Concise Kansaratva

Before the 2014 elections Rahul Gandhi was the reluctant dynast, missing the spark to navigate the beehive of politics despite having experienced sycophants by his side. Over the years, however, whether due to his frequent secret trips or his Idea of India advisors, he has become more confident, more goofy, and also, more sinister. In this episode, I look at the anatomy of political iniquity that today Rahul Gandhi represents, while supporting divisive forces in the name of dissent, questioning the government's stance and actions, and speaking a vicious language of  instigation. 

The Republic Day this year started with the usual muted enthusiasm about the tableaus from different states, with Uttar Pradesh unabashedly showcasing the Ram Mandir, instead of pandering to some acceptable norm which, we are told, is defined by the Constitution. We are conditioned to be CoCo, Constitutionally Correct, while the FaCo, Fake Fans of the Constitution, get away with anything and still become the "decent folk". How does this impact our approach to our religion? Do we follow religion as per our convenience, or do we allow convenience as per our religion?

The other unprecedented event, of course, was the mayhem unleashed by riotous mobs in the capital. Was strategic inaction the right approach, or should the government have gone for impulsive action? Who, ultimately, pays the price for political decisions?

Listen to this episode which, although based on a single day, deals with a lot more than just that.

In the last few weeks, the courts have given us some interesting arguments, from recommending the use of virtual baths for Hindus to defining what does not make a Christian, and from speculating on what an ideal protest place should be to why no one has filed a PIL on something that is evidently great. The virtual bath, or e-Snaan, promises to be an interesting start to what could become a rollercoaster ride for virtualizing Hindu traditions through an e-Mandir app complete with an e-Bazaar that sells e-Pushp, e-Shriphal, e-Dhoop, e-Agarbattis, and through which you can perform e-Pradakshina and even partake of e-Prasad (certified by FSSAI). We also saw a glimpse of the standards that journalists set for themselves when Nidhi, who could question the Supreme Court, forgot to question the letter she had received. At least she must be happy now because she, and others of her ilk, has got a new President who took his oath on the Bible unlike the President of some other country who contributed to the Ram Mandir. While they are on cloud nine of cringe, I am hoping that they would leave the government alone for some days. 

In the second episode of the series on the National Education Policy (NEP), I talk about the monetary argument for education, an argument that is much avoided because for whatever reasons it is deemed less ethical and moral. Such arguments usually lead to philistinism, which I do not profess to follow, except that what I consider art is probably very different from your choices. The NEP, however, has a recurrent theme on arts, or liberal arts, to be more precise. What happens when the ACHE (Arts, Culture, Humanities, Engineering) Committee changes the syllabus? What happens when a liberal arts professor teaches "Art Appreciation & Theory" to engineers? While aspects of sociocultural, economic, and personal elements should be included in professional education, the NEP's fetish with liberal arts sounds just...goofy. 

The disconnect between what we learn in schools and colleges, and what happens in the real world, is horribly wide. Does the National Education Policy (NEP), which has been long due, fix this? Before we go into this, we need to understand what the goal of education is, and why outcomes are more important than inputs. While the NEP is a rambling and repetitive document, tedious in extreme, it must be appreciated for covering the entire spectrum of education in India, and also, must be commended for being vocal against pestilential issues like mediocrity and corruption. In this first part of a series on the NEP, I cover two broad aspects: the Indian heritage and the RTE Act. 

A cyclone leaves waves of devastation even in a metropolitan city like Chennai.. We talk about "low-lying areas" and "lakes" as convenient reasons for flooding instead of questioning the grotesque mushrooming of the city coupled with the thorough neglect by the authorities and the utter greed of the politicians. Playing the supporting roles are roads that are elevated so much that they become flyovers, toll booths which function dutifully come storm or cyclone, and expressways that have become symbols of all that is wrong. A swim through the Old Mahabalipuram River takes me to the days when the Pallava emperors would have constructed the beautiful temples, and makes me wonder how we went from there to the angular ugliness of modern buildings. We surely have a long way to go.

I joined Parler last week, after opening accounts in Gab, Gutrgoo, Inditoot, Mastodon, Koo, Elyments,  Squeaks, Opined, and others. All these platforms have tried to provide an alternative to Twitter’s hegemony and highhandedness, but without much success. We also have to consider the fact that there is really no compelling reason for anyone to move away from Twitter, despite its blatant bias and political interference. The greatest advantage that Twitter provided was flattening the social media, and there is no point in doing this again. I believe that the future of social media is likely to be more local, more personalized, and more sensory.

Twitter also showed the power of network, when the Prime Minister endorsed a book, A New Idea of India, which created quite a flutter. Should the PM endorse a book? Should the PM endorse this book? Now that he has endorsed the book, for that arrow has left the bow, I have some expectations from the authors too.

While real crackers during Dīpāvali have been banned, the metaphorical ones light up with clockwork precision: Dīpāvali is a festival of lights not sound, crackers are not Hindu because they are a modern invention, and there is no mention of crackers in scriptures. We follow the Constitution but neither is it found in any scripture, and I found out that comparing the articles in the Constitution to different types of crackers makes one a Sanghi. The whole drama was played out on Twitter with a very predictable sequence of events, which got me thinking about the equation of power and politics in social media and the real world. We talk about creating an ecosystem and end up antagonizing people who wield power on the ground because they have a different opinion from ours. While I do not have answers in this episode, I raise questions on our identity, on our community, and on who we identify as a part of the community. Also, for those from Gujarat, Sāl Mubārak.

The world's strongest democracy has ensured that the election process is no less entertaining than the best that Hollywood could offer. In all the drama that is still unfolding, the media has consistently proven their knack of predicting results that are off by a radian. On the other hand, there are those who are reluctant to accept that the election process in India, with EVMs, is more reliable, and want to go back to the good old days of paper ballots so that their favorite parties can win by capturing booths and rigging polls. EVMs, meanwhile, are not happy with this, and we get to meet E V Meena and E V Manikandan, and how they met each other. We have Deepavali next week, a time of festivities that governments, from states to the center, have decided to trample upon, proving that when it comes to Hindu traditions, every political party is the same. What do you think about bursting crackers symbolically, or splashing colors symbolically, or dancing in circles symbolically? I would rather leave the symbolism to those who cannot think beyond biriyani and paneer tikka.

When we think of the history of politics in India, we think of Chanakya. In the western world, he is often referred to as the Machiavelli of India, which is ludicrous considering that Machiavelli lived some 1800 years after Chanakya. Such odious comparisons exist everywhere and we take them for granted like the air quality when Diwali is not around. I also talk about the miracle medium in the Indian air, constitutium, which plays a sanguine role in keeping the atmosphere salubrious and salutary by ameliorating the deleterious effects of Diwali crackers between 8 to 10 PM. Constitutium molarity, not to be confused with constitutional morality, is sensitive to Hindu festivals, but otherwise seems to have no correlation with anything else. Thankfully, the Environment Ministry has introduced "green crackers", which are better than Diwali bonus for the bureaucracy. Imagine all the red-tape for green crackers, and they do not even need to contend with Nitin Gadkari.