According to Chetan
Bhagat, a liberal in India today is a person who was born in an upper class
family, received English education, absorbed the world culture, carried hotdogs
to school in their tiffin box, visited Disneyland, and ridiculed those who
spoke English in India with a vernacular accent. The popular writer said this and much more in
his Times
of India article yesterday. He goes on to reduce the current communal
disturbances and acts of intolerance to a mere class struggle between the
privileged and the underprivileged, the latter being the present-day nationalists
whom the former refer to derogatorily as the right-wing, or sanghis, or bhakts,
or chaddiwallahs.
“There is a reason why
liberals are derogatorily referred to as pseudo-secular, pseudo-intellectual
and pseudo-liberal,” claims Bhagat. “For their agenda is not to be liberal.
Their agenda is to look down on the classes that don’t have the global culture
advantage.” He goes on to say that “If,
for instance, Modi and Amit Shah had gone to Doon School, or studied in college
abroad, or at least spoke English with a refined world accent, the liberals
would have been kinder to them.”
Modi and Shah, apparently Bhagat’s
greatest contemporary national heroes, enjoy much power now. They can implement their vision and convert
India into a country where all the underprivileged victims of liberal
derogation can be emancipated. A year
and a half in power, they should have been able to show something at least in
this direction. Yet what is their
contribution so far? Communal
strife. Feelings of insecurity among
certain sections of citizens. Vandalism
of places of worship, which mercifully stopped after a few initial experiments.
Appointing Hindutva supporters to important offices. Rewriting the country’s history in whatever
ways they could do so far. And little in
the way of the much vaunted “development.”
And now, the Prime Minister
tries to justify everything by comparing his government with the Congress
regime. While campaigning in Bihar a
couple of days back, the PM said that the Congress had no right to speak about
tolerance because of the anti-Sikh riots that they led in 1984. What kind of logic is this? The people of India elected the BJP because
it promised to be “the Party with a Difference.” Now, the PM is saying that they are no
different from the Congress. This is not what the people wanted. They wanted
DIFFERENCE.
Even Arun Shourie, former BJP
minister, says that BJP now is equal to the Congress
plus the Cow. Yesterday, Mr Shourie counselled
the Prime Minister to stop being “a section
officer” and be the “leader” of the whole country. A few days back Mr Ram Jethmalani, also a BJP
leader, charged
Modi with cheating the people of India.
Now, Mr Chetan Bhagat, do
Mr Shourie and Mr Jethmalani belong to your hotdog-chewing liberals?
The worst thing that has
happened in India today is the polarisation of the country’s people into
Modi-supporters and Modi-baiters when Mr Modi himself has nothing to offer
apparently except high rhetoric and vaporous promises. It is not a liberal versus right-wing fight
at all, as Mr Bhagat would like us to believe.
It is not a class war. It is a
communal war which enjoys the tacit support of the ruling party. If this war is not contained, it will
escalate into a civil war. Nice-sounding
sermons on the privileged classes sneering at the underprivileged won’t save
the country then.
The least that the BJP can
do is to put the country on the path it promised to people: economic
development. Bring development, provide
jobs to the unemployed, deal with farmer suicides, bring inflation under control... There’s a whole lot of promises to be
kept. Deliver them, please. And stop cocking a snook at people who are
asking for what was promised to them and what is actually required.
Thank you for the post, a good analysis. Politics rival are nowadays very bitter and politicians say anything to their counterpart. They think everything is fair in love and war. An eye opener post.
ReplyDeleteThey behave like this because they refuse to address the real issues. They are trying to outwit each other. Trying to show who can shout louder!
DeleteA neatly elucidated analysis on the musings of a literary hack. It is the job of every pseudo-intellectuals to quell the voices against ruling forces by simple dividing everyone into pro and anti forces. Chetan Bhaghat might have a gift to enamor young urban middle-class fiction readers, but his political stances are more laughable than his fiction. He uses words like 'Anatomy' in his article headings, but what he does is to make bland generalizations on serious issues.
ReplyDeleteHe is running out of imagination. His fictional themes and narratives have started copying each other. So, maybe, he is discovering his place in politics.
DeleteWell said. An atmosphere is being created that either you are with us or with Pak. There is no change in economic policies, inflation continues & rhetoric also continues. Bhagat is also in the same mould - bereft of substance.
ReplyDeletePrecisely.
DeleteMr Modi can make a lot of meaningful difference if he wants. But he is relishing his own rhetoric!