Author: Tarun Vijay
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 8, 2007
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Tarun_Vijay_The_pyramid_and_ants/articleshow/2264415.cms
Ms Priya Dutt is a Member of Parliament representing
more than one voter of her constituency. As a lawmaker she has a responsibility
to speak for the nation on national issues. Having considered her present
turmoil borne out of brotherly affection, one has full sympathies with her.
But her constituents have a right to ask whether she had ever raised the voice
of terror victims or 'innocent' convicts who are not film actors? How many
Congressmen or the self-proclaimed 'down-to-earth champions of the proletariat',
the Communists, have ever visited the families of those slain barbarically
by the jihadis ?
The day the Mumbai judgement came; a blast
in a tourist bus in Srinagar killed two women and injured many. They were
Indians and Muslims, and had gone to enjoy the Valley's beauty. There was
hardly a reflection of their sorrow in the papers or a condemnation for the
killers. What we see is an anger against the brave and considerate Judge P
D Kode who delivered a balanced yet forthright judgement which otherwise is
a delayed one -thirteen years after the bloody incident which left 250 dead
and 700 injured.
Who spoke for the families of the dead and injured? Priyaranjan or Kapil Sibal
or Munnabhai media?
The parents of the security personnel martyred
defending Indian Parliament returned their bravery medals to the government
for its lackadaisical attitude over Afzal's hanging. Who spoke for the anguish
and frustration of the patriotic parents who gave their best for the nation?
Priya or net surfers campaigning for a convict who had links with the anti-national
mafia?
So is it a new unwritten law that to be saved
from the punishment you need to be on the right side of secularism, political
affiliation and popularity?
Who thinks for the family of the men in uniform
who get killed in Kashmir or Chhattisgarh fighting against Islamists and Maoists?
An average Army personnel earns very modestly,
yet risks his life so that Members of Parliament can perform their duties
and industrialists and filmmakers earn a lot of money and squander on buying
a fleet of seventeen, seventy or more cars. The politician, the ugly money-maker
machine, protects every Ashok Malhotra and Telgi but smarter part is that
he is seldom caught. The more the exposures of his corruption, the greater
are his chances of elevation in the party or in the Cabinet.
When temples were razed in Kashmir and Hindu
women raped and their bodies dismembered, neither the fashionable women rights
lobby spoke which otherwise goes gaga over heavily-covered Islamists women
campaigners for 'freedom', nor the filmy brotherhood of Sibals and Priyas.
It's noteworthy that none of the accused in
the Mumbai blasts or later terror acts has expressed remorse or regrets on
the killings of hundreds of innocents. Who speaks for those Indians who were
killed while shopping for Diwali or playing Holi or offering prayers inside
the temple?
When Hindus are converted through dubious
means and a head of the Christian sect, the Pope, issues religious dictates'
to 'harvest' Hindus in their own Hindustan, do those sitting at the top of
the power pyramid declare that the Pope has violated the sanctity of his host's
hospitality? The freedom of expression wallahs and the peace candle variety
have kept a well-studied silence over every single atrocity against Hindus.
Why?
How do they gauge the appropriateness of their
status at the top where access is restricted and the sky looks closer? I think
they just don't care to realise the 'appropriateness' factor at all, because
the biggest fear to them is from their own misdeeds that they know and hence
hesitate to reflect .More than a hundred thousand cast their vote to provide
a Membership of Parliament to a candidate. Much fewer numbers vote for a corporator
or an MLA.
It's like a pyramid. More people at the base
support a candidate to reach at the top and it's incumbent upon the top position
holder never to miss this fact. The winner is not there just because of his
great brilliance exercised in isolation, but because he could convince the
millions constituting the base and the upper layers that his elevation could
bring good to the entire structure. It happens in everybody's life.
A student receives a degree with the support
of thousands of contributors, from a carpenter to a teacher, gardener, policeman,
printer, publisher, driver and postman. Does he ever think to repay the social
debt in return of his status gained? What's the social responsibility factor
in a public man's life? Or in the industrial, corporate world?
Hardly anyone gives a damn to the social responsibility
element. The stinking rich want to get richer and crave for more cars, bigger
apartments. More luxury keeps on growing in a Bharat where wheels to our economy
- farmers, labourers, teachers, security personnel, landless workers commit
suicide or live in sub-human conditions described as bare survival. Go and
see after nine lives in and around old Delhi's station, JJ Colonies and the
footpaths of Malabar Hill. Those who are killed by drunken careless sons of
politicians and actors and industrialists driving their Pajeros and Land Cruisers
and BMWs while going to discotheques post-nine, can't even murmur 'justice'
and the witnesses are turned hostile and judgement always delayed crossing
extreme unfair time limits.
Who speaks for them in the pyramid of power?
Look at any IIFA or similar awards, they may
have various categories of fun-filled decorations, but have you ever heard
an award for social awakening or the patriotism category? They will laugh
if anyone suggests the idea, because the love for the personal gains has not
been allowed to incorporate love for the nation too by the Left-secular hypocrisy
of progressivism. Entertainment means Bipasha's bidi jalailo and Amit ji's
dances and patriotism remains in isolation in the courtyards of a Manoj Kumar
or Sunny Deol.
If the pyramid philosophy of respecting the
basic constituents by the top-position holder ants is not followed, anarchy
and rebellion won't be far off. Small things matter most. Although a thin
line demarcates national boundaries, the resultant difference is far greater
in its impact, triggering sometimes wars that kill millions on both sides.
Violating a thin line, tearing a simple piece of cloth recognised as a national
flag, a single weird comment on any person's modesty can make a difference
of life and death.
But those who reach at the top of a pyramid
in their region- whether it's a company, filmdom, politics or academics, seldom
realise that they owe a lot to those who provided their shoulders and moral
approval to climb up and stay put. Like a thin line boundary, there may be
a little difference in overall qualities of a Lakshmi Mittal and his juniormost
supervisors. What makes Mittal reach at the top is his ability of leadership
that comes with how much he cares for the last man at the bottom of the pyramid
he is donning.
Priyas, Sibals and Dasmunshis don't understand
or appreciate the overriding burden that comes along with the position they
enjoy at the top of their respective pyramids. They play with it, abuse it,
and mould it as if the top end is hanging in the air, not needing any foundational
support once they are up there. They are like ants, small in fact but having
reached at the top thinking they have become elephants.
They fall soon.
First in the eyes and esteem of people, who
form the base that facilitates the emergence of a top cone-end followed, of
course, by a decisive fall in position and fame. Such people are more interested
to talk to terrorists, engage them in dinner diplomacy and ignore the victims
as they are neither a violent threat nor organised.
Thousands of billionaires were born here and
died. How many of those remain in the collective national memory? People remember
one modestly rich man Bhama Shah who dedicated all his wealth to Rana Pratap
when critical times befell on his motherland. In Rajasthan it's considered
better to be a Rana Pratap and die heroically battling in the rough ravines
of Haldighati, than to be a Raja Mansingh and live a spineless life full of
compromises for the sake of enjoying extreme luxuries of forts and palaces
and immense wealth. That's the Indian spirit of valour and meaningful living.
Gandhi, in spite of many of his failed experiments,
lived a perfect life of a Hindu Vaishnavite and fulfilled the requirements
of being at the top of a socio-political pyramid of people's power. He cared
for the last soul at the bottom of his pyramid, merging himself with the identity
of the smallest and the weakest and rose to the dizzy heights this mankind
has seen so rarely becoming an immortal symbol of patience and leadership.
Today the arrogant ants in politics and media
violating this code of 'being at the top of your pyramid', are becoming more
and more irrelevant for the masses and country's future. There is hardly an
exciting innovation, an out of the box presentation of a grand vision or a
path breaking initiative I any such field Whatever good is happening is in
the fields where there is minimal touch of governance or the state power and
politics.
On the other hand, companies and organisations
following the pyramid rules provide all the necessary space for the welfare
of their last constituent the bottom layer. The gyms, yoga rooms, dance floors,
subsidised canteens, video games parlours -all these are parts of a new futuristic
endeavour in California or Gurgaon, just for the sake of enhancing quality
and the number of productive hours.
But those who defy this, become special invitees
to the kingdom of self-destruction.
The only way out is to strive for a proactive
positive self. The change should begin with our own heart and then the required
strength to change others would emerge naturally.
The author is the editor of Panchjanya, a Hindi weekly brought out by the
RSS. The views expressed are his personal.
