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