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CHANDIGARH | SUNDAY | 8 DECEMBER 2019
Focus on governance, that’s what people want
R
AHUL Gandhi coined the slogan
‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’. It was taken
up by no less a person than Uddhav
Thackeray, chief of the Shiv Sena,
who had some axe to grind with his ‘Hin-
dutva’ partner, the BJP! The slogan cut no
ice with the masses who were happy with
TRYSTS AND TURNS the houses built for them in the villages
JULIO RIBEIRO and the toilets and roads and electricity.
They were also happy about the direct
CM Uddhav Thackeray transfer of money into their bank accounts
and, most of all, they were mesmerised by
is busy trying to prove the oratory of Narendra Modi. His name
alone was enough to win two consecutive
his loyalty to Hindutva Lok Sabha elections. The RSS was over-
only because Devendra joyed. Its dream of a Hindu Rashtra
loomed in the horizon! It smelt the possi-
Fadnavis is accusing bility of the dream turning into a reality!
I have known only one other politician
him of being a traitor to who could keep the crowds so mesmerised
Hindutva. People are with the spoken word. That man was Bal-
asaheb Thackeray, the founder and self-
not really concerned appointed senapati of the Shiv Sena. The
Congress government of Vasantrao Naik
with Hindutva; all they thought it would use the hold that Bal
want is rule of law and Thackeray commanded over the lumpen
elements in the city to loosen the grip of
a better quality of life the Communists and other left parties on
the labour unions in Mumbai.
That plan unravelled. The Shiv Sena
became a headache to the authorities, the
police in particular. Bal Thackeray start-
ed by targeting South Indians, concen-
We’re all on sarkariduty
T
O commemorate the 70th year
of the adoption of the Constitu-
tion, the sarkar is planning a
nation-wide campaign aimed at
educating the aam janta about the fun-
damental duties enjoined upon citi-
zens. To this end, power point presen-
JUST JUGGLERY tations will be made in schools to teach
students as to what these duties entail.
JUG SURAIYA
Two nursery school students, a boy
and a girl, both aged 4, excitedly dis-
cussing this latest sarkari initiative.
Girl: I think it’s a very good thing the
sarkar is doing. As the citizens of
tomorrow, we must learn to do all the
duties that the sarkar wants us to do.
Boy: That’s right. And the list of duties
that the sarkar expects us to do is very
long, which seems to keep growing
longer and longer.
Girl: I know what you mean. As fewer
and fewer parents want to
send their children to
sarkari schools —
which often don’t
ILLUSTRATION: SANDEEP JHOSHI
Ministers take potshots at Bajaj, his point proven
D
EMOCRACY is a fragile institu-
tion, especially in a flawed democ-
racy like ours. Two of democracy’s
main pillars — a freely elected
government, and an independent judici-
ary — must play their role to keep it going.
Of equal importance is the freedom of
MY TAKE expression and thought. There must be
people who speak out fearlessly against
RAHUL SINGH
injustice and misgovernance. And there
Rahul Bajaj showed must be outlets where those expressions
can be widely seen and heard, as on TV, in
the courage to express the Press, and on social media.
This need is greater when the political
what a lot of people party in power has won with a big majori-
have been saying in ty and the other parties cannot form a
strong and effective Opposition, as is the
private but lack guts to case in India today. With a big majority
usually comes arrogance and an attitude
say in public at a major that the government can do no wrong.
forum… What is This can take the form of what is called
“majoritarianism”. If you disagree with
bothersome is the the majority, you are “anti-national”.
Business houses, in particular, have to
BJP’s response to tread carefully. Should they criticise the
his candid and government policies, they risk action
against them, which can take many forms
bold comments and jeopardise their working, or affect
their bottom line. Which is why Indian
business houses, by and large, rarely say
REFLECTIONS
Shiv Sena never was or is a dyed-in-the-wool Hindutva outfit. It’s not its core belief; the party
adopted Hindutva as a route to political power. PTI
trated in the Matunga area of the city.
The Madrasis, as all South Indian com-
munities were called in Mumbai, had cor-
nered all white-collar jobs coveted by the
locals. They had to be frightened away!
So, the Sainiks went around snatching
their lungis and leaving them embar-
rassed on the streets.
This exercise did not last too long. It
caused more mirth than fear, and had
to be quickly abandoned. Bootleggers’
dens and gambling addas were then
have text books or even teachers —
it’s the duty of the citizens to send
their kids to private schools, like the
one you and I go to, and which charge
huge fees, which our parents are duty-
bound to pay.
Boy: Well, no one said being a citizen
was cheap.
Girl: Being a citizen isn’t cheap. And
it’s growing more and more expen-
sive. Apart from paying huge fees to
private schools, people when they fall
sick have to pay huge fees to private
hospitals, with rat-infested sarkari
hospitals being what they are, no one
wants to go to them if they can help it.
Boy: And our duties as citizens don’t
end with private schools and hospi-
tals. It’s also the duty of the citizens
to arrange their own bijli-paani,
because sarkari bijli-paani can’t be
relied on, what with power break-
downs and water shortages.
Girl: I know. So it’s our duty as
citizens to arrange our own pri-
anything against the government. They
know they are vulnerable. Though liberal-
isation of the Indian economy has disman-
tled much of the stifling “licence-permit-
raj”, the authorities still have ways and
means to hurt defiant entrepreneurs.
Which is why Rahul Bajaj must be
applauded. He heads one of the most
respected and progressive business hous-
es in the nation. At a recent awards cere-
mony hosted by a leading financial daily,
with many of the doyens of the Indian
industry present, he confronted the two
main guests of honour, Home Minister
Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman, arguably the two most impor-
tant ministers after the Prime Minister
himself. Bajaj showed the courage and
gumption to express what a lot of people
have been saying in private but lack guts
to say in public at a major forum.
Bajaj made two main points. One, that an
atmosphere of fear had pervaded the coun-
try. People were afraid to criticise the gov-
ernment and did not have the confidence
that the government would appreciate the
criticism. There was “intolerance ki hawa”.
Hence, tax raids, and the like. Then, the
lynchings, without any convictions. What
he did not say but was clear is that the
targeted but that, too, had a very short
shelf life because the raiders and the
raided came from the same stock.
They soon joined forces for their own
economic advantage.
And then the supremo turned into a Mus-
lim baiter. Though this target was arguably
more acceptable to the Sena’s foot soldiers,
it was not easily achievable. Fifteen per
cent of the city’s population followed
Islam. That was a sizeable number.
Besides, most of the city’s criminal gangs
vate bijli-paani through costly diesel
gensets and equally costly borewells
and water tankers.
Boy: That’s not the end of our duties as
citizens. As sarkari law and order
isn’t always on hand, what with more
and more crimes being committed,
specially against women, citizens
have to do a double duty to ensure
their safety by living in private gated
communities, like your family and my
family do, and employing our own pri-
vate security guards.
Girl: And because sarkari public trans-
port is overcrowded and unsafe for pas-
sengers, particularly women passen-
gers, it’s the duty of citizens to get
themselves their own private transport
by way of cars, SUVs, or two-wheelers.
Boy: Which brings us to another duty
that citizens must do. Thanks to all
those private cars, SUVs, and two-
wheelers, and their emissions, there is
so much pollution that in order to
breathe, citizens have to perform the
duty of buying face masks and home
air purifiers. And who knows, the time
may come when it becomes the duty
of citizens to equip themselves with
their own private oxygen tanks to
avoid pollution.
Girl: Wow. The list of the duties citizens
must do, because of the duties the sarkar
can’t or doesn’t do, seems endless.
Boy: It is endless. Because on top of all
the other duties they have, citizens
have the duty to repeatedly vote for
sarkars which, all these years after
Independence, still expect citizens to
do for themselves what the sarkar
can’t do for them.
Girl: I can hardly wait for the
sarkar to teach us what more
duties citizens can do.
Boy: Don’t worry. I bet the
sarkar is even now work-
ing on figuring out what
extra duties it can find for us to
do. That’s the one duty it does do…
Back in 1993, Rahul Bajaj had voiced concerns
over the moves to liberalise the economy.
lynchings were predominantly of Muslims
and lower castes. Bajaj also brought up
Pragya Singh Thakur’s description of
Nathuram Godse, Mahatma Gandhi’s
assassin, as a “true patriot”. Rahul Bajaj
had spoken out similarly in 1993, voicing
his “concerns” over the moves to liberalise
the Indian economy. The then Prime Min-
ister, PV Narasimha Rao, had taken what
Bajaj said seriously and tried to reassure
him. This time, it is not “concern” that
Bajaj is expressing, but “fear”. And there is
were led by the members of this communi-
ty and that was a major obstacle! My pur-
pose of spelling out these facts, as garnered
by me during my brief spells of duty in the
city of my birth, is to impress on the reader
that the idea of Hindutva was not the guid-
ing principle that gave birth to the Shiv
Sena. This outfit was formed to oust the
leftists from labour unions. The Sena’s fol-
lowers consisted mainly of lower-middle
class Maharashtrians, harbouring dreams
of ascending into the ranks of the middle
class with the help of the lumpen, who
abounded in the city afflicted by the evils of
runaway urbanisation.
The BJP, which was not able to retain its
junior ‘Hindutva’ partner, is now accusing
the Shiv Sena of treachery and more! But
I for one am not convinced that the Shiv
Sena was or is a dyed-in-the-wool Hindut-
va outfit. That cloak was draped much lat-
er after the previously chosen targets
failed to fulfil the role that the Jews in
Hitler’s Germany played in the rise of fas-
cism in that country.
My understanding is that a great majori-
ty of Shiv Sainiks have no visceral hatred
for Muslims. Some anger has crept in after
the jihadi terrorist strikes that caused
innocents to die in train blasts. And then
came 26/11 which killed more than 150,
including, incidentally, 40 odd Muslim
men and women waiting at the main rail-
Expecting the unexpected
MILITARY MATTERS
COLONEL K THAMMAYYA UDUPA
I T was early 1980s. I was to board a flight
from Calcutta to rejoin my regiment in
the Northeast. No sooner had I checked
in at the airport than a Havildar from a
local unit walked up to me and handed me
a note. Before reading it, I remembered
“Expect the unexpected”, one of the oft
repeated maxims from our pre-commis-
sion training days. “Maybe due to some
realignment of the stars somewhere, my
leave has been extended by another 15
days,” I thought. I went through the note
eagerly, only to realise that I was being
assigned a duty even before my leave was
to end. It was a message from our adju-
tant. A forensic expert, required as a wit-
ness in an ongoing court-martial, would
be travelling in the same flight. And, after
landing, I was to help him reach the tran-
sit camp 65 km away. The Havildar left
after introducing me to the forensic
expert. We sat down and even before I
could make any small talk with him, he
had dozed off. In the aircraft he was seat-
ed right behind me and I could hear him
snoring throughout the flight.
I met him again after we had landed. We
collected our luggage and were off in the
jeep my unit had sent for me. My attempts
to have a conversation with him again
came to nought as he promptly dozed off
as soon as the vehicle started moving.
On reaching the transit camp, I gently
nudged him. He woke up with a start,
rubbed his eyes and let out a bloodcur-
dling scream. His eyes were locked on to
his suitcase. Expecting the unexpected, I
asked him, “Is there a cobra lurking
there?” He screamed even more, nodding
his head in a manner which was neither
a big difference between the two words.
Amit Shah responded by saying that
Pragya Thakur had “apologised” and the
BJP had removed her from an important
committee. What he did not mention is that
she is still under investigation over a case of
“Hindu terror” in Malegaon. Should a sus-
pect in a murder case have been given a Par-
liamentary ticket in the first place? As for
the lynchings, they have been taking place
largely because the culprits feel they can get
away with murder, which, more often than
not, is the case. Bajaj’s comments on Pragya
Singh Thakur and lynchings are shared by
many concerned citizens.
However, what is bothersome is the
response to Bajaj’s candid and bold com-
ments. Indeed, the BJP’s angry reactions
prove his point that the government does
not welcome any criticism. Nirmala
Sitharaman, who is presiding over an econ-
omy with the lowest GDP growth (4.5 per-
cent) in the last six years, said Bajaj could
have hurt “national interests”. In other
words, he was being “anti-national”, or
“unpatriotic”. Who, one may ask, is Sithara-
man to decide what is or is not in “national
interest”? For Bajaj, constructive criticism
is in “national interest”, as it is for many oth-
ers, but clearly not for Sitharaman.
13
way station to travel to their villages.
Distrust of ordinary Muslims is confined
mainly to the city’s more affluent trading
communities. They find it difficult to
understand their dress, their customs and
their laws which allow men to abandon
their wives through triple talaq! The rever-
sal of the court’s judgment in the Shah
Bano case through subsequent legislation
played a major role in the entire process of
demonising Muslims.
Hindutva’s core adherents will not
number more than 20 per cent of the
city’s population. Even the BJP itself is
now made up of numerous new entrants
poached from ‘secular’ parties. They
will cross back when power shifts. In the
state Assembly, Chief Minister Uddhav
Thackeray is busy trying to prove his loy-
alty to Hindutva only because the former
chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, is
accusing him of being a traitor to ‘Hin-
dutva’! My view is that the Sena adopted
Hindutva as a route to political power. It
is not its core belief.
Further, I believe that they are both wast-
ing governance time. The people they gov-
ern are not really concerned with Hindut-
va. They want good governance, which
means primarily the supremacy of the rule
of law. And, of course, a better quality of
life! The newly installed chief minister
should understand that!
“yes” nor “no”. “Cockroach?” I asked. The
screaming and head-bobbing continued. I
helped him alight from the jeep and whis-
pered to the driver, “Get a doctor”.
Our guest, by now slightly less hysteri-
cal, speaking telegraphically, dropped a
bombshell, “Suitcase...not mine. Picked
up wrong one, airport. All
documents...court-martial tomorrow...in
my suitcase.” The driver quickly returned
with a nursing assistant. I told them the
problem had been identified and there
was no need of any medical intervention.
But the nursing assistant wanted to ply
his trade. He raised his left hand and
ordered, “How many fingers are these?”
Before the bewildered gentleman could
react, he said, “No, just walk from here to
there as straight as you can.” I had to cut
him off rather rudely.
I called up my adjutant as well as the
officer who was waiting for the expert
about the unexpected turn of events. I
informed the adjutant that we would visit
the airlines’ city office. In those days, the
airlines staff would return to their city
office from the airport after the departure
of the Calcutta flight. So it was pointless
to travel all the way back there. The adju-
tant assured me that he would contact
them and coordinate.
It was an hour’s drive to the city. I was
keeping my fingers crossed. Our guest was
making himself conspicuous by his steady
snoring. The story did not take any further
unexpected turns. The owner of the suit-
case our guest had picked up had informed
the airlines staff that his suitcase was miss-
ing and a similar looking one was lying
unclaimed. The airlines staff, before lock-
ing up and returning to the city office, had
promised to sort out the matter. It was just
past midnight when I handed over the
expert, with his own suitcase, to the con-
cerned officer at the transit camp.
As per the calendar it was the day I
was to rejoin the duty. What an unex-
pected manner it was for my leave to
end! Or, was it an unexpected way of
getting back on duty?
Hardip Singh Puri, the Cabinet Minister
for Housing and Urban Affairs, also
jumped down Bajaj’s throat, saying that he
(Bajaj) had woven a “false narrative”. How,
he did not clarify. Amit Malviya, head of the
BJP’s IT cell, took a different tack. Rahul
Bajaj, he claimed, was “beholden to the
Congress” for his success in business.
Malviya was entirely wrong. In fact, in 1969,
Bajaj’s father, Kamal Nayan Bajaj, refused
to support Indira Gandhi when she split
the Congress party. Indira Gandhi, who
could be just as vindictive as the present
powers-that-be, made sure that the govern-
ment permission was not given to Bajaj’s
company to expand its manufacturing
facilities. Narasimha Rao, the BJP’s
national spokesperson, descended to a
ludicrously petty level by equating Rahul
Bajaj to a “frustrated journalist in Lutyen’s
Delhi”, while implying that he was angling
for a Rajya Sabha seat. Doesn’t the BJP
have any senior politicians who appreciate
criticism and can learn from it?
Dissent is an integral part of democracy;
it is not “anti-national”. As the French
philosopher Voltaire said, “I may not agree
with what you say, but I will defend to the
death your right to say it.”
The writer is a veteran journalist