Alternatives & Narratives

It is fascinating to see how today we consume information, primarily to bolster our prejudices. We actually seem to count our blessings and our biases based on not the story around, but the one we find closest to our point of view. It is literally plethora of pious sentiments playing on the landscape of what we think is the World. In that sense, perhaps, never in the history of human kind have we come so close to resembling the Vedic simile so fond to Adi Sankara- Jagan Mithya! (World is Fiction)
Today, Mr Modi is being shown as apathetic on the day of the Pulwama attacks by continuing to shoot for Discovery Channel. Some say Mr Bush continued reading to children when news of the WTC Towers collapse was relayed to him in a School Compound! Then Mr Rahul is shown as having danced with tribals in Gujarat, within the hour of the incident.
Now it is all very well for us to do such comparisons, however odious they may seem from a perspective distance, for none of us is without the taint of our personal view. No one can look at Mr Modi as a Prime Minister of a nuclear weapons state, who was apparently incommunicado or did not confer with his NSC, or Cabinet Committee on Security within hours of the incident, taking stock on the situation, or reaching out to the commanders on the ground as is expected from a Chief Executive. Because in India, we are not accustomed to this culture of Situation Room, it is said. Frankly, for a N State, 4th Largest Economy, a developing situation over a police convoy bombing is not a reason for its PM to stop what he is doing. After all, initial reports were a dozen casualties only.
Then people ask, in ‘Uri’ it was shown how the operation was commanded by the PM and NSA, and how the PM is portrayed as not partaking meals, subsisting on iced water as he wanted to hear the one news he awaited, a successful outcome of the cross border raids, when the last soldier out returned safe. Then it was informed that the PM did not take a meal after hearing of Pulwama. Then a DD News clip was put out saying he addressed a political rally later, via mobile as he was delayed and could not reach the place in person. This kind of back and forth, is actually the new way, India conducts political debate. It is shrill, vacuous and venomous, intended not to make a point, but a division, to put to test loyalty, integrity and more, essentially character of the person, and this is actually because of where it all started in the run up to 2014!
It was a new kind of politics, smearing reputations of people, in an unprecedented manner. Pappu jokes were new kind of warfare, narrative woven around ‘Italian Job’, Christian conspiracy, Islamic threat and a Hindutva under siege were ratcheted to a finesse. Now it seems that the hapless Congress is getting in their in swingers, though their pace attack seems gentle Indian bowling compared to the lethal West Indies pace attack of a bygone era!
Are these now par for the course? That when a major party for the first time in its history coopts a retired General to frame a strategic vision for the defence of India, the Minister without Portfolio instead of welcoming this strategic culture as a sign of maturing democracy, trashes it. That people simply attack Mr Modi or Mr Rahul about what they did and where, instead of their performance as Opposition and Government. The surprise of this election season could be Congress promising a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya as Mr Harish Rawat stated yesterday.
A temple here, a statue there, a temple entry here, and lament about temple control there. Jawaharlal’s great grandson continues his temple jaunts with his trek to Tirumala, while Veda quoting discoverer of India could sway our vote despite being an overt atheist. Our descent into ridicule from sublime, from substance to shimmer is complete. We need Supreme Court to protect Kashmiris, to review Rafale, to shelter our people against bitter winter, and to conserve our forests by evicting our adivasis and ‘van jathis’. We need Government or an Administrative Bench of the SC to give us our daily directions?
Polemics has entirely replaced politics. The voter is being swayed by noise, engulfed with narratives and alternatives of facile opinion, while real issues are shunted to the periphery instead of being deliberated.
It shows how shallow our waters are, and how the flapping of fins of struggling fish is being displayed as signs of strength of a raucous democratic polity!