THE NEW LEAM VIEWPOINT
The Karnataka episode reveals once again our collective decadence .
In the name of strategic action you can justify everything. Yes, the BJP with its Amit Shah has done it repeatedly. Elections have to be won; and governments have to be formed. Evolve any strategy you like. If you win, society salutes you, and media celebrate you. Don’t bother about the number of seats you have got in the assembly elections. Reduce the political arena into a fish market. Yes, like our cricket players, our politicians too are on sale. One can buy them; one can tempt them; one can make them change sides overnight. This is the master strategy. The BJP did it in Goa and Manipur. So why should the Congress lag behind? Think of the Karnataka episode. The Congress has lost. With 78 MLAs it cannot form the government. But then, the BJP too cannot do it with its 104 MLAs However, this time the Congress plans to defeat Amit Shah at his own game.
No wonder, hours after rout, the Congress has succeeded in convincing the JD (S). This post poll alliance of convenience has begun to taste blood; it dreams of forming the government in Karnataka. Can Mr. Amit Shah–the master strategist/the ruthless winning machine– sit idle? Can the Governor of Karnataka–a clear political appointee known for his close affinity with Mr. Modi–make it happen? The drama has just begun to unfold itself; television anchors will make noise; experts will theorize; and political representatives will engage in blame game: you are immoral; and hence my immorality is justified! And with butter chicken you and I will consume it: the way we feel the ‘ excitement’ of the glossy IPL or the vulgar Kapil Sharma show.
This is our collective degeneration. We do not feel shocked anymore. Instead, we keep justifying it. ‘Politicians are not saints. Why should not they do it?’ This is the way we have learned to look at the world. Left is Right. Right is Left. Congress is BJP. BJP is Congress. Secular is Communal. Communal is Secular. In this fluid zone of instantaneity morality is a bad word. For your temporal success everything is possible. There is no solid foundation of truth anymore. Is it ‘post-truth’ or ‘post-modern’?
Is it the reason why there is also widespread indifference to this sort of politics? As English-speaking/ well-dressed ‘experts’ talk about strategies, ‘swings’, statistical tabulations and caste affiliations for analyzing the election results, we find a vendor called Mr. Nizamuddin–not less than 60-year old. With torn clothes and breathing problem he approaches us. He does not have the money to buy the medicine for the chronic asthma. Congress or BJP–nothing matters to him; Hindutva or Islamic fundamentalism–it is futile for him. Republic Channel or Mirror Now–it makes no sense to him; Pranay Roy or Sekhar Gupta–he has not heard their names. His struggle goes on. Possibly, one thing he knows which many of these experts are unaware of. This is just a theatre of the absurd!
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