Pump Parivar and our future

Poor Bharat Ratna Bismillah Khan! Why should he, too, aspire for a petrol pump after having conquered the world of music with his 8216;shehnai8217;? Or will 8216;shehnais8217; of the future pipe in tunes of corruption that are sweet music to the ears of all the 8216;haves8217; in Bharat? Since the number of Bharat Ratnas itself is on an alarming increase, the number of plaintive statements such as Bismillah Khan Sahib8217;s may also increase in the future. Is this the voice of our culture in a new millennium?

And there are people who want even our national anthem to be a brand war between Tagore8217;s secular India and Bankim8217;s mother-worship. Recently in Maharashtra, Vande Mataram was claimed to be our national anthem. This is according to the long-term icon-replacement agenda of the Parivar. In Gujarat, they were reportedly attempting to demolish 8216;the three Ms8217;. Who or what are the three Ms? The answer was: Muslims, Mahatma, and Macaulay. Macaulay? He symbolises those who have received an 8216;English8217; education.

So, is it 8216;jana, gana, mana8217; or is it 8216;vande mataram8217;? I am afraid our real national anthem at this juncture is what is universally known as 8216;whistling in the dark8217;. As a thinking citizen articulating his thoughts and perceptions, I may be in a minority, but I am so shaken by the stupendous sequence of events in the subcontinent since 1977, that I am compelled to try and take a deep and steady look all around.

At this juncture, it seems, the military junta in Pakistan and the political class in India are competing neck-to-neck in corrupting the body politic in the entire subcontinent. The BJP-led coalition ruling India at the moment gave us pogroms in Gujarat followed by the Petrol Pump Scam. The Opposition parties, including the Congress in the past, have progressively abrogated their constitutional obligations and made wealth in the name of the party. All of them have taken us for a ride and when it comes to the crunch, we need not have a speck of doubt that they will unanimously declare themselves 8212; as the Parliament 8212; above the law.

Take the example of Gujarat where Modi wants the 8216;Ganga jal8217; of a mandate to absolve him of the responsibility for the massacres of Muslims 8212; and the murder of the Constitution itself. This is nothing but populism parading as democracy on the basis of brute majority and brutish networks to bully us into silence. Now that the NHRC has unequivocally indicted both the Gujarat and the Union governments for pogroms that were 8216;nothing short of war8217;, will the EC find the situation in the state normal and suitable for holding the mid-term polls that the BJP so desperately seems to want?

Indira Gandhi was the first prime minister of India to have monopolised control over agencies such as the RAW, the CBI, the IB. It was during her tenure that the PMO became the most powerful power-centre in the country. Her Hindu opposition, then almost in political exile, silently learnt their lesson from her. Today the PMO wields an equivalent power. It can blackmail its opposition into submission by digging out the skeletons in their cupboards. It can even muzzle the media by blackmailing its financiers.

The Pump Parivar is turning out to be as much of a sinister oligarchy as the combination of military rulers and Islamic militants in neighbouring Pakistan. Musharraf can keep his opposition in exile using his military muscle. Sooner or later, the judiciary can be made more benign and submissive. Everybody can be made offers they cannot refuse. We do not need an underworld as a separate entity in either country. It can be integrated with the ruling class and made to work as its hatchet agency. And when cornered, leaders of either country will resort to their last trick: an appeal to religious sentiments and communal identity in the name of 8216;nationalism8217; and 8216;patriotism8217;. And we fall easy prey to the tactic.

As for the India-Pakistan feud that is fattening politicians on either side, what do we have in store for the millions of poor and uninformed people? Now we have nuclear capability on either side and have already had a recent eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation. Both sides are upbeat when they talk of 8216;first strike capability8217; or 8216;total annihilation8217; and 8216;the final solution8217;. But are we aware of the dimensions of a nuclear conflict scenario? We will not be able to grasp them as long as we have multi-channel entertainment on TV and multi-crore flops made by a Bollywood imitating its own 8216;C8217; grade thrillers. If Marx had foreseen this, he would have revised himself and said, 8216;8216;The media are the opium of the people.8217;8217;

We share a lot with the citizens of Pakistan. To begin with, a rotten leadership. Look around and find similar scenarios in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. South Asian civilisation is sinking and there are no saviours on the horizon. We need to start our rescue operation on our own.

The writer is a well-known poet and winner of the Sahitya Akademi award