Law Minister has accused Rahul Gandhi for seeking bail in the case where he was convicted (The Hindu,April 5) of putting pressure on the judiciary. As they say,every action has a reaction. This step taken by Mr Gandhi may be understood as a natural reaction to the pressure put on him.So why such pother about a law of nature or a principle of Dharma?
Such scenes and interludes relieve the gloom of a pretty grim real life horror movie.We can expect little more from the managers of the political circus while the common people groan and moan on rising prices and costs,the shrinking social security and the mounting tensions from resurgence of communal violence centering around the peaceful animal,the Cow.
The Ram Navami processions are a new and portentous religious practice spreading fast where devotees reportedly seek to avenge centuries of Mughal repression today by religiously searching out Muslim localities for shouting insults against Islam,threatening Muslims who object, while flaunting Trishuls,swords and the odd guns,and given a chance physically putting the fear of God or gods(Hindu ones)into those who three hundred years ago dared destroy Hindu temples.
Ram was known in Assam during my childhood and up to the end of the twentieth century as an incarnatoon of God,but rarely worshipped. Our favourite Avatar was Krishna who was rather less righteous and given to conceding room to such natural human inclinations as childhood pranks and erotic dalliance.But he is in danger of being pushed off the stage by Ram or rather by his most faithful devotee Hanuman. This is most surprising because in folk life and tradition of Assam Hanuman was known more for his simian feat of setting the entire capital of Ravan on fire and used to be a favourite sobriquet for anyone with loutish knack for mayhem.Now however we find Hanuman temples popping up everywhere, some topped by an image of the monkey-god that seems to smirk in triumph at taking everyone by surprise. However he is in hot demand among souls with an innate inclination towards rapt devotion that is in tune with the ascendant ethos.
Humpty Dumpty,a colourful character of the children’s classic ALICE IN WONDERLAND,declared solemnly that he would use words to mean what HE wanted to mean,not otherwise.The same appears to be the fiat of our rulers.For instance the disagreeable word ‘corruption’ could be liberally used in the case of opposition leaders but seldom of the ruling party.And those in opposition who out of remorse joined the ruling party would stand miraculously washed of all such sins.
Opposition leaders may not figure as a class to get automatic exemption from the dreaded probe by CBI but the BJP could perhaps claim such exemption by law as a class.The other popular word is Democracy and India being ‘the mother of democracy’ it seems we can be quite comfortable without such alien Western frills as freedom of speech and press and equal justice.God had decreed here long ago that there are grades of human beings and some grades by merit deserve more justice more equality and more rights.Quite so.
Rahul Gandhi continues to insist that there are undisclosed esoteric links between Adani and the shell companies that provide him generous financial handouts and sanction to meet every exigency.The demand is properly dismissed as frivolous and even expunged from records of the house,and there is rightly a flat rejection of the stupid claim that should have been supported by apt constitutional sanctimony.
Our school-goers are getting their heads stuffed already with plenty of Western nonsense as Valentine’s day and Christmas,and it is a crying shame that their textbooks are also clogged with Mughal garbage.Besides they are shockingly misinformed about true heroes of our freedom struggle which actually had gone on not for a measly one hundred years but for one thousand glorious years.Mughal courts were dens of corrupt and depraved culture and not where serious discussion of state policy and interest in Sanskrit lore never found a place.What about our growing fascination with BIRIYANI,KABAB and other non-veg eatables?Western scholarship.has tricked us with false notions here too.Know ye the truth that Shastras had declared them pollutions long long ago,and taste for them is just treachery of swadharma. Right?Emphatically.What about the KURTAS,PAJAMAS,and SHERWANIS in which our great leaders are often decked out?Did we wear any stitched costume in hoary holy past?Silly,these are pure Vedic garb blessed by sages.
Then about the stale old tussle between two patriots, Gandhi and Nathuram.There is this myth that they had ideological difference.That Nathuram was an extremist while Gandhi was a peace-maker.Again a pernicious lie.There was in fact no such ground for quarrel.Then why the shot that put out the life of one?Obvious,for how else would he have been commemorated decades after his death as a martyr hero?Nathuram needs to be appreciated for this noble social service for which he too became a fellow martyr.And Kudos to the band of new history-makers who are bringing this to light.
Coming back to Adani,despite the rebuff to the demented Rahul,there is rising anxiety about entire life savings of lakhs of working people and middle-class sods going into the mysterious maws of the ogre Adani as loans with phantom shares as unfailing baits.This again is a tragic misperception as Adani is actually an honourable man.He has with the help of fellow Indians climbed to the summit of the pantheon of fortune and thereby made us all Indians proud.Such perceptions are thus a gross insult to Mother India.
Do I make sense?Perhaps not.I could be babbling on just as senile old men do,or as Jittery Joe frightened out of his wits chattering out nonsense.
But there are (and will be more) brave battalions of heroes to proudly call me to order and silence me with chants to the immemorial glory of the country.
Om Shanthi!
Hiren Gohain is a political commentator
