Selling Dreams

Dostoevsky’s unforgettable character Ivan Karamazov says that there are just three things that people seek: “someone to worship, someone to keep his conscience, and some means of uniting all the people in one unanimous and harmonious ant-heap.”  The Right wing government of Mr Modi is an apparent success because the Prime Minister has apparently internalised Ivan’s theory and is on the way to materialising it.

Religion became a dominant force in the country after the BJP came to power in the centre.  Mr Modi has become a visible god for his followers so much so that the followers are called bhakts or devotees.  By reinventing the Hindu mythology to suit contemporary requirements, Mr Modi has given a new meaning to religious worship which a sizeable section of the country’s population has lapped up.

This new god and his mandate have together become the new conscience-keeper of the nation.  Consequently a lot of people suddenly became enemies of the nation.  All those who follow different religions, cultures, food habits, attire and so on suddenly became targets of physical attack.  The cow became holier than human beings in the newly manufactured national conscience.  Throughout history, violence has been portrayed as virtue merely by redefining certain values of the society.  The new set of values may be given a blanket name such as patriotism or nationalism.

In the dreamland promised by the BJP, India is to be a “unanimous and harmonious ant-heap,” a Hindu Rashtra.  Such dreamlands have always fascinated human imagination.  That Mr Modi has successfully sold the dream to a sizeable section of his country’s people is perhaps his greatest achievement. 

Most of his other promises have vanished into the background.  People really don’t count on Swachh Bharat or corruption-free governance or even the much vaunted development.  They think that certain communities of people are responsible for lack of cleanliness, corruption and lack of development.  Therefore the solution lies in eliminating such people. 

While the process of elimination is already successfully under way, Mr Modi’s government doesn’t want to lose the next general elections coming in a year’s time.  So the budget presented today has proposed some sops for the marginalised people.  Some of them are:

·        Ujjwala Yojana: 8 crore poor women to get free LPG.  The last budget had promised 5 crore and the government’s official site claims that more than 3 crore connections have been released.  It is easy to set new targets.

·        Saubhagya Yojana: 4 crore poor households will get power supply.  Let’s hope that the scheme is more than a dream foisted on the poor.

·        Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: 2 crore more toilets to be constructed.

·        There are many other such schemes for the homeless, the farmer, the unmarried women, scheduled castes and tribes, and so on most of which have a target year in 2022.  Enough time for people to forget them.

The easiest thing to do is to sell dreams to people.  God, conscience and a unanimous, harmonious ant-heap are the ideal launching pads for grand dreams.  India has established the launching pad successfully. 

The corporate sector happily funds the BJP government because it knows that their donations will come back to them with usurious interest in the form of loan waivers as well as new commercial ventures in the name of the proposed Yojanas. 

Who is likely to be unhappy with the new budget?  The salaried middle class whose income tax slabs have not been altered.  But that doesn’t matter.  It is the middle class that lap up grand dreams.  The new budget is a grand dream as well as a means to a grander dream.