OLD DUD versus AMUL BABY

Old dud Vs. Amul Baby Hypocrisy -- Secular India’s proud political creed By Antaryami India may be a secular country yet, it seems, hypocrisy has evolved itself into a national creed of the political life of the country, unofficially by practice. Our politicians take pride in criticizing their opponents, calling names and going sarcastic. But when their target retaliates and they are at the receiving end, they cry: “foul, uncivilized, unbecoming behaviour”. The problem with our political class is that normally it doesn’t think before it opens its mouth. Offence, this class believes, is the best form of defence. But it forgets that when it targets somebody, that person is not going to take things lying down and will retaliate in self-defence, may be more offensively, more fiercely and more forcefully. Mahatma Gandhi may have preached that if somebody slaps you on one cheek, offer him the other. But this has never worked. It never happened even in his time, nor does it today. It is natural – and human too – that if somebody hits the other, the latter is most likely certain to strike back. Therefore, if somebody calls bad names, slaps or hits the other, the aggrieved may prove to be more foul mouthed and may hit back by hurling a hundred abuses and beating him into dough. In that eventuality if the person who tried to strike first grumbles that he has been maltreated, inhumanly beaten or abused, sympathy will lie with the person who was the victim first. The golden principle is that before you venture to be on the offensive to be the first to slap a person, you should first be chivalrous and gracious to be ready for a backlash -- to bear 10 or 50 slaps in revenge. Since India won independence, when was political sarcasm and abuse absent? When Mrs. Indira Gandhi was made the prime minister, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia had dubbed her goongi gudia, a dumb doll. He had also remarked: Nehru gave his ornaments to his daughter and his ashes to the country. The late Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao was repeatedly called mauni baba (a silent saint) Late Mrs. Tarkeshwari Sinha was a deputy minister for finance in Pandit Nehru’s council of ministers. She herself reminiscenced once that when she gave a reply to a question in parliament, a member pointed out that there were discrepancies in the figures quoted by her. On this a member remarked: Let us examine the figure of the minister and then find the difference. She said everybody laughed in the house. Calling our political opponents as chor (thief), daaku (dacoit), corrupt, exploiter, etc. is order of the day. We commonly hear the slogans, “gali gali mein shore hai,…..chore hai”, “is gali-sadi sarkar ko ek dhakka aur do”. Till about five-six years back we cherished the BSP’s pet political slogan: Tilak, tarazoo aur talwar – Inko maro joote chaar”. How many and who had protested then? It is the trick of the game of politics (and election) that one must hit the opponent where it pinches (or punches) the most; touch the raw nerve. This seems what Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi did when while campaigning in Kerala elections he poked fun at State chief minister V. S. Achuthanandan’s age saying: “If LDF is re-elected, Kerala will have a 93-year old as chief minister in five years time”. Politics, somebody rightly said, is the art of making fool of as many people as one can for votes and whoever succeeds in striking the highest score, wins. It seems to be in line with this doctrine that Congress youth icon derided in Kerala Achhutanandan’s advanced age but in the neighbouring Tamil Nadu he campaigned for M. Karunanidhi for CM who is no less aged than Achuthanandan. Incensed at this remark, Kerala CM hit back: “I need not tell you that Rahul Gandhi is Sonia Gandhi’s son. Rahul Gandhi is an Amul baby. He has launched a large number of Amul babies as Congress candidates”. He further claimed that by the age of 16 he was fighting the British and questioned, "Please tell me where was Rahul Gandhi (politically) before he was 40 years." He did not spare the defence minister too. "Pakistan terrorists came through the sea route to Mumbai and mounted an attack which shocked the nation. Was the Defence Minister in deep slumber, like Kumbhakarna then?" he taunted. In the current political atmosphere, where is the justification for taking offence at such electoral flings when the Congress leaders too have not been that polite and ‘civilized’? It was, therefore, surprising when Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee called the Achuthanandan comment on Rahul Gandhi as “uncivilized” and Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi calling it “an insult to entire youth of the country”, little realizing that Rahul may be youth icon for Congress but not for the whole youth of the country. And then every leader in every party is an icon for some section or the other. In our country, as a newspaper put it, a 50-year politician is taken as a young man and Mr. Rahul Gandhi is only 40. Moreover, a bachelor is always taken as a boy. Copying the western style we even call an 80 year old person the “birthday boy” on the day he celebrates his birth. The fact is that we are very touchy when the sting hurts us. Otherwise, we enjoy it when it hurts the other person -- our opponent. When did the Congress lag behind in hurling abuses and insults on its opponents? Late Mrs. Indira Gandhi took pride in dubbing everybody who opposed her or the Congress as “anti-national”. During the last Gujarat assembly election campaign, Congress President Mrs. Sonia Gandhi had called Gujarat CM Narendra Modi as maut ka saudagar. Did she or Congress apologise? Who among the politicians has been found amiss in this game of political name calling? During the election campaign Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav had called Bihar CM Nitish Kumar as emperor Nero when Patna had been submerged during monsoons. At other time he had called Nitish a combination of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Gobbles. His wife Mrs. Rabri Devi had used the word jamai (son-in-law) for some leader. People’s Democratic Party leader had called J&K CM Omar Abdullah as “Blackberry boy”. Punjab Congress chief Capt. Amrinder Singh had branded Punjab Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal (son of Punjab CM Prakash Singh Badal) as balungra (kitten). At different times Mr. L. K. Advani had called Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh as a weak prime minister. Mr. George Fernandes had once called Mrs. Sonia Gandhi as jhoothi challenging her qualifications. Idioms and sayings are the very treasure of any language. These provide richness to the language and help give a better expression and understanding of a situation or a person. Joote chaatn (lick somebody’s feet), kutte ki tarah poonch hilana (wag tale like a dog), kutte ki poonchh jitni bhi seedhi karo, tedhi he rahegi (however you try, dog’s tail will never get straightened), apna ullu sidha karma (serve your purpose) and the like. But when these words and sayings are used in writing or speeches of politicians, the persons for whom these expressions are used, take objection to it. Does that mean that our political class wants all these sayings and idioms to be taken out of our dictionaries and literature? It is time our politicians either stopped hurling abuses or making fun of others. Or they should have the moral strength to put up with the counter-attacks by others if the party tried to be even with them using the same weapons of offence. When a bull will try to attack a person, the latter is sure to catch it by the horns. Nobody should then cry foul.