Heading into possibly the most important Lok Sabha elections in our history, India’s parties ought to be discussing an ailing economy, the geostrategic crisis that might envelop us as Pakistan melts down, the crisis in West Asia that is inexorably pushing up the price of energy, and a youth bulge that threatens to put millions of under-educated youth on the streets in years to come. Instead, the BJP’s got busy guarding its right flank. Its busy building up the cult of Narendra Modi; the Congress trying desperately to build a cult out of the resisting, cotton-textured, cardboard-flavoured Rahul Gandhi.
The fate of the Juche cult in India, mock-worthy as it might seem, thus holds up a mirror to our political culture. The only thing we have is cults.
Liberal opponents of the Modi cult have long cast it as a personality cult that heralds a coming fascism. Modi’s holographic clones, his armies of mask-wearing supporters, his quite literal deification in Gujarat: all these have been read as evidence of an authoritarian anti-politics in which the person of the leader replaces god. This line of argument has a venerable intellectual lineage. Emilio Gentile, a great historian of fascism, famously argued that the Italian fascists used festivals and rituals to create a kind of lay religion—a cult of the Duce. The cultural critic Walter Benjamin argued that Fascism’s great success was to give the masses a means to express themselves, using politics for “the production of ritual values”.
The thing is, these kinds explanations only take us so far. In India, all kinds of politicians have done the same thing, including several who cannot credibly be accused of being fascist.
Following the death of Tamil Nadu chief minister MG Ramachandran in 1987, 31 grief-stricken followers committed suicide. No less than 21 people killed themselves in 1986, mainly by burning themselves, to protest the arrest of his rival, K Karunanidhi.
Earlier this year, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa fan HU Husaini had a bust of her made up in human blood. Elsewhere, supporters were reported to have cut off their thumbs and tongues as acts of ritual sacrifice. Journalist DBS Jeyaraj has recorded that in some Tamil Nadu homes, “people light camphor and lay flowers before” her photographs. “Falling at her feet or touching them as a mark of respect is almost a ritual for many of her followers,” Jeyaraj wrote. In one incident, “veshti-clad party men standing in a line fell down like ninepins as she alighted from [an] aircraft. When they got up, the white veshtis were all red from the soil.”
It would be tempting to write this off as some kind of macabre Tamil sport, but it is in fact deeply woven into our national cultural fabric. Journalist Amita Verma has chronicled how former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati, in 2003, asked her party workers to pray to her instead of to deities. In 2007, author ML Dosad published a book describing Ms Mayawati as Ek Zinda Devi, or living goddess. Two years later, artist Mahesh Tripathi put up an exhibition with works depicting her in various goddess-like states. Finally, in 2010, lawyer Kanhaiya Lal Rajput obligingly handed over three acres of land to build a temple to the object of his veneration.
Sonia Gandhi herself has long been cast by the Congress as a mother-goddess figure. Tamil Nadu Congress leader Vimla Ganesan, typically, said her leader was “above greed and power”. She was also, Ms Ganesan went on, above human passion, asking “for clemency for her husband’s murderer”. Indira Gandhi was, however, marketed as Durga—myth-building, it bears mention, that bore former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s approval. The most successful cult-building exercise of all, of course, was the making of the Mahatma.
M Madhava Prasad has called it this process of deification ‘Fan Bhakti’. Prasad’s reflections, published in 2007, were provoked by the rise and rise of movie star Rajnikanth. The actor’s fans famously conducted a palabhishekham—the ritual washing of temple idols with milk—on his cut-outs. Hinduism, Prasad contended, allowed for the production of “a space of worship around any suitable image, however produced”. It was not that fans watching an actor play Krishna mistook him for the real thing. Instead, the actor came to embody virtues one associated with godhood—for example, justice and the hope of a better life.
Fan Bhakti, Prasad’s work suggests, flourishes in cultures were politics fails to devolve meaningful power to people. India’s people are thus reduced to worshippers before a deity, asking for favour in return for offerings.
Political Fan Bhakti is a delusion—a ceaseless search for a messiah who will deliver us from our sufferings. Modi—for those of us old enough to remember the disillusion that followed the seductive sunrises of prime ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Vishwanath Pratap Singh—is the latest in a long line of leaders promising radical change. The problem is that successful political change needs a rigorous, evidence-based sensibility—a sensibility that privileges hard thinking on policy issues over feel-good polemic. It’s always good to be beware of prophets.
In this case, there isn’t one: Modi might or might not be a decent administrator, but he’s no prophet. I’ve searched, without luck, to find one genuinely original idea in Modi’s much-praised speech at Shri Ram College of Commerce conclave. Economic vision? Think Margaret Thatcher, think Ronald Reagan, think—gasp—Manmohan Singh. Modi thinks that “government has no business doing business”; Singh takes pride in “getting government off the backs of the people”. Singh claims poverty will be addressed by India “becoming a major global player in the world economy”; Modi asserts that “the solution to all problems is development”. Modi hopes “India will once again rise and become a great power”; Singh insists that “the emergence of India as a major global power, [an] economic power, is an idea whose time has come”. Reading these anodyne speeches, the words Tweedledum and Tweedledee kept springing out at me; I felt a deep sense of loss for Kim Jong-Il.
Modi’s discursive strategies, Firstpost’s Lakshmi Chaudhry has pointed out, derive not so much from the high traditions of Hindu-nationalist ideology, but the Chetan Bhagat novel. Singh uses longer sentences, but says much the same things.
The horrible truth is that even the Gujarat mass killings of 2002 weren’t a particularly original project. Modi didn’t invent communal violence—and, for cynical exploitation of mass killings, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi deserved first prize. It’s one of the great ironies of recent Indian history that a major national secularism award is named after the Prime Minister who presided over the Delhi riots of 1984, Meerut in 1987 and the Bhagalpur riots of 1989.
Modi’s more serious supporters, as well as his critics, have made thoughtful arguments about the issues we ought be debating. There’s little evidence, sadly, the political leadership either comprehends or cares for these debates—or, more important, that they’re informing popular discussion, online and in homes. Instead, we have invective, abuse and outright stupidity.
Look hard, thus, for serious new ideas on how India should engage our dangerous geo-strategic environment, our explosive youth bulge, or the looming energy crisis—and you come up with zip.
I’ll happily admit that Modi an intellectual giant compared to Rahul Gandhi, who once claimed, with breath-taking earnestness, that politics “is in your pants” (though, in fairness, certain gender-studies types might agree with him).
Nor will I dispute that political vacuity is a global illness. In a sparkling essay published earlier this month, the commentator Harris Khalique savaged Ian Khan’s anti-corruption campaign, pointing out that “snazzy management solutions to deeply-entrenched and almost organic structural problems fix nothing”. From the younger George Bush to Bunga-Bunga’ Silvio Berlusconi, desperate peoples across the world have turned to leaders offering feel-good politics.
Zero ought not, however, be the base line by which we judge our leaders. India needs better politicians if it is to become the country we all want. For that to happen, we’ll have shed the tribal, leader-focussed passions that drive Fan Bhakti.
SpiceJet and IndiGo better sit up and take notice, for this offer is surely an indicator of things to come from AirAsia in the not-so-distant future. The Malaysian carrier, which is launching an airline in India in partnership with the Tatas, today announced ‘zero rupee’ fares to Indian cities on international routes within Asia.
This means passengers will have to pay only airport charges and fuel surcharge only, the airline is offering seats for free. Tickets can be booked till April 7, but the journey can happen only in 2014, from January one to April 30th. So anyone who wants to book almost one year in advance can avail of these rock bottom fares.
These low fares can get Indians to Singapore, Phnom Penh, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. The offer enables flying from Kolkata to Bangkok for Rs 3,300, Chennai to Bangkok for Rs 3,500, Bangalore to Kuala Lumpur for Rs 5,500 , Kolkata to Kuala Lumpur for Rs 5000 , Cochin or Chennai to Kuala Lumpur for Rs 4500 and from Tiruchirapalli to Kuala Lumpur for Rs 4000. All these fares are inclusive of taxes.
A statement from AirAsia said that up to two million seats are on offer under this scheme. It also includes such fares to domestic Malaysian destinations such as Penang, Johor Bahru and Terengganu.
So why should IndiGo and SpiceJet worry? They need to be strategize since “zero rupee” fares are a thing of the past in India – the last time zero or one rupee fares were announced was when Captain Gopinath still ran Air Deccan. A lot of Indians learnt to fly on these ridiculously low fares but Air Deccan had to look for a buyer since its own finances were smeared in red.
Pricing discipline was the key till last year for all airlines, when yields (revenue per passenger) went up for most of them on higher ticket prices. But in the last few months, when less and less fliers are taking to the skies, airlines have once again resorted to fire sales of tickets to fill up their aircraft.
Not only will arrival of AirAsia spell doom for low cost carriers (LCCs) which account for more than three fourths of the domestic market now, it may require them to tweak strategy substantially. AirAsia’s offer is easy on the pocket but has several hidden charges: this airlines charges people extra for check-in baggage, it charges them for food and perhaps would want to also charge for seat preferences etc when Indian operations begin.
So our LCCs have a difficult choice: begin offering zero rupee fares for 12 month-advance purchase or risk losing some customers to the aggressive Malaysian neighbour.
After the new 2014 BJP team has been announced by party president Rajnath Singh, contrary to what most media experts have opined, the prospect of Narendra Modi becoming Prime Minister has not increased but in fact sharply declined. It appears this has happened not by default but by design. And the author of the stratagem to spike Modi’s chances is the RSS Chief.
Modi had become too big for his boots and had earlier challenged the RSS. His belated overtures to Nagpur evidently bought him peace but not trust. RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat it seems does not forgive or forget very easily. In the days to come Modi may learn this to his cost. It would be instructive to see how precisely Mr. Bhagwat has cut Modi to size.
Modi’s rapid rise as a prime ministerial candidate coincided with his conversion from being a Brand Hindutva icon to a Brand Development icon. With a sharp eye at electoral prospects Modi assiduously and systematically made his image switch. It earned him plaudits at home and from distant abroad. His elevation to the BJP parliamentary board has been hailed by analysts as his stepping stone to the PM’s post. These analysts have missed the wood for the trees. Rajnath Singh’s new team of office bearers has made Modi the captive of precisely the past shackles he was trying to escape.
What image will Modi project at the end of the next poll when the entire BJP campaign will be conducted by a perceived pro-Hindu and anti-Muslim team? One of the new general secretaries, Amit Shah, was jailed for alleged involvement in a widely publicized false police encounter case in which a Muslim had been killed. Another, Varun Gandhi, has thus far been cleared of court cases alleging hate speeches but that has not altered popular perception about his almost rabid pro-Hindu orientation.
Other team members like Uma Bharati are known for their commitment to the Hindutva ideology. Unless the BJP therefore gets a single party majority it is most unlikely that coalition partners would accept Modi as leader even if the BJP is the largest coalition member. Few would consider at this juncture that BJP is likely to get single party majority. In that event LK Advani’s chances would be much greater. Advani’s blessing of the new team may not therefore be as reluctant in private as might be publicly perceived.
Did all such calculations escape the notice of the RSS leader or was the team selected precisely on the basis of these calculations? Circumstantial evidence suggests that Mohan Bhagwat knew exceedingly well what the impact of the new team will most likely be. This becomes evident from the fact that within Gujarat itself where Modi is desperately trying to woo the minorities his arch opponent Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Pravin Togadia is staging a ‘Hindu Sangam’ rally in Modi’s personal constituency to counter the Chief Minister’s Sadbhavna movement intended to woo the minorities.
Not only the VHP president Raghav Reddy but also Mohan Bhagwat are expected to grace the occasion along with Togadia. In these circumstances if Narendra Modi aspires to become the Prime Minister after 2014 he will have to aim for a single party majority based on the Hindutva plank which precludes the need for any support to him by non-BJP elements.
Is he ready for this challenge?
Rising temperatures triggered by global warming will lead to a massive ‘greening’, with up to 50 percent increase in plant cover, in the Arctic, new research has warned.
Scientists reveal that new models have projected that wooded areas in the Arctic could increase by as much as 50 percent over the next few decades.
The researchers also show that this dramatic greening will accelerate climate warming at a rate greater than previously expected.
“Such widespread redistribution of Arctic vegetation would have impacts that reverberate through the global ecosystem,” said Richard Pearson, lead author on the paper and a research scientist at the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation.
Plant growth in Arctic ecosystems has increased over the past few decades, a trend that coincides with increases in temperatures, which are rising at about twice the global rate.
The research team – which includes scientists from the Museum, AT&T Labs-Research, Woods Hole Research Center, Colgate University, Cornell University, and the University of York – used climate scenarios for the 2050s to explore how this trend is likely to continue in the future.
The scientists developed models that statistically predict the types of plants that could grow under certain temperatures and precipitation.
Although it comes with some uncertainty, this type of modelling is a robust way to study the Arctic because the harsh climate limits the range of plants that can grow, making this system simpler to model compared to other regions such as the tropics.
The models reveal the potential for massive redistribution of vegetation across the Arctic under future climate, with about half of all vegetation switching to a different class and a massive increase in tree cover.
“These impacts would extend far beyond the Arctic region. For example, some species of birds seasonally migrate from lower latitudes and rely on finding particular polar habitats, such as open space for ground-nesting,” Pearson said.
In addition, the researchers investigated the multiple climate change feedbacks that greening would produce. They found that a phenomenon called the albedo effect, based on the reflectivity of Earth’s surface, would have the greatest impact on the Arctic’s climate.
When the Sun hits snow, most of the radiation is reflected back to space. But when it hits an area that’s “dark,” or covered in trees or shrubs, more sunlight is absorbed in the area and temperature increases.
This has a positive feedback to climate warming: the more vegetation there is, the more warming will occur. The study was published in journal Nature Climate Change.
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He started his career as a teacher of Islamic studies at the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore. But Hafiz Saeed's name made headlines globally after the 2001 attack on Parliament in Delhi. In November 2008, his name surfaced again. India blamed jihadi groups, mainly Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) allegedly run by Saeed, for the 26/11 attack in Mumbai. The 61-year-old vehemently denies both allegations. It doesn't change the fact that the Rs.50 crore bounty on his head, announced on April 2, has made him one of the most wanted men in US and India. Yet he is a free man in Pakistan. Its Supreme Court cleared him of involvement in the Mumbai attack in May 2010 and he often addresses public gatherings as well as press conferences. One of the most powerful men of Pakistan, he is the supreme leader of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), formerly known as LeT. Relaxed and confident, Saeed talks to INN in Lahore.
Q. What do you think of the US price on your head?
A. It was a big surprise for me. Normally, bounty is placed on individuals who are hiding somewhere. I am not hiding in any cave. I think the US is frustrated because with the help of Defence of Pakistan Council, which is a combination of 40 religious and political parties, I am staging countrywide protests against the resumption of nato supplies and drone strikes. Either the US has very little knowledge or is basing its decisions on wrong information being provided by India, or indeed, they are just frustrated. As a matter of fact, I am easily accessible. US officials can come to meet me any time; however, they should bring the bounty with them as well which our organisation, JuD, can use to carry out relief operations across the country.
Q. Don't you think the Americans can get you like they got Osama bin Laden?
A. The Americans should know it will not be possible for them to get me like they got Osama bin Laden. I am not afraid of them.
Q. What do you hope to achieve with the rallies against the US?
A. A cut in nato supplies will compel the US-led nato forces to flee from Afghanistan soon. And this will ultimately help the Mujahideen to revert their attention to India-held Kashmir. Let me tell you, a full-scale armed jihad will begin soon in Kashmir after American forces withdraw from Afghanistan. The freedom movement in Kashmir will also gain momentum following the withdrawal of nato troops from Afghanistan. I'm sure India will face a tough time as the Mujahideen revert their attention to Kashmir.
Q. Who are your friends? Who is standing by you during these testing times?
A. I have the full support of Defence of Pakistan Council. They have condemned the US move of placing a bounty on my head. They have also held countrywide demonstrations against the US bounty.
Q. Law enforcement agencies in Pakistan have claimed that they have arrested operators of JuDin connection with the Mumbai attack. Can you confirm it?
A. Yes, there are a few workers of JuD currently languishing in jail. Their trial is under way and I am sure the court will set them free as soon as the government sees that there is no proof against them. Just as the Supreme Court of Pakistan set me free in connection with the Mumbai case due to lack of evidence, the court will set the workers of JuD free soon, Inshallah.
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VHP will declare Gujarat a ”Hindu state” by 2015 besides having its presence in all 18,000 villages of the state in the next two years, the outfit’s leader Praveen Togadia claimed.
“In two years, the VHP will have a presence in all 18,000 villages of Gujarat and by 2015, we will declare Gujarat a Hindu state,” VHP’s international working president Pravin Togadia told VHP followers who gathered here for a ‘Hindu Sangam’ event.
The event was organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to launch a new movement called ‘Hindu Ahead, for Hindu Security and Prosperity’, which aims to reach out to Hindus in villages, towns, cities and tribal areas.
Invoking the issue of the “insecure Hindu”, Togadia said, “To protect and prosper, Hindus themselves have to gear up, by becoming true practicing Hindus, aware Hindus and active Hindus.”
The absence of Narendra Modi at the function was conspicuous though the VHP organised the event in the area which falls in the Gujarat Chief Minister’s constituency. In the past, the Gujarat VHP has been at loggerheads with Modi over a range of issues including demolition of illegal temples in Gandhinagar and Ahmadabad.
The VHP, through its ‘Hindu Sangam’ announced plans for the resurrection of the organisation, which would celebrate 50 years of its inception in 2014. Raising the issue of Ram Mandir, Togadia said, “Unless and until we will become Hindus, not only by our behaviour, but with our practice and awareness, only then will our dream of building Ram Mandir at Ayodhya be fulfilled.”
VHP’s joint organisational secretary Vinayakrao Deshpande talked about dwindling support for the outfit in Gujarat. He mentioned that 10 years ago there were more than 10,000 committees in the state which has come down to 6,000 at present.
“We will have to bring that to 10,000 by this year end,” Deshpande said. Jagruti Pandya, wife of former Gujarat Minister of State for Home Haren Pandya, was also present at the gathering along with some Gujarat Parivarta Party (GPP) members.
Meanwhile, former VHP leader Atul Vaidya — one of the accused in the Gulberg massacre case — alleged that Togadia had “ignored” them for all these years. “VHP workers who were made accused in rioting cases have been passing through social and financial problems. Where was Togadia during all these years? He is spending lakhs of rupees for this ‘Hindu Sangam’ but he didn’t have money to support us,” Vaidya told reporters here, earlier in the day.
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7 am: Wrote a spot of poetry. It’s absolute rubbish, as always, but people will buy anything written by me. They adore me. Poetry apart, if I could publish all the fiction I order my state officials to write as statistics, I would instantly knock Chetan Bhagat off the bestseller lists. Sweet boy, though. I love people who adore me.
8 am: Had fab workout at akhara— my broad chest rocks! Now deciding what to wear. A scarf by Gucci or Fendi? Or should I go ethnic? Must look terrific. All the Gujju mummies and their teenage daughters think I’m hotter than Salman Khan. Someday I’ll go shirtless and blow their minds. That’s bound to cause another riot — a more serious one this time, ha ha.
9 am: An ‘A’ List industrialist just called. Thanked me profusely for giving him a thousand acres of prime land at the rate of Rs 5 per acre.
9.30 am: Dhokla and besan ka laddoo for breakfast. No nice reports in the national dailies about me today. Some stupid columnist has just said that the only vibrant things about Gujarat are those gaudy turbans that I wear. Hate it when they keep saying I’m just a gas bag.
10 am: Heads of state machinery came and touched my feet and asked me what I’d like them to do for me today. Love this morning ritual best!
12 pm: Another ‘A’ List industrialist just called. Thanked me effusively for giving him three thousand acres of prime land at a throwaway price.
1 pm: Rajma-chawal, pickled onions and papad for lunch. Must get used to North Indian food. After all, my move to Delhi is inevitable. Not enjoying lunch, though, that gas bag remark still rankles.
2 pm: Checking mail. Have put daily hate mail from annoying human rights groups and NGO-types into the paper shredder as usual. Pesky machchars! There was a whiny letter from my wife too. Says she now has a double PhD (astrophysics and biology) and can she please, please, please come back?
Sent a stern reply saying that unless she wins at least three Nobel prizes in literature, mathematics and geology she is only fit to teach and live at the local pathshala I banished her to. Oooh, there are also piles and piles of letters from Gujju mummies and their teenage daughters declaring undying love for me! Must put them on my bedside table. I love reading fan mail before I sleep. Occasionally, it’s nice to read something other than MeinKampf.
3 pm: Googling self on internet. Ever since I lied to students at SRCC about the wonders I have wrought in Gujarat, there are a lot of Rajnikanth-type jokes about me. These
are fabulous:
- What does Rajnikanth say when he’s shocked? OMM (Oh My Modi)!
- One day a meteor was hurtling towards India. Modi sneezed and it was flung towards Russia’s Ural Mountains.Uh, oh. I’m not too sure I like these, though:
- Modi is actually Tarzan in disguise. That’s why he always thumps his chest like an aggressive ape.
- Hurricane Sandy was created by Modi because the US still hasn’t given him a visa.
4 pm: Tea break with snacks (besanganthias). Had a long video conference with my PR agency in the US about that nasty gas bag statement in the papers today. They said they will work hard on it.
5 pm: Someone from the EU called. They want to do business with me. Boy, oh boy, I’m getting popular! Maybe Delhi is too small for me. I should start preparing myself for Washington. All the Gujju mummies and their teenage daughters there will definitely vote for me. I need a visa and green card first, but it’s only a matter of time. Arrey, money always scores over ethics. That’s what I tried to teach those gullible SRCC kids too.
6 pm: A ‘C’ List industrialist just called. Silly man complained that I charged him much, much more for land than I charge the ‘A’ & ‘B’ listers. Hello, why should I bother to do favours for him? As if the media will get hysterically excited if a nobody like him calls me a modern-day Gandhi?
8 pm: Besan curry with pakodas for dinner, North Indian- style. Wonder if the PR agency has sorted out the gas bag problem yet.
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Rare are the days when the Indian parliament transacts real business. When it does, this MP Arjun Ram Meghwal is in the thick of the action.
At a time when politics is dominated by money, muscle power and political legacy, Arjun Ram Meghwal’s life presents an interesting contrast. Initially a weaver, he went on to become an IAS officer and then a Member of Parliament.
“I was born in a traditional weaver family of Kismidesar village (Bikaner), where any student of my age hardly goes to school. During my school and college days I used to weave to support my family and my education,” says Meghwal.
Meghwal got married when he was in Class 7. After marriage, he continued his studies and graduated in Arts (BA) & Law (LLB) from Sri Dungar College, Bikaner (Rajasthan). What’s more he managed to do his postgraduation from the same college.
“My father had strictly warned that he would not allow me to continue my studies further if I failed in any of my exams. It was a very tough time for me because there was no environment to study at my place. But I worked hard and managed to complete my studies,” he says. Along with his job, he started preparing for competitive exams to land in a government job.
Not a path of roses
He got into Indian Post and Telegraph Department as a telephone operator. While working as a telephone operator, he also pursued his LLB degree while helping his father at the same time. He also fought and won the elections for the post of General Secretary of Telephone Traffic. Meghwal puts forth, “This was a great opportunity for me to understand the relation between policies and politics. I attended many State-level meeting which gave me a good exposure.”
The career journey
In spite of clearing the written examination, he failed in the interview for Rajasthan Administrative Services. He was shocked as he had been confident of clearing the interview. But he did not give up. He gave a second attempt with strong determination to succeed. He cleared it and got selected for State industrial services. Following this, in 1994, he was recruited as the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan. He reached the peak, when he was promoted to the Indian Administrative Services and worked as District Collector of Churu district.
As he received immense respect from people, he felt that they looked up to him as a role model and expected him to play an even greater role. Politics was just the platform to serve this purpose. He took the final leap in 2009, when the Bharatiya Janata Party offered him a ticket for Lok Sabha from Bikaner region. He won. His ambition is to serve the people to the best of his ability. “I consider this a new beginning and I still have miles to go in the service of people,” he concludes.
