The day India became independent in 1947, Jal Irani and his friend drove across Mumbai - then Bombay - in two different cars, holding hands to celebrate the event. Fifty two years down the line, 82-year-old Irani has given up hope for the country; the impending elections hold no promise for him anymore.Irani belongs to a community that has never been on any politician's agenda before, during or after elections. ``The Parsis are insignificant as a vote-bank. We have never been wooed like other communities because our votes don't matter. Our community itself is fragmented and has never asked for reservations or other sops since we are educated and self-sufficient. During the British rule too, Parsis held positions of authority,'' says the former Army captain who fought for the British Army during the Second World War.Even so, he says, his community was jubilant when the British left. ``At last, we thought, the country would be free to do what it wanted.Ironically, today we have the capacity to set upatomic plants, yet we ask Enron to produce electricity. The country is being mismanaged and corruption has destroyed us.''He adds, ``It will be a hung Parliament, there will be bickering, no Bills will be passed and no progress will take place. I see no solution as this is a country divided by language and religion.''Irani came to Bombay in the early '30s as a refugee after an earthquake struck his hometown, Quetta, in Baluchistan. ``After graduating as an auto engineer and working for sometime in Nashik, I was called upon by the Collector to join the British army when war suddenly broke out. The government was looking out for people who were not anti-British and who could speak English reasonably well.''The sprightly man who has stopped writing letters to newspapers after he began ``receiving threatening calls'' says he sees no hope for the common man when a person like Jayalalitha gets away scot-free even after a number of cases against her. ``Her cases keep on getting transferred from court tocourt or get postponed. On the other hand, there are undertrials in Bihar who have been in jail for 14 years. During the freedom struggle, our leaders at least had character. Today, they compare each other with Elizabeth Taylor and Monica Lewinsky. Indira Gandhi was bossy but I admired her for her strong will. Her son, Rajiv, however, was a different story.''He says the diversity of India is also its bane. ``All over the world, it is not religion but language that unites people. Christianity has not united Europe, it's the language French for France, German for Germany. The same goes for Islam. In our country, people speak 17 languages and hundreds of dialects. How can there be unity? Churchill had said that the British should have continued for 10 more years after independence to teach our politicians how to rule. It must have sounded humiliating then, but look where we are today.''While most Parsis maintain that they do lean towards the Congress, Irani makes an interesting observation. ``Most Parsisare not bothered about voting. The ones that do are easily swayed by personalities. This time they will go for Sonia Gandhi because she looks quite pretty without her glasses.''
