Author: Meghnad Desai
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: June 12, 2011
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/hyperbole-and-hypocrisy/802380/0
Truth, they say, is the first casualty of
war. In Indian politics, truth is never involved so we need not worry about
that. But in the last week, we have see an outbreak of hyperboles and hypocrisy
on a scale beyond normal practice.
First was the volte face by the government
about Ramdev. Ministers unctuously seeking his darshan at the airport and
tugging their forelocks suddenly went berserk late night Saturday/early morning
Sunday. Anyone who had watched Baba Ramdev would have sensed he knew he was
losing. There was no need to make a martyr of him. But then subtlety has never
been the strong point of UPA-II . So we had a really bad demonstration of
arbitrary police action not just on the main hero but the supporting cast
of hundreds who were asleep or fasting or both.
This was needless use of force. Then followed
the hyperbole-Emergency/Jallianwala Bagh etc. By exaggerating the event, the
Opposition lost a good chance of proceeding with the legal questioning of
who had authorised the action and on what grounds. Why were basic rights of
Free Speech and Assembly violated? Since when do you need government permission
to fast? Who defines that a yoga shivir is non-political, but a fast is not?
Talking of Jallianwala Bagh was infantile.
As was the later denunciation of Sushma Swaraj for 'dancing' at Rajghat. It
was Congress hypocrisy at its worst. She was after all only moving to a 1950s
song from Naya Daur and not doing a Munni badnaam item number. Sufis dance
as part of their religion and so did Meera. But as Aurangzeb banned music,
the Congress wishes to ban dancing (by non-Congress people) on any place which
it can claim as its private property as the memorial to the Father of the
Nation so obviously is.
More hyperbole and hypocrisy followed when
the Congress spokespeople found out that Baba Ramdev had been an RSS agent
more or less since birth and the minister who had headed for the airport denounced
him as a thug. No doubt a large dossier will be built up against Baba Ramdev.
He has committed the original sin of thwarting the attempts of the Government/Congress
to buy him in.
But as A Raja and Kanimozhi prove, the Congress
is unlucky in its friends, but with Baba Ramdev very blessed in its enemies.
He has promptly played up to the role of the villain by talking loosely about
armed troops, of 11,000. Is he serious? He should ask Mamata Banerjee to introduce
him to the Naxalites, who will tell him how many gullible locals you need
to harass the government.
The Congress has emerged remarkably well out
of what should have been a serious debacle. Time and again the Opposition
has rescued the Congress by falling for its provocation. The only danger is
that Shri Digvijay Singh is about to establish the RSS as a seriously dangerous
outfit when all it is just a bunch of men in half pants dwelling on the dreams
of reviving the Maratha Empire of the 1750s. To see the RSS as a pervasive
threat invites the comment: If it is so, why has the UPA not done anything
about the threat in the seven years it has been in power? Are we to wait,
as in the case of Tahawwur Rana and David Headley for the CIA to file a case
against RSS? Has India outsourced its fight against terrorism?
The Congress needs to keep the threat of communalism
alive to capture the Muslim vote as it has failed to alleviate their social
and economic conditions as the Sachar Report showed. So no bread, just circuses.
No roti kapda makaan for the Muslims, just plenty of RSS mongering.
In the meantime, one of the greatest Indians
of the 20th century died in exile. M F Husain, the greatest artist of independent
India, did not receive any protection against Bajrang Dal thugs from the secular
UPA-I and II. Obviously, just one Muslim vote has no value.
