An open letter to those who laugh at The honourable Mr.Mansukh Laxmanbhai Mandaviya, the Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat and the Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare India and Chemical and Fertilizers in the Government of India.
Dear posh people with impractically high expectations based on the founding fathers of this nation,
We are now a country of those who are so much like us that they are relatable, likeable, and more importantly, not seen as threatening to our ‘way of life’, whatever that is, by trying to cajole, scold, pull, push, and lead us into this silly vision of future they have in their over-educated heads. These people, our current leaders, are exactly like the ones who send and receive WhatsApp forwards in our family and alumni groups, spread conspiracy theories, talk gobbledygook about our army and intelligence services, claim to come from ancestors who had already discovered all that is (and will be in the future too) good, and fervently believe that ‘outsiders’ (meaning all those not like them) have been responsible for their condition today, even as they try and aver that their condition today is that of a proud citizen of a world-leading superpower, taking tremendous offence at any suggestion to the contrary, with zero cognitive dissonance and the confidence that could be used by M/s Dunning and Kruger as a case study.
Today, you laugh at Mr.Mandaviya’s tweets and try and show him up for how much of a misfit he is to be in any position of responsibility in the world’s largest democracy. But here’s the truth: he is today’s leader, not yesterday’s. He is not the best possible future that we could aspire to, and hence under his leadership, forge ahead towards. He is exactly like us. Like the majority. He is from the same material, the same soil, the same make, and of the same internal constitution. He could be you or me, or our uncle, or next-door neighbour. Indeed, he is us. There are more Indians on social media who post like him (yes, the ‘Hai deer, will you do fraandship?’ and the ‘sand bobs and vagene.’ kinds, the ones we cringe and turn up our noses at) than there are who post like they just walked out of an Oxford Union debating society. Mandaviya is no longer a representative of what our future holds. He is representative of where we stand today. Knee-deep in shit. And sinking.
Yours etc.,
