In last night’s party of Pune liberals organised by the inimitable Darshan Mondkar, I met a lot of you, some who I had met before, and most for the first time. There was drinking (but of course) and dancing (thanks to the glamorous Natasha Rodricks).
There were introductions and speeches. There were selfies and group photos. And there were enough black shirts to give Sanjay Leela Bhansali a complex. It would be difficult to guess the average age (there was at least one teenager if I am not mistaken), but suffice it to say that when the lights were dimmed, and the (rather young) DJ was asked to start off the festivities, the first song he played was ‘O meri Zohra Jabeen…’ Anyway, it was lots of fun.
Now that we have that out of the way, let me put forth my request to many of those who attended:
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- Do not hate Narendra Modi. Hate what he stands for. For long after he’s gone, which he shall be one day sooner or later, the forces, the thinking, the attitude, and the life view that is born of tradition, dogma, and our inherent inferiority complex masquerading as a superiority complex that put him in a place to hurt this society, this great and ancient nation, this huge swathe of humanity will linger, nay continue to prosper and grow like a cancer. It is these forces, this thinking, this attitude, this life view that we must be lifelong enemies of, which we must fight, even if we know deep in our hearts that they can never be totally annihilated and will stay with us like a chronic disease that may only be controlled and kept at bay, and never completely eradicated. There’ll be other Narendra Modis. Have no doubts. Narendra Modi is not the cause. He is the manifestation of the deeper malaise that has and will continue to plague this society. Like a good gardener needs to weed out his garden frequently, we need to do this pest control at regular intervals. We shall rejoice when he’s gone, as he will be one day. But we shall, after we’ve drained our drink, exhausted ourselves from the dancing, turned down the music, and switched off the disco ball, need to turn on the bright light of reality to be able to see clearly that the task ahead isn’t over. It has just begun.
- Do not love Rahul Gandhi. He may be a gentleman. He may be handsome. He may be intelligent. He may be educated. He may very well be a good human, even one of the best. But he is not perfect. He has and will make mistakes. He is capable of corruption, and I don’t just mean the financial kind. His ability to resist temptation may be much higher than anyone else’s in the same business. But, to repeat, he is not a saint. He is not impervious to life, and her vagaries. Or to time, and his constant and unconscious erosion. He is but human, regardless of how perfect a specimen of the kind he may seem to you at this moment in time. He is, as of this day, one of the kindest, gentlest, thoughtful, empathetic, intelligent, and generous leaders that I would love to speak on my behalf. But, and I know I’ve said this before, he is only human. Know this. Our idea must be to support not just a Rahul Gandhi but all Rahul Gandhis, whenever and wherever they may occur in space or time within our society. Just like we must oppose all Narendra Modis wherever and whenever we find them. A large part of what we think of Rahul Gandhi is because that is how he wants us to see him; after all, optics is a large part of today’s politics. He is an idea that we have in our heads as much as a real person who wishes to be as close to the idea we have. And hence, we must continue to back him. And all Rahul Gandhis. Now, and in the future. By the way, I have not met Rahul Gandhi more than once, and that too for a fleeting sliver of time, but I suspect he’d be the first to agree with me on this.
I want you to note (and save this article for later, if you so wish) that the likelihood of me blindly supporting and writing paeans about a non-BJP government, if and when it comes to power and defending every move of theirs thoughtlessly is near zero, and any suggestion in that direction would be an insult to my intellect. Indeed, if you think I will be pro-establishment anytime in the next 1,000 years, you will be insulting everything I stand for.
Remember, as John Philpot Curran is said to have stated,
“The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.”
As liberals, we must always question those in power, regardless of who. And if dog-willing, the Indian National Congress-led INDIA bloc were to return to the treasury benches on 04 June 2024, you would find their staunchest critic to be your friend, viz., me. Those who know me will not be surprised. I have written about it before: When you are in zig, I will automatically be in zag, not because I am a compulsive contrarian, not even because I do not trust anyone in power, but because I know what power can do to a human being.
“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarise: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarise the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.” ― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
So, I have an inherent distrust of power, and those that wield it. I suggest you should too.
Here’s us starting off the next morning with a quick banana & glass of water, warm-up, sprints, core, and cool down, with lots of laughing and giggling, followed by dancing (“I like to move it“) and breakfast (oats in milk, honey, dry fruit, topped with bananas, and two boiled eggs for the adults and two eggs made to order and toast-butter for the kids), before splitting to our respective rooms to work (swim, piano, chess, writing for the kids, and our professional and household chores for the adults). The point I am making is that it is just another day. Nothing’s changed. Get up. Fight the good fight. Sleep. Repeat.
