Being politically correct in a growingly intolerant India

Futuristic dispatches from a vertically and horizontally challenged journalist in the aftermath of the rage to wage war and the itch to bitch about anyone who mouths words not deemed politically correct

shantanu

Shantanu Datta | January 28, 2013



Warning: This is a politically correct report. The author does not take responsibility for any or all of the words, actions, theses, syndromes (whether actual or perceived), typecasts or typos you will come across in the words strung together to form sentences underneath this disclaimer.
Warning 2: Read with a pinch, handful or bucketful of salt.
 
Dateline: Delhi. Timeline: January 28, 2014

In an out of the ordinary scene, somewhat akin to an age when people used to hurl stones at one another following a row that became violent and which was subsequently taken over by the age when people would hurl abuses and further on to the age when people criticised each other in public, a leading BJP leader today called Rahul Gandhi, the Congress party’s number two leader in the hierarchical ladder, insight-challenged.

“If Rahul Gandhi has much political intelligence, my neighbour does, too. And my neighbour’s wife says she is yet to figure out the political axiom he espouses or the axe he grinds in the years since their marriage,” the BJP leader said, in an oblique reference to Gandhi’s challenge to Narendra Modi to take him on in the 2014 elections.

Gandhi, the opposition leader said, is also vision-challenged, which many analysts misread and misheard, overread and overlooked as meaning visually challenged. “Rahul Gandhi does not have a vision for the future,” the leader said, referring to Gandhi’s decision to look at 2014 elections as what they are — the elections in 2014 — and make statements accordingly, rather than what many analysts want them to be: a vision and mission statement ejected out of Gandhi’s mouth each time he opens it.

A senior Congress functionary, meanwhile, joined the debate by sending what many analysts prefer calling verbal missiles, or “shooting back”. According to this leader, Narendra Modi, the Gujarat chief minister who is set to face Gandhi in the game to elect the country’s prime minister, is playing politics with an event in Gujarat in 2002 that left many people dead, and what many have earlier called a “riot” between people of two different streams of faith that is called “religion” in many parts of the globe. “He is dividing communities along the communal line, something he has done in all elections before, during and after 2002,” he said, referring to the very same events, which had once prompted Congress president Sonia Gandhi to dub Modi “moth ka saudagar”, referring to the above-mentioned riotous unrest in the state.

While many analysts also called the exact word Sonia G used as “maut”, this reporter fails to be tempted to use such detestable words that have the potential to induce/espouse hate.

A top source in the BJP headquarters in New Delhi, however, refused to see reason or logic. Smiling in a fashion called “sardonic” by many expert readers of smiles, grins, smirks and laughter, he said, “Modi-ji never exploited riots. The Congress has exploited the riots, primarily in an attempt to exploit the BJP’s perceived notion as a party that does not believe in secularism, as printed in the Constitution in pretty large and bold typeface.”

The Congress leader denied that the party has done anything to that effect.

Reached for his comments, sociologist Ashis Nandy, eminent social scientist for those who cared to read him and nationally famous for his historically infamous January 2012 statement at Jaipur Lit Festival calling SCs, STs and OBCs as a community of people that believe in aping the people in purportedly higher echelons of the caste ladder in practising peculiarly pecuniary vices (called “corruption” by many analysts), said he has no comments to offer to this reporter unless he stops being politically correct, prompting this reporter to beat a hasty retreat.
 

 

Comments

 

Other News

“Cancer is just a mind game”

Dr. Ananda Shankar Jayant, a Padma Shri awardee, inspired audiences for decades through her mastery of Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. But it was her journey through cancer that taught some of life`s most powerful lessons in courage and resilience.

Why Swami Vivekananda is the pathfinder for our times

Swami Vivekananda for Our Times  Edited and compiled by Rajiv Sikri, with Introduction by S. Gurumurthy Rupa Publications, 552 pages, Rs 695  

Five ways to realise the potential of India’s handicraft and handloom sector

India`s economic ambitions are increasingly defined by the industries of the future. Semiconductors, electronics, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing dominate policy conversations. Yet one of India`s largest employment-intensive sectors continues to occupy a surprisingly marginal place in ec

Beyond toilets: Why open defecation persists in rural India

Despite the awareness campaigns on sanitation across India, open defecation (OD) is practised openly and widely in both rural and urban areas. Research shows that rural respondents are well aware of the negative impacts of OD, yet this awareness does not lead to toilet construction or use. In rural North I

What unpaid nation builders want from policymakers

The Supreme Court recently described homemakers as “nation builders” and fixed a notional monthly income of Rs 30,000 for them in motor accident compensation cases. The judgment was not about wages. It was about compensation. Yet it inadvertently raised a larger economic question: If a homemake

What the US–Iran peace deal means for India

After months of rising tensions, the United States and Iran have reached a memorandum of understanding called the "Islamabad Agreement." This agreement allows for the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz without tolls and provides Iran with relief from sanctions, depending on its complianc





Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter