Whatever prevails is the truth

Notice the manner in which such journalists have related to the fresh wave of reservations bestowed on the new backward castes in northern Indian states. The same champions of merit who proclaimed ten years ago when Mandal was announced that civilisation itself had been subverted have humbly endorsed the expansion of the lists of backward beneficiaries.

Also, note the manner in which such journalistshave changed their approach to their former bete noire, V.P. Singh, that destroyer of merit. A few years ago, he was for them the vilest politician, quintessentially the small-town man with a small-time mind, a person steeped in cynical and shortsi-ghted casteism who had destroyed the very fou-ndations of the meritocracy that had sustained India for centuries and led it to its glorious position in the world. That he had committed the unpardonable act of di-splacing the Nehru-Ga-ndhi dynasty from what they accepted to be its birthright over power added to his demonic character.

However, this time round their approach to V.P. Singh has changed. The man remains the same but he has acquired a sudden sagacity and respectability as far as such media commentators are concerned. Not only was he given enormous exposure on the post-election telecasts but he was shown deference due to a statesman. He has even been accepted as an aesthete.

Thus, as the five years of the self-imposed exile of V.P. Singh fromelectoral politics comes to a close, all the conte-ntious issues that surrounded him appear to be vanishing and he seems to be eminently respectable once again. Charges-heets have finally been filed in the Bofors case. Of all former prime ministers, he alone has renounced the expensive SPG cover. The Inter-State Council set up by him has come of age, so much so that ministers now vie for its membership. The National Commission on Women instituted by his government is alive. The Prasar Bharati Act legislated during his prime ministership is a perennial source of embarrassment to media manipulators. V.P. Singh8217;s Man-dalite manoeuvres have been adopted by all parties: and if there is any demur, the likes of Ka-lyan Singh are close by to dispel illusions.

The curious part is that while there is a str-ange anachronistic endorsement of V.P. Singh 8211; ten years after the ev-ent, as it were there is little attempt to try to figure out the scheme of the person himself, a sc-heme that is once again bound to shock thesmugness of the status quoists. There is no mystery about V. P. Singh8217;s politics; he has made it amply clear. He has stated unambiguously that he sees powerplay in India shifting from the privileged upper castes to the so-called backwards and minorities and the inexorable logic of the shift is that power will move soon to the even more deprived Dalits, Adivasis and others. V.P. Singh8217;s problem is that he does not understand this shift in terms of ch-anges in class relations, in the perspective of political economy; he is content merely to figure out the political tectonic movements and predicate strategies and tactics with that foreknowledge. Nevertheless, in this respect he is at least one jump ahead of the others and it is this political agility that has kept him politically alive even as his detractors have been busy writing out his obituaries.

The response of such commentators to Atal Behari Vajpayee is in a way similar in its simple-mindedness. They have been taken in by the affability of the avuncularpoet-politician and swayed by his oratory. So much so that they refused to see that the colossus that they have been admiring not only has feet of clay but also that there are serious and disturbing flaws in the politics that he represents. For instance, they have failed to ask why the party failed to get even one more seat in the 13th Lok Sabha than it had in the 12th Lok Sabha. They did not question the reasons why days after the BJP claimed victory on the basis of the electoral performance of parties like the Telugu Desam, which are not even members of the NDA. The party lost three parliament seats in Bihar where it had sitting candidates. They did not care about the details of the many policy measures taken by the government.

The fact is that just as politics in India has been reduced to mere realpolitik shorn of all pretences about policies and principles, journalism too has become, by and large, shameless worship of the powerful. Criticality has been replaced by naivete at best and even complicity andmany journalists have become mere publicists. Mo-ral outrage has been painted in these cynical times to be irritating sanctimpniou- sness. But then in these times when liberalisation only means libertinism, mere relaxing of moral concerns rather than loosening the regime of unnecessary and un- productive controls, there is a different interpretation of what is the truth. And, like the jesting Pontius Pilate, we do not wait for the answer.