Shaking hands with Fascists.

Don’t read too much into celebrities meeting with Modi. They were meeting the Indian PM and it is always exciting to get an invite to do so. If it were Dr Manmohan Singh, they’d be as excited. Yes, many of them are cloyingly obsequious in their post-meeting tweets and posts, but hey, let’s cut them some slack. At the end of the day, he’s the PM and it would be seen as an achievement to be part of a select group of people that get called when he’s in town.

Agreed, that this is most probably a pre-election gimmick, and Modi gains more than the celebrities with clean images do in return. But I think we are overreacting.

Now, would I have gone if I were called? It would be hypocritical of me to say no. I probably would have. Would I have tweeted like a fanboi? Most certainly not.

But to claim that one would be able to refuse a what is most likely a personal invitation from the PM of India belies your knowledge of the power (both of coercion and attraction) that the PMO has in this country. Imagine the cost of doing so on your business, on your profession, and on your life. These people here are simply people like us, like you and me, just that they are very good at the jobs they do. They are not revolutionaries or intellectual radicals. Why do we expect them to risk their livelihoods and their families’ well-being to prove a point that no one will see them prove, but will make them powerful enemies? We aren’t appreciating their state of mind enough, or seeing their perspective.

That said, it takes a special kind of courage to refuse, which I very much doubt many traditionally successful people (in business and sports, science and arts, technology and management) have. For example, back in 1936, Jawaharlal Nehru was travelling back from Switzerland after his wife, Kamala, had passed away, and his aircraft had to stop over at Rome to refuel. The then Italian Fascist Dictator Benito Mussolini, tried hard to meet him by delaying him at the airport. Nehru refused to share the same room with him. In 1936. In Rome. From Il Duce When he was not even the Head of Government. Now, ladies & gentlemen, THAT takes courage.

To claim that we ordinary mortals possess it and then to be disappointed when you see celebrities just like you succumbing to the glamour and excitement (and to the unarticulated but obvious threat that comes with it) of an invitation to see the PM is to expect them to have the same steel in their resolves as the first Prime Minister of India.

So, as I said, cut them some slack.

P.S.: There are some very courageous people out there even today, mind you. The Tamil poet, Sukirtharani and the agricultural scientist, Dr Varinder Pal Singh come to mind. But they are not the norm. They are rare gems. Very rare. And worthy of our awe. Not some social media influencer or startup entrepreneur or spin bowler, who have their own lives to lead and professional careers that they do not wish to rock by refusing the PM. You’d probably do that too, in their place. We are not all Jawaharlal Nehrus. We cannot be. Let us remember that.

P.P.S.: By the way, B.S.Moonje, the mentor of RSS founder Dr Hedgewar’s mentor and friend, and closely associated with the founding of the right-wing militant organisation, went out of his way to seek out and meet Mussolini in 1931. Just so you know the difference.

P.P.P.S.: I said let us cut them some slack. Does not make them ‘Oh, those poor souls, forced at gunpoint to do things they don’t want to’. All I said is that we should see it for what it is: a PR exercise that used the PMO’s clout to gather some coverage. The celebrities are neither ‘complicit in enabling fascism’ nor ‘blameless blind sheep led by their noses’. Let us please maintain a sense of proportion about everything!