Travelure
By Hugh & Colleen Gantzer
A chock, in aviation, is a wedge-device inserted under the wheels of parked aircraft to ensure that they don’t move away from their parking slot. This, sadly, does not happen to political parties.
The BJP was the first to think of the lucrative electoral bond. The BJP then moved from its democratic roots to a firmer sectarian one. There was never any doubt that it favoured the Right Wing movement in Europe. They even adapted their salute to resemble that of the Fascists. Fascism is a very attractive political philosophy for those who believe that their rightful aspirations have been suppressed by foreigners. The Nazis blamed the Jews, the Bangladeshis now blame the Hindus, and the extreme right wing in our country blames the Moghuls. Significantly, BJP patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee repeatedly asked, “What is Hindutdva?” This, extreme right-wing version of Hinduism does reflect the views of some Hindus, it justifies such acts as the change of names of places, bovine vigilantism, bulldozer activism and the adulation of so-called encounter specialists. All these are as valid an expression of the political views as are the activities of the Ku Klux Klan in the southern states of America! The true nature of Hinduism was brought out by the Supreme Court of India. It said in effect that Hinduism does not claim any one Prophet, God, ritual, dogma, or philosophical concept. We add that it does not have even a ritual to mark the individual entrance into its ranks like baptism or circumcision. The holy thread ceremony of some Hindus is also practised by Parsis in a different form and seems to be a ritual handed down from their common Aryan-Iranian ancestors. Clearly, we are not a melting pot as USA claims to be. We are a mosaic of a myriad brilliant chips of varying sizes and colours. This reality was accepted by the Parliament of India in 1956. In that year it established Linguistic States. This went a long way to acknowledge the fact that we have 22 major languages. We also have 705 ethnic groups officially recognised as “Scheduled Tribes”. This is the ground reality that led to the formation of the the 28 party alliance called the Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance, commonly known by its acronym I.N.D.I.A. The BJP was rattled by this development and in a kneejerk reaction decided to start referring to India as Bharat. Our Constitution, which is the basis of all Indian Laws starts, with the words WE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA.
Clearly those netas who see India as the Hindu version of an Islamic Pakistan, have got it all wrong. Hinduism is too flexible and malleable to serve as the cutting edge in a ferocious political war. What happened in Manipur was carefully tailored rapacity, alien to the Hindu ethos. Hinduism, by its very nature, accepts and indeed celebrates, diversity.
Noble Laureate Amartya Sen’s ‘The Argumentative Indian’ is about India’s long tradition of public debate. But this tradition goes against the views of all right-wing parties. As we have said before, BJP netas have done their best to muzzle the Right to Information Act. Indian voters were asked to put their faith in a carefully cultivated Vishwa Guru figure who spoke of himself and his achievements in a godlike third person. The whole democratic debate was stifled and new laws were rammed through without discussion.
The Argumentative Indian was gagged.
The Indian voter responded by selectively rewarding our scientific achievements while rejecting the stifling of the argumentative Indian.
But the evil effect of the gagging of information resulting in the lack of accountability led to the three major issues that have enraged Indian citizens today. The ghastly murder and rape in Kolkata, the collapse of a statue of a very heroic figure in Maharashtra, and the dire financial straits of our brother Himalayan state were all the result of non-accountability.
These are just the first rumblings of the disasters and also by excessive belief in your own political infallibility. Without political Chocks, the worst is yet to come.
(Hugh & Colleen Gantzer hold the National Lifetime Achievement Award for Tourism among other National and International awards. Their credits include over 52 halfhour documentaries on national TV under their joint names, 26 published books in 6 genres, and over 1,500 first-person articles, about every Indian state, UT and 34 other countries. Hugh was a Commander in the Indian Navy and the Judge Advocate, Southern Naval Command. Colleen is the only travel writer who was a member of the Travel Agents Association of India.) (The opinions and thoughts expressed here reflect only the authors’ views!).
