India ,a nation gone astray

India, a nation gone astray   

A nation adrift is liable to be  caught unawares in the undertow , the drag that sucks it in , robs it of its vital life force, and impairs its sense of destiny. Are we alive to such counter-currents criss-crossing our body politic ? In  public and in private , online and offline, we appear to behave irrationally, to spew needless vitriol, to react in a herd-like, brainwashed manner to any stimuli relating to minorities , in short, to revel in simply being unpleasant. We look a society on tenterhooks. The symptoms of this sinister derangement are everywhere ,starkly visible ; it’s high time that we ‘sight’ it. 

We inherited a rich tradition of eclecticism, an inbred ethos of cultural plurality manifest in the motto,  ‘ sarva dharma sama bhava ‘, a historic legacy  of federal republicanism in the  gana sanghas of Lichchavi clan under Vajji mahajanapada of Vaishali, and spiritual leadership of the world established by Swami Vivekananda through his memorable Chicago address. All of it is being frittered away, if not debunked. The evidence is overwhelming. 

Durga Puja processions attacked, temples ransacked in Bangladesh become occasions for reprisal on hapless muslims in India. A loss to Pakistan in a cricket match becomes a sledging match between political parties on TV channels and the deep-seated Hindu-Muslim antipathies explode. A nation that swears by Gandhi mocks him ,belittles him in myriad subtle , not so subtle, ways. On the birth anniversary of this universal apostle of peace and ‘sadbhava’, with the nation immersed in piety and swooning to chants of, ‘वैष्णव जन तो तेने कहिये, जे पीड परायी जाणे रे ।…’ Jagatguru Paramahans of Ayodhya serves an ultimatum to declare a Hindu Rashtra and to strip Muslims and Christians of their citizenship to save the constitution. Yes, you read it right, to save the secular constitution. Else, he would take a jal samadhi in Saryu river. Thankfully, the last I heard, neither happened. The learned, intelligentsia maintained a stoic deafening silence , while, true to form, a section of the social media erupted in malicious glee. No censure , No rebuke, Anywhere ! 

The RSS supremo, Mohan Bhagwat, in his latest Vijayadashmi address asserted, without  reference to verifiable facts, there is an unnatural growth in Muslim and Christian population. Immediately Hindutva shadow armies or stormtroopers, whichever term you like, are out on the streets protesting, at places vandalising ,torching churches. Karnataka CM rolls out a scheme to survey all churches in the state. Swami Parmanand at an anti-conversion rally in Surguja, Chattisgarh, directs his flunkies to talk to christian converts politely, then ‘ first Roko, phir Toko, phir Thoko’ . Suddenly, UP govt unearths  a big conspiracy by muslim clerics to convert Hindus. Pramod Muthalik of Sri Ram Sena, a suspect in the murder of rationalists, proclaims , ‘we will now demolish Jama Masjid to build a temple there.’ And he makes a request to the government to honour those who kill cow smugglers. All of this presumably for BJP to have a leg up on competition in the impending state elections. In the process minorities are given short shrift, rather they serve as cannon fodder for loony Hindutva fringes. 

Mistake not these for sporadic incidents. There is a pattern to this madness, this minority phobia, with the tacit consent of a wide swathe of Hindu populace in NEW INDIA. Are we harking back to the gloom of Mahabharata epoch that abounded in avarice, pomposity and  arrogance of power : An age with the stink of bloated egos ; promiscuity ; scheming, conspiring, vengeful, fratricidal polity : An age glorifying and sanctifying rank chicanery, subterfuge, fraud, expediency, and more  as dharma : An age of indescribable death and destruction : An age where there were no victors only victims, including the Lord himself : Above all, an age in gloaming ,not sunshine, one that self destructed. 

Hosabole declaims, RSS is neither Left ,nor Right ,implying it positions Integral Humanism at the centre. Sounds more like —not white ,not black, only grey. If I have decoded Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay correctly, Integral Humanism identifies the state with Dharma Rajya — that dharma which has its philosophical bases only in Hindu scriptures —and that entitles him to declare, “ Dharma Rajya does not mean a theocratic state”. This sophistry of not Hindu Rajya, only Dharma Rajya is the grey Hosabole’s semantics of neither Left nor Right conceals. The Hindu faith is not canonical ,therefore, dharma is amenable to multiple interpretations, the different shades of grey, for the same situation. One shade of grey interprets Holi and Deepawali, for instance, as national festivals hence dharmic for citizens of all faiths  to celebrate, implying minorities must follow suit. This isn’t the place to expatiate further on the subject. I will only add that between Golwalkar’s formulation of requiring minorities to adopt the cultural symbolism of Hindus, and Deen Dayal’s vision of Dharma Rajya the difference is as ‘wide’ as between Tweedledum and Tweedledee. 

The launch of a new biography on Savarkar a fortnight ago presented an opportunity to have greater clarity on the subject. TV channels, however, got bogged down in flogging a dead horse-- whether Savarkar was a craven petitioner to the Raj for clemency, or a ‘veer’ ,  a ‘viru’, or a learned scholar and historian - a futile and sterile issue. Savarkar’s ideation stretched across a wide spectrum of socio political issues, more particularly, Hindu Nationalism, Hindudom and Hindutva, ideas that inspired RSS founders, Dr Hedgewar, Golwalkar as also revolutionaries like Dhingra and assassins like Godse. Sadly, his ideas were not even tangentially touched upon. 

Much of his ideological stances draws sustenance from a dim, distant past with non-existent contemporaneous historical records. That afforded him ample leeway to fill the gaps with a preconceived script. A presumed sense of our civilizational greatness and the imperative of inculcating Hindu nationalism and pride, he deemed sufficient  raison d^ etre to propagate an erroneous faith in an imagined Golden Vedic Age and to posit that from times immemorial India in its length and breadth had a unitary Hindu religion and culture. Through endless reiteration in vernacular literature, sakhas and schools of RSS these notions have now acquired a compelling  emotive appeal. ‘Othering’ of minorities is a natural corollary of this unnatural ideation. ‘Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava’ is now reduced to a text without the sentiment to go with it. 

Lost too in the haystacks of sour, venomous, hate-filled  politics of today is the exhilarating fragrance of patriotism of the Gadr revolutionary , Kartar Singh. His was not an exclusionary ‘Hindu’ , but an inclusive ‘Hindi’ chant on way to the gallows . 

Yahi paoge mahsher mein 

Zabaan meri,bayaan mera

Mai bandaa Hind waalon ka hoon

Hai Hindostan meraa

Mai Hindi ,theth Hindi 

Khoon Hindi, jaat Hindi

Hai yehi mazhab, Yehi farqa

Yehi hai khandaan mera 

At this juncture the nation needs not the divisive battle cry of Hindu Rashtra masquerading as Integral Humanism, Hindutva , or ‘Bhartiyata’, but ceaseless reverberations of this inspiring song of incandescent love for the ‘Hindi’ watan.

Cribbing Tax , Just Relax - Petrol price hikes

Social media is enlightenment, gratis. The other day, I came across a you-tube video showing a young, swashbuckling fellow at the steering wheel of a swanky car, upholstery gleaming with abundant elegance and luxury, truly a neighbour’s envy, owner's pride. He was animatedly speaking into an invisible mic to an invisible person ; or was it a soliloquy feeding an invisible Bluetooth gadget relaying Socratic wisdom to the world at large, I couldn’t exactly make out.  Gazing ,awestruck, through the windscreen at the captivating vista of a newly built multi-lane Delhi-Meerat Highway unfolding before him, he gloated with infectious exuberance, 

‘ look how speedily my car is gliding along ! India now has world class marvellous Highways. Smooth, decongested, no bumps , bumper time savers ! Tires won’t wear out ,  maintenance costs will be lower, and the car will last longer. If all these benefits come from higher fuel prices why should anyone mind paying for it ? And the poor don’t travel in cars ,so they aren’t affected by petrol prices. Why then all the brouhaha over rising fuel prices ? Besides, the fuel taxes I pay finances government . That’s patriotic, isn’t it ?  I find nothing to crib about.”

Scene II - A person, looking young, is being interviewed on one of the scores of non-descript ‘exclusive’ news channels that abound on social media. He opines, cooking gas price touching the 1000 ₹ mark  is no worry, ‘just cut some personal expenses and a bit of expendable( ‘phaltu’) expenses , that’s all. It’s of no consequence.’ 

Economic liberalisation and the concomitant phenomenal growth in the service sector have spawned a new generation of highly talented, aspirational, outgoing, upwardly mobile yet a wee bit restless job hoppers ,many among them DICs(double income couples) , and all of them invariably with surplus money to splurge around.  This neo-rich class is hedonistically consumerist, wanting the very best the world has to offer ; the  high living not insignificantly fuelled by easy availability of credit. They are distinct from the archetypal laid back rich found in the annals of Indian history - the nawabs, bhadraloks. They are hard working achievers , not inheritors of wealth. Unfortunately, it is a generation that is not empathetic towards the lower classes that mothered the parents of  many of them. It is too self centred and pathetically indifferent to the impact of state actions on the meek, the lesser endowed. And that is what brings forth responses like these from some of them. 

What about politicians, the men who supposedly have their antennas tuned to the masses ? We have a state minister advising those who find petrol unaffordable to ride three to a bike instead of grumbling. And a central one advises that for free vaccines one must pay for it through higher taxes on oil and gas. So, after all the vaccines did not come free. Under the sole of Bharat Mata, in Sri Lanka, citizen get free vaccines without having to pay additional taxes on petrol. But then they are the scriptural demons, and we the ordained devas.  

The FM, that embodiment of arrogance and nonchalance, has an understandably more erudite  and ,characteristically, more ludicrous response  - oil bonds issued by the UPA regime are the villain. Having to shell out ₹9990 cr annually on that score is a severely debilitating budgetary constraint. In FY21 the incremental accrual from Central excise on fuel alone was 88% ; for the calendar year 2021 thus far ₹3.35 lac crs have already flowed into Centre’s coffers. Indeed, servicing ₹9990 crs out of it is stressful ,to put it mildly. More is spent directly, indirectly on the personal publicity of PM alone. 

 Fuel price hikes have a cascading effect on prices all around, not the least on daily consumables. A financially weak person may not own a car but he uses public transport and that is not insulated from fuel  price hikes. Even buses on brand new ‘miraging’ highways hike their fares in tandem with fuel price rises. The transporter benefits and the passenger loses out. To the young man glistening highways represent savings and conveniences  to be paid for with higher fuel prices and in the bargain to sate patriotic urges. But to the poor the equivalent of 60% tax on pump prices is crippling. For instance, not a little of the leap  in cooking oil prices from ₹100 to ₹200 per litre is attributable to fuel price hike. An  indirect tax is inherently regressive. A well to do person easily absorbs it as it forms a smaller proportion of his large income. For the poor it entails a disproportionately higher outlay. 

Lest I sound like a sermonising armchair crusader let me narrate a real life, ‘witnessed’ incident. My part time maid works in three households  (all within my locality ) earning ₹5000 a month.  Before the Corona pandemic,  a shared one-way auto ride from her home to my house costed  ₹3, that amounted to a monthly transport bill of little less than 4% of her monthly wage. Now that the fare is ₹10 the bill has shot up to 12% of wage. That is how regressive an indirect tax can be. We had to partly compensate her by hiking her wage by ₹100. All the savings, except for time, that the young man waxed eloquent about go to him, while the hole in the pocket of the bus rider only gets bigger. And about time, the poor have all the time in the world, more so when quite a number of them are jobless. 

I don’t want to belittle any viewpoint, only to bare, firstly, the ‘mirchi’ in the sauce served ,with not a little insouciance, in media, on public platforms, rationalising the unabated fuel and cooking gas price hikes ( ECI can help by preponing the announcement of election dates;  elections, somehow, have a sobering impact on fuel prices). Secondly, to plead for a greater exhibition of public sensitivity towards the 90 cr economically weaker ‘Deshwasis’ whose standards of living must surely be deteriorating due to the snowballing effect of fuel price hikes on articles of their daily consumption.  

Global Hunger Index :

2020 : India ranked 94

2021 : India ranks 101

Behind Bangladesh , Pakistan & Nepal

Arrogance, Pride,Vanity- its naked exhibition

Within bounds, pride and vanity are potent motivational forces, enhancing self esteem, self-belief and confidence. Drawing the boundary line is the real complexity. 

 In domestic life, happier is the male who sheds his vanities once the lady with the vanity case steps into his den. (In rare cases some have the boldness to shed the lady instead ). She has the uncanny knack of seeing right through him and to counter his vanities with her own. Putting vanities in her vanity case is the key to a lifelong marital accord . ‘Vanity well fed is benevolent, vanity hungry is spiteful.’ 

 It is in the public domain that one finds exhibition of vanities especially galling. The other day while driving down Patna's central thoroughfare , Bailey Road, I noticed posse of cops, looking formidable and intimidating, posted all along this stretch of the road. No surprise, VVIP movement for sure! The traffic being hurried along moved smoothly, the laggards egged on by cops’ menacing glares, stentorian growls. Nor was I taken aback when I found myself at an inopportune moment at the very front when cops decided to pull everyone off the road. Quite naturally, I was rudely diverted to a side lane. My business lay just a few metres ahead, so I decided to cool my heels instead of taking a detour . I sat twiddling my thumbs, tweedledum tweedledee… occasionally staring back at what now was a deserted lane. A few pedestrians, some with bicycles, stood frozen on the footpath, looking resigned and bemused, sweat dripping from their brow under the hot, humid cloudless sky. Time ticked by slowly , wait stretching the minutes . I locked my car and joined the frozen bystanders staring intently up the empty lane. On the reverse lane the jam-packed traffic crawled. Out of nowhere the pilot car zoomed past with cops on the back seats wildly flailing their arms, pointing to curious onlookers to disappear. After an interval followed the cavalcade buzzing past at precise intervals, one, two, three.. .twenty six ,cars of all makes. PHEW. Suddenly the cops melted, horns of cars stuck on the reverse lane blared in unison. It took a while for the harried traffic police to restore order, rather, for the traffic to sort itself out. 

 Sorry, I have taken a lot of space to conflate something that routinely happens everywhere, everyday - the inconveniences VVIP movements cause. Not too long ago the dismantling of beacon lights atop VIP cars was trumpeted as a landmark event- abandonment of VIP culture. True to intent , this convoy had no beacon lights. But do VVIPs need to be nested in a convoy of 26 plus pilot cars on empty roads to convey them safely to places of their engagement ? If so, it is a damning testimony of a debased security environment. More likely, it is a continuing exhibition of appurtenances of power- VIP culture sans beacon lights. That’s why I earlier sermonized ‘shameless lies that are true’. 

Vanity was on naked display, for Bihar remains at the bottom of all parameters of vikas, and nurture of social capital, little to be proud of. 

 The political class at the centre is no exception. A brand new commodious aircraft with exquisite décor and latest sophisticated gadgetry for the exclusive use of PM, re-commissioning of the special Presidential train ( decommissioned in 2008 ) have little to do with security threats but all with vanities of power. Does the nation have the socio-economic, military might to legitimize such display of hubris ? 

 First, take military might. Our armed forces have yet to acquire the fire power that deters neighbours from border misadventures. More soldiers than at any other time since 1962 got martyred in 2020 in the longest incursions at the Indo-China border , in parts still continuing. We may console ourselves stating that borders are undefined ; but the lines behind which Chinese forces withdrew in 1962 were largely respected till the April 2020 incursion. The longest incursion till then had occurred in the Doklam sector in 2013 when the Chinese retreated to post ante positions after seventy odd days. The 2020 incursion continues even after a year in some sectors. Would then the ostentations and publicity blitzerkreig accompanying the arrival of a few Rafale planes change world's perception of India’s firepower much ? In the past ,we were good to counter Pak and still are. Beyond that there isn’t much to boast about. 

 And we are a poor nation, like it or not. India has the largest number of destitute people in the world ; the largest number of unemployed and still counting, leaving the PM with no alternatives other than to exhort them to take up pakoda selling ; the gap between the rich and the poor keeps ever widening. Indisputably, we rank lowly on the global economic ladder with GDP per capita (in constant 2010 US dollars) at just $1961 in 2020 , lower than even Sri Lanka, and many times lower than the lowest among BRICS- SA $6748. The average for lower middle income and middle income countries is $2283 and $5075 respectively. As per IMF, in nominal GDP per capita (current dollars) India ranks 144 among 194 economies in 2020-21. Even among the Asian countries it ranks a lowly 33rd. Between 2014 and 2020, GDP per capita in 2010 dollars grew at a measly , at a rate as Hindu as in the 60’s. 

While we have sufficient reasons to showcase our soft capital, the world is surely not bamboozled by our economic muscle. Our leaders globetrotting in exclusive luxury or inviting world leaders to the architectural marvel of a grandiose new parliament set in elegantly planned surroundings can only come across as affectation, unworthy exhibition of vanity. 

The larger economies pamper us because we have the head counts they need for their goods, creating a maya of economic muscle that lacks tendons. Didn't I say Lucifer was on the prowl trading souls for vanities ? 

 Yogis, Babas, Sadhavis…on the path of other worldliness and a destiny in pursuit of knowledge requiring abjuration of vanity and ego as a prerequisite now seek and relish political power. Instead of losing ‘aham’ ,cultivate it. Many holy men acquire Y,Z security. Have they lost faith in Rama as their protector? I put my coin on pandering to vanities rather than any threat perception. Public representatives have some security detailed to them (in Bengal all BJP MLAs enjoy central security), its size a status symbol. In a country with 80% of its population in the 'poor' income bracket such display of vanity is truly baffling. 

 The politicians assure us of the sanctity of right to protest but when it comes to the crux political leaders would rather have their meeting grounds and travel routes sterilized from black flag waving or other form of protesters. Did one hear of the bizarre incidence of entry to the meeting ground of PM being barred to anyone wearing anything black even black shoes or black dupatta ? The supreme representative of 125 cr Indians does not speak to protesting farmers to find common grounds for resolution, as 'my way or the highway' is his abiding mantra. Arrogance of power and personal vanities are patently manifest in our current avatar of political life. Maya casting its spell within the world of maya ! 

 We must be proud as Indians for a different reason. A rich heritage of cultural tapestry woven from diverse faiths, ethnicity and social mores , burnished by a philosophical bent of mind , and an adaptive, accommodative national character is our distinctive impress on the global map- a good cause for national pride. Every Indian’s chest should swell at that not just that of PM. Though poor, the nation need not carry poverty on its sleeves, but it requires of us to comport with due humility, not arrogance, pride and vanity. 

 We have miles to go before the dark woods of poverty are cleared, enabling us to stride across the globe with legitimate pride. 

 It has been a long piece of applesauce. I will end with a quote from a philosopher I much admire - Arthur Schopenhauer “Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.”

Enriching Rich to Enrich Poor :

 Narada muni, the wily, peripatetic wayfarer of the fourteen lokas, once on a visit to Vaikuntha found the Lord in deep confabulations with Kuber, Daridranarayana and Swami Vivekananda. 

 The Lord asked pleasantly, “ nice to see you. But what brings you here ?’

 ‘Narayana, swayambhu, I only came to pay my respects to you’ 

‘Narada, you have an uncanny sense of being at the right place at the right time. I need your counsel to settle a claim on that hen there. It lays golden eggs. Kuber claims it as the custodian of treasure. Swami ji wants it to be given to Daridranarayana.’ 

 Swami ji pleaded, ‘Daridranarayana needs it more for it assures him of a regular income. He has little to survive on’. 

‘That is precisely why the hen can’t be entrusted to him. He will eat it up and all of us will eventually end up poorer’ ,Kuber countered. 

 ‘There you have it, Narada . What should I do ?’ 

 Narada thought for a while then said, ‘Narayana, the answer lies on the Prithvi loka, particularly, in Jambudvipa.’

 ‘ Then do go and find out’. 

 Narada transported himself to the historic triumphal arch-monument commemorating the landing of King George V and Queen Mary at Mumbai in 1911. As he stood before the central dome resting on four turrets, he noticed a freshly scrawled line above the original inscription- ‘Gateway to New India’. 

 Oomph…he intoned. 

 He toured the length and breadth of Jambudvipa and other Deshas. Enlightened, he thus reported to the Lord.

 The Kubers of Jambudvipa are accumulating wealth at astronomical rates compared to the poor. For instance, 73% of the wealth generated in 2017 went to the richest 1%. The greatest irony is that Jambudvipa has the largest number of billionaires and largest number of Daridranarayanas on Prithvi loka. With 17.5 % of the prithvi’s population it has a disproportionately higher, 20.17% of its people, Daridras; that is, 139 million manavas not able to scrounge two meals a day. 

 Like in the case of wealth, the summit of the corporate hill is getting steeper and the base broader. Aggregate corporate profits for Q1FY22 of the 7500 listed companies shows the top 100 accounting for 90%, many of those owned by a few families. This trend has only accentuated over the years. 

 Further, every catastrophe only makes the rich richer and Daridras poorer. During the 2020 pandemic, billionaires increased their wealth by 35% while an estimated 122 million lost their jobs. On the entire Prithvi loka, of the number of people who slid into poverty due to the pandemic, 60%, that is 75million, were from Jambudvipa. 

 The king of Jambudvipa, along with many other kings on prithvi loka believe that enabling the rich will elevate productivity and investment and bloat the economic pie so that all get bigger slices of it. The operative mantra is- Rising tide lifts all boats. So handing over airlines, railways , banks , airports ,defence production etc, etc, etc to the rich is the most efficient economic management. The government, it is presumed, has no business to be in business. 

While the economic pie has indeed become bigger, little has trickled down to the masses at bottom of the economic pool. Rather, pro rich policies have resulted in an upward, not downward, distribution of incomes. The living standards of the lower class, a strong, 90 crs, is stagnating. 

 This is evident if we juxtapose the two contrasting economic periods - the 9 years from 2005-06 to 2013-14, when welfarism was on the ascent with MGNREGA , Right to Education, Right to food, gas and oil subsidies, more rights and entitlements ,which many derisively dubbed as povertarian, with the seven years of push towards free market capitalism from 2014-15 to 2020-21. Per capita GDP, at constant 2011-12 prices, grew at an average 5.02 % p.a. in the former against 3.62% p.a. in the latter. Enriching the rich has enriched the Daridras less, rich more.

 In the Nordic region, I found Swedish bus drivers are paid 50 times more than Jambudvipa drivers, whereas the latter are far more skilful, having to plough through a bewildering array of humans, animals, mechanical and manual contraptions of all varieties in various paces of motion. Yet the per capita income of Sweden is twenty times that of Jambudvipa. Obviously, the rich in Jambudvipa are far less productive than the rich in rich Sweden to account for this income disparity. Therefore, the rich are not the solution of Jambudvipa’s economic ills, the rich are the problem. 

 Narada concluded- Manavas on Jambudvipa have become a ‘coconut society’ ; an overwhelming mass of soft, fibrous, protective shield nurturing a pulpy, white core growing on the inside of a small round carapace, and fed and sweetened by a watery fluid within, like an embryo nourished in the womb. As the coconut ripens, its outer mass creases, shrivels, desiccates, sucked dry to fatten the white pulp. While the pulp thus accrues value in maturity, the outer mass is reduced to husk, good only for low value coco peat, twine or footmats. Likewise, all value in manava samaj is embedded in a little core from which little leaches out to benefit the soft husk. 

 That is why daridranarayanas need your benevolence !