The world is always changing, steadily and subtly and times come when
subtle changes translate to radical demands for the overhaul of an existing
system. In acute cases the effort is at dismantling the foundation on which the
society sits because that remains the only way out of the non-reconcilable
inequity. In times such as these, emotions and facts, ideas and reality,
actions and posturing and sometimes even right and wrong blur closer together,
ideas compete and either the most powerful or the most romantic survives, and
the competing ideas swing from being powerful to romantic and back and fro. Any
revolution that sustains itself thrives by the perfect mix of romanticism, and
hard logic. The clever pioneer on the front knows what is what but is equally romanticized
by the idea of the romance.
So are we there yet? At the point of inflection. I have vented enough
cynicism over the last few months over any such possibility yet after weeks and
months of restrain, recognizing strongly that I risk sounding snobbish and
naive at the same time, I decided to finally declare that a lot of our anger is
mis-informed or worse, all the talk about inequity and injustice on the social
network is an artificially synthesized, mass opium that has turned into an
instant hit in the social networking era which is represented by an ever
contracting span of attention and increasing credulity. A friend's status, a
140 character long tweet and a restless blogger have replaced the conventional
forms of news sharing as the primary source of informations, and this has
fueled romanticism and exaggeration, its not that we are not debating, but we
are debating hyperboles and we go on to debate in hyperboles. The modesty of
truth is lost in our debates and the splendor of objectivity gone.
On July the 25th last year newspapers across the country and outside
reported an official swiss central bank figures which suggested that India's
share in the money deposited in the Swiss banks is 0.07%, the central bank also suggested that
this figure on the highest end (compensating for indirect and proxy banking
accounts) could be half a percent, even with that we remain in the bracket of
average performers, unlike what many proud Indians have been repeating over the
last few months. Now, my figures would disappoint many and they will instantly
look up Google (most of them will never return to this blog to read on) for
“Indian money in Switzerland” and find 2006 figure of $1,456 billion, original
source: some “Swiss Banking
Association”. Now Google that (to chase away who came back the first time),
what do you get? Nothing substantial, in fact what is substantial is “Swiss
Bankers Association”, and even here our ever so excited patriot netizens would
not realize that “Banker and Banking” are two different words, some would argue
what if they are different? At least the
Swiss is common!
Sloganeering and sensationalization has for long been the hallmark of a
protest, those involved in a protest are easily offended and are willing to
believe tales that substantiate the rightness of their protest. As a nation we
have been in a protest mode throughout the last year and the protestor as we
call our self has been playing to his traits. Recently when an ailing Anna
Hazare was calling off his fast, he spoke
with great vigor to a crowd that had come down to express solidarity.
“India used to be the golden bird” he said, and right since independence
these treacherous politicians have been consistently betraying us, so much so
that, “today we mortgage our gold.” Earlier speaking on the FDI in retail he
had said “FDI in retail is an invitation to another East India Company.” Given
the vast experience of the man, and his indubitable understanding of the
country? I can only draw that his rants were clever metaphorical statements
which were never meant to suggest a truth. But many believed that both these
statements coming from a prodigy were undeniable truth.
Credulity by its very nature is contagious. It turns virulent if the
breeding ground provides for a week, ineffective government, for the entire
2011 the government fanned distrust, and distrust on one voice leads to trust
upon the opposing view. Sadly the parliamentary opposition remained confused
and inconclusive, and the vacuum of trust was occupied by voices similar to
“Occupy the Wall street” sounds from the US. The year saw an increasing
acceptance of Subrahmaniam Swami who not long back was at best recognized as a
charlatan (not many remember the tea party hosted by this president of a one
man party, a decade and half back.), it saw the news and views dissolving and
the profligacy of tweets in news.
Though it generated an atmosphere that bordered on “sab Chor Hai” syndrome,
the credulity in relation to team Anna and corruption did do some good to the
country on many levels. But the inexcusable gullibility in southern India is a
reminder that susceptibility of this nature can effectively derail the engine
of the nation. Government in Tamil-Nadu threatens to cave in to a mass
misinformation campaigns run by organizations with theological leanings. The
effort is at stopping an undertaking that senior scientists (including people
as respected as Dr. Kalam) believe is harmless and more importantly is a critical
project. In a strange show of defiance the protestors in Kudankulam have now pledged
using CFL to conserve electricity, as if that would be good enough a
compensation for stalling a major nuclear power plant based entirely upon
unfounded fears which reside more in the minds of propagators of such myths
than reality. When Kalama and other
observer's report which sited that the Kudankulam nuclear plant is one of the
safest in world, was presented before, SP Udhayakumar, Coordinator, People's
Movement against Nuclear Energy, he aped the goal post shifting techniques of
the Team Anna but for a terribly misdirected campaign. Replying to questions he
said “We are not just worried about the safety of the reactor, we need to know
about the waste issues, the decommissioning issues, the overall freshwater
issues. There are so many other issues that have been left unanswered until
now.” Well just for records the agitation goes on and primarily because the
security fears are yet not allayed. The protestor just doesn't wish to listen,
fearing what if he is wrong. The BJP's reaction to the controversy suggests why
they never filled in the vacuum that ideally they should have. It is the
duty of the government to allay the fears, if there is any truth or unfounded
fears and assure the nation on the safety of the people," BJP
spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told reporters. "Kalam is a respected
scientist. But we cannot comment, as we have not seen his 32-page report on
Kudankulam."
As a new year starts, the nation proud of its liberal character will
strongly counter any suggestion of censorship. But here's a little wish going
into the new year, in-spite of the 29th or 30th December in Rajya Sabha, in spite of the
Rajneeti Singhs, the government must regain some trust, and the opposition
should absorb that “It is the duty of the government” cannot be a perennial
mot juste. A liberal country just cannot allow theological arguments to take
center-stage just because of too much liberalism.
PS:
**Though I doubt there is something like too much liberalism.
**Though I doubt there is something like too much liberalism.
** The image fascinated me enough to stop writing anything in relation with
Mullaperiyar Dam
2 Comments:
I share the same angst and I wonder when we'd reach that inflection point when things will change, is there still a 'low' that we need to reach before we say enough is enough and things begin to change. Every country and society seems to have a basic character, we are like the society which has truly lost its objectivity, we don't question, we fall for histrionics, we numbly accept every low that we hit and forget it after just a few rants..'argumentative Indian' looks like a far fetched dream!
call us "The Argumentative Fickle Indian"
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