It’s been over a day since I witnessed a conversation on the most dialogued theme on Indian TV – POLITICS
and India Election 2014; and amidst all the scramble that my brain tried to
harness, there was this one bit that got me to shift my focus (literally and
figuratively) to a moment from the past. I knew that the conversation reminded
me of someone – an individual who I have so loved to hate. I grudgingly pulled
out the volume to reread one of my favorite parts from Atlas Shrugged. It’s the scene where Ragnar Danneskjold (a modern
day pirate) meets Hank Rearden on a road at night and hands him a bar of gold,
returning some of the money that the government has stolen from Rearden over
the years. Ragnar proceeds to explain
that he’s not there to ask for money but to return it. The following excerpt pairs
nicely with the conversation I witnessed on TV yesterday and to a reference of Mr
Modi’s quick exit (3 min 32 secs!!!) from being interviewed by Karan Thapar.
“I thought that I had seen everything one
could see and that there was nothing I could not stand seeing. But when they
took Rearden Metal away from you, it was too much, even for me. I know that you
don’t need this gold at present. What you need is the justice which it
represents, and the knowledge that there are men who care for justice.”
Struggling not to give in
to an emotion which he felt rising through his bewilderment, past all his
doubts, Rearden tried to study the man’s face, searching for some clue to help
him understand. But the face had no expression; it had not changed once while
speaking; it looked as if the man had lost the capacity to feel long ago, and
what remained of him were only features that seemed implacable and dead. With a
shudder of astonishment, Rearden found himself thinking that it was not the
face of a man, but of an avenging angel.
“Why did you care?” asked
Rearden. “What do I mean to you?”
“Much more than you have
reason to suspect….
“Did you say that you’ve
spent a long time collecting this money for me?”
“I have collected much
more than this.” He pointed at the gold. “I am holding it in your name and I
will turn it over to you when the time comes. This is only a sample, as proof
that it does exist. And if you reach the day when you find yourself robbed of
the last of your fortune, I want you to remember that you have a large bank
account waiting for you.”….
“How did you collect it? Where did this gold
come from?”…
“Who are you?”
“Ragnar Danneskjold.”
Rearden looked at him for
a long, still moment, then let the gold fall out of his hands.
Danneskjold’s eyes did not
follow it to the ground, but remained fixed on Rearden with no change of
expression. “Would you rather I were a law-abiding citizen, Mr. Rearden? If so,
which law should I abide by?..
“Ragnar
Danneskjold…” said Rearden, as if he were seeing the whole of the past decade,
as if he were looking at the enormity of a crime spread through ten years and
held within two words.
“Look more carefully, Mr.
Rearden. There are only two modes of living left to us today: to be a looter
who robs disarmed victims or to be a victim who works for the benefit of his
own despoilers. I did not choose to be either.”
“You chose to live by
means of force, like the rest of them.”
“Yes—openly. Honestly, if
you will. I do not rob men who are tied and gagged, I do not demand that my
victims help me, I do not tell them that I am acting for their own good. I
stake my life in every encounter with men, and they have a chance to match
their guns and their brains against mine in fair battle. Fair? It’s I against
the organized strength, the guns, the planes, the battleships of five
continents. If it’s a moral judgment that you wish to pronounce, Mr. Rearden,
then who is the man of higher morality: I or Wesley Mouch?”
“I have no answer to give
you,” said Rearden, his voice low.
“Why should you be
shocked, Mr. Rearden? I am merely complying with the system which my fellow men
have established. If they believe that force is the proper means to deal with
one another, I am giving them what they ask for. If they believe that the
purpose of my life is to serve them, let them try to enforce their creed. If they believe that my mind is their
property—let them come and get it.”
The world we live in today is not free
in any sense of the term. We are born, we live and we die and amidst this cycle
are spent countless moments defending and/or championing our stance /
view point / opinions to all and sundry.
The only way to deal with an unfree world is perhaps to become so
absolutely free that my very existence is reflective of an act of rebellion.
Mr Modi’s decision to walk out of that interview was an act of rebellion.
I hate Mr Modi’s authoritarianism, feel
repulsed by the fact that he has not taken responsibility for Godra, and cringe
at his hate speeches. Nonetheless, I have paused (albeit for a second) to
wonder if he is trying to make a statement?! And if he is, guess therein – in that
very statement –is exemplified the definition of definitive and decisive
politics.
I have taken utmost pride in the fact
that we, as a nation, are foremost a Republic and then a democracy. We choose our leader and earnestly
hope that he/ she will display wisdom. For that wisdom to be at play in its
purest and most sincere form is the prerequisite of freedom of thought for that
one man/ woman. Mr Modi, like Ragnar Danneskjold, perhaps in his own abhorrent way was saying to the likes of Karan Thapar.. “If they believe that my mind is their property –
let them come and get it”!
Sigh… Shrug… Shrug…… !!!!
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