Posts
I
begin this piece with a quote from the Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y
Gasset, who wrote in “The Revolt of the
Masses” that was published in 1929, that “The characteristic note of our time is the dire truth that the
mediocre soul, the commonplace mind, knowing itself to be mediocre, has the
gall to assert its right to mediocrity, and goes on to impose itself where it
can.” When the former Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and the other so-called spokespersons of the Congress
keep repeating the mantra that Rahul
Gandhi has “outstanding credentials to be nominated” as the Prime Minister of
India, it validates Ortega’s observation about the commonplace mind trying to
impose a mediocre soul on the country.
What are these outstanding credentials that are being touted by the
Congress leaders? Apart from him being born in the Family with its
appurtenances of abundant wealth and privilege; as also the fortuitous
circumstance of a respected surname, Rahul Gandhi “partially” typifies Ortega’s mass man who “is the self-satisfied specialist
in a post-industrial society who knows expertly his own corner of the universe
but is ignorant of the rest: a ‘learned ignoramus.’ The mass man is interested
in automobiles, anesthetics, and all manner of sundries. And these things
confirm his profound lack of interest in civilization itself. For all these
things are merely products of civilization and the passion he displays for them
makes more crudely obvious his insensibility to the principles which made them
possible.” Why “partially?”
- because he does not qualify to be called an expert knower of the corner of
his own universe. The Congress has only two power centers – and he happens to
be one of them. Yet, he comes up, at metronomic regularity, with absurdities
that confirm his profound lack of knowledge about anything. Be it the latest
allegation against the Modi government on the Rafaele deal with Dassault in
France, or the ridiculous question as to why BHEL was not commissioned to
manufacture mobile phones. From wanting to see Barack Obama’s bed sheet marked
Made in Uttar Pradesh (“I want to see the day when bed sheet used in Barack
Obama’s house will have Made in Uttar Pradesh mark,” Rahul Gandhi said in a
rally in Ghaziabad during UP assembly elections) to aloo ki factory and aloo se
sona, Gandhi displays complete insensibility to that corner of the universe
to which he apparently belongs. He fails even by Ortega’s definition of “a learned ignoramus.” The BHEL absurdity is
so beautifully captured in this tweet:
Rahul
Gandhi does not know what he is expected to do. It seems he is much more comfortable in the role of a vigilante, one of
those comic-book superheroes, who suddenly appear on a scene, perform their
acts, and vanish into thin air. Whenever some responsibility, like leading
the election campaign in a state, has been assigned to him, he has inevitably
come a cropper. His academic credentials remain shrouded in mystery and
controversy. When Manmohan Singh was appointed as the Prime Minister, a series
of e-mails was doing the round of the web highlighting his academic
qualifications, calling him the highest qualified Prime Minister in the world.
It is a different matter that this highly educated and vastly experienced
bureaucrat presided over the most brazenly corrupt and inefficient government
in the history of independent India. But, at least, he had a resume that could
impress leaders of the international community who would find it hard to deny
him an audience. On matters relating to the economy, he would be familiar with
all the terminology and jargon that passes for high thinking. Rahul Gandhi, I
am afraid, would find it hard to explain the difference between fiscal and
revenue deficits.
The
shrill Indian media continuously barrages and harangues Narendra Modi and the
BJP to explain their visions for the future, deriding them on Swachh Bharat, Go-Rakhsha, Digital India,
Make in India, and every other scheme that the Government announces for
bringing some equity in the lives of the common people. Modi has not given them
the free rides that they had become accustomed to with Manmohan Singh. English
language TV channels and newspapers are especially virulent in their unveiled
hatred for Modi. Some discredited celebrities have found channels for venting
their spleen abroad in such papers as Washington Post and New York Times, in a
post-Obama era. These newspapers are equally opposed to both Donald Trump and
Modi. Every two-bit anchor feels supremely entitled to roar his or her
questions at Modi and the BJP, but when it comes to asking a question of Rahul
Gandhi they behave like mice in a biologist’s laboratory. And when it comes to
having an audience with the Divine Mother herself, like what happened to Aroon
Purie at the India Today conclave, they just curl up and die. This tribe of
obnoxious and supremely opinionated news anchors has questions of all and
sundry, in pompously named programs like “the nation wants to know” or “left,
right, and center” but has no questions for Rahul Gandhi. The electronic media
today is increasingly adopting the aspirations of the mob. The mob like the TV
camera has no historical memory - it considers only what is within its immediate
field of vision, not the complicating facts beyond it. The Economist, in a
leading article in its 14th December 2013 publication headlined “Would Modi save India or wreck it?” wanted
“an unambiguous public demonstration that he abhors violence and discrimination
against Muslims” as “a bare minimum.” “Otherwise,” the author had the
audacity to add, “This newspaper will not back him.” Nowhere have I read that
Narendra Modi had requested The Economist to endorse him for the Prime
Minister’s post at any time.
One
does not have to look too far to see how Rahul Gandhi would perform if he were
to become the PM of the country. Just look at the state of Uttar Pradesh, where
another scion of a political dynasty had been the Chief Minister for full five
years before the people sent him packing rather unceremoniously. Both Rahul
Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav come from almost similarly privileged backgrounds,
appear to have similar intellectual capabilities, and have lived lives that
require no effort. The British novelist John Fowles, in his book of essays
titled “Wormholes” wrote, “A life of entertainment and convenience
produces ever-shallower leaders. Nor are such leaders well advised. Such
shallow and childlike leaders and advisors would, by the very virtue of their
lack of wisdom and experience, eventually commit the kind of ghastly
miscalculation that would lead to general catastrophe of some kind.” Countries
with young populations are subject to political violence. With Third World
populations growing dramatically, and becoming increasingly urbanized, leaders
have to become increasingly ingenious in resolving crises that are inevitable
due to an ever-increasing demand for basic necessities, jobs and services. They
have to have the ability to negotiate with an increasingly complex web of
international corporations and markets that are becoming the real arbiters of
power in the current world. Jeffrey Sachs, the well-known professor of
international trade writes “good government means relative safety from
corruption, from breach of contract, from property expropriation, and from
bureaucratic inefficiency.” The UPA government, led by the “highest qualified
Prime Minister in the World” failed in all the above criteria. What are those
“outstanding credentials” that people like Manmohan Singh, Shashi Tharoor, and
the rest of the rump that passes for leadership in the Congress party, see in
Rahul Gandhi that are, until now, completely hidden from our view? Arthur
Koestler writes, “To create innocence, one must have awareness of guilt.” But
when the Congress continues to behave without any awareness of guilt, how does
it expect to create innocence for its assumed leader?
A
captive print and electronic media, a compromised academia, and a plethora of
foreign-funded NGO’s that have the mandate to “Break India” along the various
fault lines that they think are vulnerable, have taken it upon themselves to
prop up this shadow warrior, better expressed as “Kagemusha” by the Japanese,
to face the challenge of Narendra Modi and the so-called right wing. I am
reminded of Erasmus who had accused the academic mediocracy of “looking
in utter darkness for that, which has no existence whatsoever.”
Arthur
Koestler, in a paper titled “The Poverty of Psychology” published in 1961,
wrote, “The rearguard is still firmly entrenched in university chairs, the
editorial offices of technical papers, and other positions of power. In the
period of scholastic decline, the orthodox Aristotelians had occupied similar
key positions…. ‘They are Folly’s servants,’ declared Erasmus, denouncing the
sterile pedantry and grotesque academic jargon of his time.” One wonders how he
would react today to the definition of the mediocracy that has taken over most
of the “free” academic world.
Robert
D. Kaplan”s succinct statement that “avoiding
tragedy requires a sense of it, which in turn requires a sense of history” encapsulates
the tragedy of the Congress party that has got itself trapped in a time warp
where the beginning and the end of everything is contained in the Gandhi
surname.
To
conclude with another quote from Jose Ortega y Gasset: “An ‘unemployed’ existence is a worse negation of life than death
itself.”
Vijaya Dar
August 12, 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment