Benjamin is an old donkey in George Orwell’s classic
fable, Animal Farm. Life has made him a cynic. He doesn’t believe
anything good will happen to the ordinary folk because he has learnt through
experience that “life will go on as it always has gone on – that is, badly.” He
has seen many changes of leadership on the farm. He has seen revolutions. He
has seen enough, in other words, to know that the changes mean nothing for the
ordinary creatures. The benefits all go to some select few whatever changes
happen, in spite of all great promises, in spite of all nice-sounding slogans.
The conflagration that broke out on
the Brahmapuram dump-yard in Kochi has been in news for the last ten days in
Kerala. Those who have watched the evening ‘news hour debates’ on TV channels
will remember Orwell’s Benjamin again and again. Politicians belonging to the
ruling party come and go supporting the government’s inaction and
irresponsibility by shifting the blame for the fire and the accumulated waste
to somebody else. Keep shifting the blame. That’s all what ruling parties seem
to do nowadays. Even Jawaharlal Nehru who died more than half a century ago
keeps being blamed in this country day after day. Nobody of Kerala’s ruling
left party has put the blame for Brahmapuram catastrophe on Nehru yet. They all
put it on the previous government – at the Corporation level or even state
level – and that was Nehru’s party, you see.
The BJP has been ruling the country
at the centre for nine years now. The CPI(M) has been ruling Kerala for seven
years. They cannot keep passing blames anymore. They have had enough and more
time to set the wrongs right. But Benjamin is right, you see. Nothing changes
whoever comes to power. Only the persons who steal from the public coffers
change. Instead of the corrupt Congressmen in Kerala, the corrupt Marxists
stole for the last seven years. The colour of the party is slightly different
in the Centre. But the colour of corruption is quite the same. Maybe a little
deeper hue since IT, ED, CBI and many other agencies are also involved now for
a change in the Centre.
People of Kerala have started
reacting openly against the corruption of their political leaders. That is a
good sign. What we need are not more Benjamins. We need people who react, who
are not hardcore cynics, who can visualise better alternatives. It is very sad
that most intellectuals of Kerala are now silent like Benjamin. They all want
to be politically correct. Otherwise they stand to lose much. We live in a time
when the governments imprison the intellectuals without actually throwing them
in prisons.
So we have a lot of Benjamins now.
Cynics who don’t care to speak up. Or pretend that everything is going to be
good soon. We are on the way to Utopia.
Orwell’s Benjamin realised his mistake too late when his best friend, Boxer the horse, was taken to the slaughterhouse. Boxer was the most hardworking and sincere animal on the farm. Boxer is a representative of the common person who keeps slogging day in and day out and paying ever-rising taxes believing that the Leader is always right and that the farm will soon be Utopia.
Hari Om
ReplyDeleteHow parallel our governments are, albeit in different ways (yet not). We have had a situation here where a 'not donkey' spoke up. Not rudely, not blasphemously, but truthfully. The furore has been quite something as the bosses of that fellow broke sweats at the possibility the gov't might be offended. ... Say What???!!!! That one voice, though, enabled many others to bray who may not have otherwise. This is what we need more of... YAM xx
Yes, let there be more 'voices'. All over the world, governments seem to be turning dictators.
DeleteWe believe we don't have to say anything because it doesn't bother us. But it does. Everything affects everything. The sooner we realise it, the better.
ReplyDelete"Be one voice. It only takes one flame to start a fire."
I do hope someone starts that fire. When someone whom they called Pappu has now to be incarcerated, the situation is like in the Brahminic system - arbitrary justice. A fire has to start. Soon.
Delete