My friend, who works inside the INC, was in Pune today and I spent half the day with him. He said there was a crisis of knowledge within the workers, who get taken in by the right wing’s rhetoric. As an example, they have moved from, “What rot are you talking? Get lost.” to “Hmm, Nehru had good intent but damaged India. He was probably anti-Hindu.” This is but a step away from full-blown retard, and needs to be nipped in the bud. The powers-that-be in the INC think that their workers and leaders need to be given the tools of facts, history, data, and knowledge to fight this kind of rubbish. And so, they are creating a nationwide program to raise the consciousness of the grassroots Congressi.
I disagreed. I told him that he is using the wrong tool on the problem. The problem isn’t lack of evidence, or scholarship, or even the truth. The problem is neither evidence, nor scholarship, nor truth can convince the bhakts that their narrative is false. Because they rely on neither of these pillars to support it. Their modus operandi is volume. In both, the sheer number of people they reach and the decibel levels at which they shout their message out.
I gave him an example that happened to me recently.
Bhakt: Nehru built IITs and IIMs but sent his children to England to study.
Me: The first IIT (Kharagpur) came up in 1951. Indira Gandhi was 34 by then, and had completed her education (after changing several schools across India and abroad) in, wait for it, Shantiniketan!
Bhakt: —
Me: —
Bhakt: You think Indira was the only offspring of Nehru? He was Muslim. He had many wives and many children.
Me: —
Bhakt: —
Me: I can’t argue with that.
As you can see, logic and reasoning, evidence and facts, indeed the truth itself fails in face of such opposition. The kind of nuanced and principled opposition the INC is trying to build against it is no match.
Douglas Adams, one of my favourite authors, had a word for this, “ABOYNE (vb.) To beat an expert at a game of skill by playing so appallingly that none of his clever tactics or strategies are of any use to him.” The right-wing has aboyned the liberals to a point that unless they think of something drastic, they would soon be completely out of the game itself.So, what is the tool they should use? I don’t know. Perhaps they should ask themselves, “What would Gandhi have done?” Of all the Congressis, he had the best connect with the grassroots and could structure his appeal to reach and affect them the most, energising them into action against the most powerful of all Empires in the 20th century. Maybe they need a Gandhi to rise amongst them.
