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A Response to Chetan Bhagat



Lesson No. 1 from Karnataka: There’s no ethics in politics, stupid is the title of Chetan Bhagat’s article in today’s Times of India, a newspaper that has sold itself to Bhagat’s beloved political party. I am among those whom he has labelled as “stupid” but I refuse to accept the label. Here is the reason.

   Bhagat’s only argument in the verbose article is that in “desperate times” political parties can resort to unethical practices in order to win. Winning is more important than ethics. The end justifies the means, in other words, and that is a somersault from what the Father of the Nation had taught us. We have indeed come a long way, too long a way, from the Mahatma and his ideals.

   What is ironical is that the party which created the “desperate times” is indulging in practices which Bhagat (or Bhakt, as many people have begun to call him) has adjudged as unethical. Leaving aside ethics for a moment, plain logic will tell us that the party which has created the problem and is hell-bent on aggravating it for gaining more political mileage cannot or will not solve the problem. Hence the “desperate times” will only get murkier. Is that what Bhagat wants?

   We can safely answer yes to that question because Bhagat believes that the BJP is the panacea to the country’s present woes. The despair of certain sections of the citizens is part of that panacea. Bhagat has hired lessons from the Kurukshetra War to prove his point. “Even in our ancient texts like the Mahabharata, the war isn’t won ethically,” he argues and rightly so. “It was a virtuous war for the Pandavas, but there are enough tales in the epic to show how they employed unethical means to win it where needed.”

   This is where the problems lies. Bhagat is not only justifying duplicity but also upholding it as a divinely ordained strategy.

   The inevitability of pragmatism notwithstanding, to discard ethical principles in theory is tantamount to throwing away the baby with the bath water, which Bhagat fails to understand. In the pragmatic milieu of politics, as in a war, unethical practices do take place. But the moment you sanction them as right and add scriptural scaffoldings to them, you are dismantling the entire moral fabric of the nation. You are telling the nation that everything is right on the way to achieving your goals. Lynching is right. Assaults are right. Rapes are right.

   As long as Bhagat insists on seeing the nation as Pandavas and Kauravas who have begun their Kurukshetra War, there is no possibility of a sane solution to the crises faced by the nation. Moreover, why does Bhagat think that all those who support the BJP are Pandavas and the rest are Kauravas?

   Be that as it may, Bhagat is a serious threat to the nation’s moral fabric as long as he views people who uphold ethical principles as “stupid”.


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Comments

  1. voicesMay 27, 2018 at 9:50 AM

    Hope Bhagat understands that Mahabharat does not sanction such unethical ways but uses it as a tool to show us the consequences. What use is the war won when the progeny is no more?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 27, 2018 at 10:49 AM

      Absolutely and thanks for stating it here. The purpose of literature is not to justify the deeds but to probe them and "show" us the consequences. It's good you raised that point.

      Delete
  2. None to be knownMay 27, 2018 at 7:56 PM

    He himself is an example of the moral less people. All his books process the same. He has been giving the idea of no morality. He, like some people, always joins the group from where he can benefit. He is just like police who is always at the side of ruling party.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 27, 2018 at 8:05 PM

      Yes, he is an opportunist. I haven't succeeded in reading any of his books beyond a few pages because I found nothing in them that could stimulate my intellect or spirit or heart or anything. Yet one of his books found its way to Delhi University merely because he has become a foot soldier of the ruling party.

      Delete
  3. pushpendra dwivediMay 28, 2018 at 1:30 AM

    thoughtful interesting articles

    ReplyDelete
  4. CifarMay 30, 2018 at 12:10 PM

    it seems Bhagat's next book will be based on Mahabharta to justify flaws of its characters also

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownJune 1, 2018 at 1:26 AM

    You are right. He is trying to destroy the moral fibre of this country.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Raghav PokhriyalJune 1, 2018 at 11:33 AM


    wow,;loved it!! Do check out my blogs too.;-
    https://dauntlessforever.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete

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