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Hyperbole and Hypocrisy

Hyperbole and Hypocrisy

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.


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