Mr Ram Jethmalani is
disillusioned with Mr Narendra Modi. “I
thought God had sent him as his ‘Aulia’ [representative] for India’s
salvation... How I became the victim of fraud,” said
the eminent lawyer who was in Bihar asking the people there to defeat the BJP
in the imminent elections. And he is a BJP MP in the Rajya Sabha!
“Nothing is more sad than
the death of an illusion,” said Arthur Koestler whose faith in communism met
with a tragic end because of Stalin, a leader who had made tall promises to his
country. Mr Jethmalani may not possess
the insightfulness of Koestler to understand that “As long as chaos dominates
the world, God is an anachronism; and every compromise with one’s own
conscience is perfidy. When the accursed inner voice speaks to you, hold your
hands over your ears…” [Darkness at
Noon, Koestler’s illustrious novel].
Hence a few blustering dialogues in Bihar will ease the pain in his heart
which will soon be ready for compromises.
Our politicians have mastered the art of not hearing what is
inconvenient even without holding their hands over their ears.
But Justice Katju is not a
politician. So when he says
that he eats beef and doesn’t consider the cow as his mother, it should ideally
produce disillusionment among some people at least. Instead it produced a lot of heat and dust in
the social media. The pain of
disillusionment could have paved the way to truth. But heat and dust can only produce
pollution.
ABVP, the student wing of
BJP, clashed with SFI, the student wing of CPI(M) in a college in Kerala on
account of the cow. Beef used to be
the most common non-veg item in the menu of Kerala’s restaurants until the Modi
govt started rewriting the country’s history.
Who is waiting for disillusionment in Kerala: ABVP who is dreaming up a
new history for the country or the general public in Kerala whose diet is being
reworked with the zeal displayed by Aurangzeb in reworking certain religious
places?
Who is right? Who is wrong? Whose prerogative is disillusionment?
Let me end this apparently
haphazard post with yet another quote.
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.” [Rumi]
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.” [Rumi]
Sadly many Indians are still suffering from illusion.
ReplyDeleteHope they will become disillusioned soon.
Illusion provides its own comforts. That's why people don't want to lose their illusions.
DeleteUh - yet another mindblowing article.Your blog is a pleasure,Sir.Well,firstly,I have been waiting for long to have a chance to taste beef and of course I do not consider the cow to be my mother.And yes,I was born in a so called Hindu family,whereas I (existentially) am an agnostic atheist.Also,Stalin frustrates me and many of us no end.I have no nervousness in declaring that my interest in social sciences began to grow through an early interest in history,basically civilizations and then from socialist/ardent communist perspectives that have now changed course towards an inclination in anarchy.And the murder of Trotsky,the captivation of Kapitsa,murders angers any humanist no end.
ReplyDeleteCPI(M) has a strange history.They evolved through a good motive because they evolved through social movements and that was democratic.There was an intense course of torture they had to face from the INC at that time,at least in West Bengal.At the end,the then CM,B Bhattacharya had got so explosively capitalist,that they faced their fate.The current party in power is beyond all our nightmares.And look at them,they are all illusion-ed.
The Modi hoax is another new story.I wonder how people even accept a murderer like him to be a "leader".Also,should we really go back to wearing sarees all the time and wearing that hood and covering our faces and cooking and not getting educated and worshipping 33 crores of deities,meaningless deities of course.What's going on?On one side,the youth indulge in watching stuff they aren't supposed to and on the pretentious side,they worship cows and considers the otherwise a sin!!What's left to say?
And about Rumi's lines,they are very comforting.Brilliant article,again.
I wonder whether I'm finding another person who shares my anarchist inclinations. :)
DeleteI don't call myself an anarchist. Others gave me that title recently and played a whole lot of games... People love games, let it be.
Every revolution worth the name ended in dictatorship. Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin... all came riding the waves of a revolution. I don't trust revolutions. That's why Rumi has to come to my aid :) :(