The ink rebellion

"HIS (Vinod Mehta) voice is missed in the present climate, when dissent is being stifled, when the minorities feel increasingly insecure, when the secular fabric of our society is threatened, when bigotry and obscurantism seem to flourish unchecked," Congress president Sonia Gandhi had spoken in one of her trademark passionate and combative short speech on the occasion of presentation of GK Reddy award to the former Outlook Editor. 

Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi have not written even one of their speech yet. Her lamentation on "intolerance", "bigotry", "obscurantism" was delivered on May 9 this year. The speech writer was understandably Jairam Ramesh. 

No rationalist writers were killed by May 9 either in Karnataka and Maharashtra. None was yet lynched to death on rumour of having eaten beef. Yet, Sonia Gandhi bemoaned lack of a writer in Mehta who was "passionate upholder of our democratic and secular ideals, who harboured sympathy for the disempowered and held no fear of the rich and powerful". 

Mehta was a journalist and not a politician as stated in the description. Sonia Gandhi was sending her message loud and clear to the target. In less than five months, her message was decoded and acted upon. Forty Sahitya Akademy awardees have so far surrendered their awards; some with prize money also. Fugitive author Salman Rushdie also lent his support to the rebels in writers, and educated Indians about his rich vocabulary by terming his critics as "Modi toadies". 

Nayantara Sehgal, whose identity is from her lineage with Nehru, was among the first to surrender the Sahitya Akademy award. Later, she claimed smart cities would be of no use if "stupid" people lived in them. Ghulam Nabi Khayal from Jammu and Kashmir was more clear on his reasons and he stated that "ever since the BJP came to power...". 

Writers from Karnataka to Kashmir, from Gujrat to Assam have joined the rat race to return their Sahitya Akademy awards. The number will only swell. They all rant and bemoan the silence of Narendra Modi. And they have seemingly proved that they are rattled with the rise of Modi. 

The writers making news have circumstantial records against them on their pains for communal harmony. On close scrutiny, they may even be found to have been the beneficiaries of the Nehruvian "left-turn" in literature and history writing. None of them ever took pains to write on disappearance of Subhash Chandra Bose. It took the doggedness of the journalist turned researcher Anuj Dhar to demolish the myth perpetuated by the Congress in the country. Even when the Sikhs were butchered in 1984 and democracy was murdered during Emergency, these anguished writers chose to keep their inks dried. No Muslim writer has yet penned the pathos of the Kashmiri pundits. 

That the worst communal frenzy and in fact of much larger proportion than the post-Godhra riots took place in Muzaffarnagar and its adjoining areas in western Uttar pradesh under the watch of the "secular" chief minister of the state Akhilesh Yadav missed the radar of these writers with great ease is a tale not yet told. They did not pay heed to the blatant communal politicking of Mulayam Singh Yadav and AzamKhan in Uttar Pradesh till the 2014 Lok Sabha elections as well. They did not even know that the people of western UP turned rabidly communal in a span of a few years. Their communal frenzy devoured the Muslim man in Dadri most recently. 

Writers are the conscience keepers of the society. But they opted to barter the might of their pen to become carriers of the agenda of political parties for gains. They lobby for awards. They sing songs of glory of those who are in power. That India has not seen a Munshi Premchand or Ramdhari Singh Dinkar for ages tell the larger tales that these media attention hungry writers have contributed the least in evolving a multi-cultural and tolerant society in India. 

The rebellion of "pen" against Modi is nothing but a snobbish, hypocritical, and paranoid response of a tribe which fear arrival of an assertive "right" on social and political mainstream.

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Read More in my Book -- The enabler Narendra Modi: Breaking stereotypes. Buy at myBook.to/Indianpolitics at Amazon

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Postscript:

In an interview to Nirendra Dev, a senior journalist, late Khuswant Singh (extract in pix) argued shutting down of Sahitya Akademy. He was piqued to see 100s being given awards each year. Recipients did not need to have literary merits, but should have known ways to grease the palms of influential. Khuswant Singh once had his heart in his mouth when he saw 10 Sindhi writers lining up to receive the Sahitya Akademy award. How could so many people get award in one year for a language, which is so tough, he reminisced. As mentioned in the extract (in the pix), Khuswant Singh strongly believed that there was no rationale for Sahitya Akademy to exist and it only promoted crony writers who knew whose palms to grease.

Khuswant Singh's views apart, the question which must agitate a rationale mind is that how come a government is in the business of giving awards notwithstanding the fact that such bodies are autonomous (only for the namesake).

BEYOND NEWS

The manner in which scores of writers and those engaged with theater have returned their awards suggest a pattern without any doubt.

And on cue a "discussion" was held at Indian National Press Club. The capacity audience listened to panel with full attention, with a few foreigner media professional dropping in to feel the pulse of the people. They had a few books at display, which included the likes of "Ath Modi Katha", "Hamara Sabse Bada Dushman -- with cover having two photos, one of Adolf Hitler and another of the RSS activists in a march", "Moditva--Hinduvadi sarkar ka Sanghi Abhiyan", etc. All the books on the display had one thing in common, that they are authored by those whose hatred for the RSS and Narendra Modi, besides the BJP run in their blood.

The Congress leader and former MP Sandeep Dikshit too had dropped in for this discussion, but he chose to slip away when it dawned upon him, that the political facade behind which the writers are seeking to hide may fall off.      

The mirror-3

MIcro-thoughts:

Your memories have faded, but for those smiles.

A cynical society ills its people.

Night belongs to dark forces.

How you write gives a good measure of you.

Brain cells must only pull strings of muscles.

Prosperity induces hypocrisy.

Past is history and there're no other ways to look at it.

Restraint will soon be one word Bible for sanity.

Political class most importantly among all made society more selfish.

When was last time public representative really represented people in Parliament.

Staying normal is increasingly becoming a challenge.

Inspirational value of quotes of great men go down with passage of time.

We've talked enough of great men, spare some time for lesser mortals.

Nation building is now an abstract idea.

Parliament logjam in times of whipcracy

Disclaimer: This piece is intended merely for discussion, and not at all casts aspersions on temple of largest democracy of the world. 

INDIAN Parliament has seen many political weathers to wilt to current gust of doggedness. 

Demography of India is transforming each day. India is getting younger. The young India is both a boon and bane in measures not easy to quantify. The boon obviously is in demographic dividend for economy. None talk about the other side of the story for want of an audience.

The most telling disability of young India is that its sense of history is much narrow. The time span of historical awareness is squeezing with each passing day. And to expect this growing class to pay attention to context and thereby historical background would be to expect too much. 

That the Congress and its tiny lot of camp followers have enforced a lock-down on Rajya Sabha, because the BJP when in Opposition had done the same stand having become irrelevant by the passage of time. And, hence, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has growing lot of admirers among the youth. 

Incidentally, political class invariably is blessed with short memory and any inconvenient pass events get erased with ease. Congress president Sonia Gandhi believes PM Narendra Modi is replicating Gujrat model in Parliament. She claimed Modi used to get Congress MLAs suspended from Gujrat Assembly without fail during each session. 

But Gandhi would surely not mention that the UPA government just two years ago had got passed State Reorganisation Bill to create the state of Telangana in not so glorious manner. Scores of MPs hailing from united Andhra Pradesh were suspended for days, for having camped in the well of the House and having held placards aloft against division of the state. The matter had come to such an extent that a Congress MP had pressed canister to spray pepper right in the well of the Lok Sabha and had to be overpowered after enough fisticuffs. That he endangered the health of many MPs, journalists and common men and women in the public gallery predictably did not invite attention of the presiding officers of the Parliament. 

Gandhi could equally consult her colleague Sheila Dikshit and enlighten herself how she had perfected the art of "naming and suspending" Opposition MLAs in Delhi Assembly during her over 15 years of rule. 

DOGGEDNESS of both Congress and BJP is worrisome. The Congress is surely looking to find the path to revive the party from the newly found lung power in logjam of Parliament. The BJP is on an extended hangover of having been served strongly intoxicating electoral victory a year ago much beyond their expectation. The BJP arguably believes the time has come to roll over the Congress. If the Congress is served a telling fatal blow, the BJP will always be the first natural choice of people for power in New Delhi.    

If not for politically motivated doggedness of the Congress, the Opposition could have explored the option for a censure motion in both the Houses of the Parliament against External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. The Opposition is in majority in Rajya Sabha and could have the desired results if its unity is real. 

BEYOND the explicitly seen reasons for lock-down in Rajya Sabha (Lok Sabha is functioning), there are larger issues. Firstly, the issue of democracy in the real sense. The weapon of whip given to political parties by late Rajiv Gandhi through the anti-defection law has made democracy hypocritical. The MPs are largely herds swayed by the direction of the whip.

Secondly, the issue whether the members of Parliament are lawmakers in the real sense is discussed in hushed voices in the corridors of the temple of democracy. How many laws have been enacted through the initiatives of the MPs and their discussions in both the Houses of Parliament? Aren't the MPs mere rubber stamps to the legislative bills drafted by the babus?   

Thirdly, do both the Houses of Parliament really make the government accountable. An illustration may answer this question. In the ongoing Monsoon session, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan indicated in Lok Sabha during Question Hour, that the government would not prefer to transfer cash into accounts of beneficiaries of the food subsidy. "The government spends Rs 1.31 lakh crore under food subsidy each year. Though we've launched DBT (Direct benefit transfer) in Pudduchery, Chandigarh and Dadar and Nagar Haveli, there're issues like (a) will people really buy foodgrains and if yes then of what quality; (b) what will happen to so many PDS shops and dealers; (c) what will happen to godowns built so far; (d) what if even 10 per cent of beneficiaries miss out from DBT for any reasons," said Paswan. 

No MPs present contested Paswan's concerns. All issues raised by Paswan are equally applicable for DBT for LPG subsidy. Tax payers' money can surely not be used to justify the need of PDS shops, dealers and godowns. And, lastly, the quality of grains given by PDS shops makes Paswan's another worry laughable. 

Excerpt from my book -- The enabler Narendra Modi.

And, most importantly, the quality of debate in both the Houses of Parliament tell a much larger story. A comparison between the 15th and 16th Lok Sabha in the context of quality of debates could make for an exciting research. That Nishikant Dubey from the BJP and Veerappa Moily from the Congress are lead speakers on economy in the current Lok Sabha tell the story much evidently. 

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The book -- The enabler Narendra Modi -- is available at myBook.to/Indianpolitics in paperback & Kindle. Kindle app can be downloaded from Google Play (for android phone) http://bit.ly/19c6Xpm for PC http://amzn.to/1ImLwl0 for Apple phone/ IPad http://apple.co/1MrRaF5

The mirror-2

Micro-thoughts:

MIRRORS don't show much of us anymore.

HYPOCRISY seeks to sneak in with prosperity.

THAT too many crooks are around among educated lots tells sorry tales of Indian education system & society at large.

NO harm in aspiring to shine like sun, but what about coolness of the moon.

TO think you can write great without reading enough is just floating in fantasy air.

TREES with deep roots live longer and stay healthy.

DON'T be in awe of awards; most of them are favours.

BRAIN automatically trashes futuristic commitments.

ALL men can't be Lord Buddha. They can't either be ants.

AFTER long walk, I looked back. Only my shadow had stayed.

BARKING a wrong tree is known to be painful, yet it's common.

YOU shut yourself inside & outside thugs run amok.

LOVE and familiarity aren't greatest of friends.

MEN come from nature and go back to it in end, yet live away.