It’s hardly a buyer’s market. I walk into a super market to buy a shampoo and
walk to the section marked ‘Cosmetics’. I want to buy the best – the one that
will be accepted by all in the family AND economically viable AND makes me look
pretty and feel sexy!!! I see an array
of branded shampoos, colorful bottles in different shapes and sizes, with appealing
colors, and all priced differently. I attempt to understand its components. It hardly
makes sense to me. I pick a handful of the well-known brands, check out their MRP
and finally decide on the most economical, eye catching, and aroma appeasing of
them all. I don’t know if it's good for me. I am not sure if I will develop
an allergy and am completely unaware of its acceptance by the Gen Y at home.
Nonetheless, I make my purchase and trudge along to the next section…. picking yet
another product in pretty much the same fashion.
It’s definitely not a seller’s market.
The industry invests tons of money in local and global research &
development; which in turn creates a range of products that qualifies for a hair
splitting exercise. All products must be good (quality) AND high priced, AND
fast selling … and last but not the least ensure a huge market share!!!!! So,
we now have shampoos for dry hair, hair with split ends, oily tresses, damaged
hair, and chemically treated hair, naturally curly hair… and so on. And all
this is done for a majority of the population, which in all probability is
completely oblivious and perhaps couldn’t even care of its hair texture. So,
with limited knowledge of the consumer’s psyche we have tons of money spent on manufacturing of products that produce lather. Pretty much a bubbled dream ….
It is the death of purpose, the culmination
of commitment to a cause…. Moreso, the end of Ideology – a situation prevalent in
today’s less industrial and more knowledge based society; a condition that
grips the psyche of the ordinary citizen, a status quo that signifies the death
of change, a state of affairs that depicts the degeneration of humankind,….What’s
deafening is the constant reference to its alleged existence; especially, with boisterous
hypocrisy. One can watch it unfold, center-stage, spelling out the Brechtian
mantra
“It is easier to rob by setting up a bank than
by holding up a bank clerk”
In political parlance, there is no longer at
play a thought or a belief; however abstract or symbolic, attempting to explain
the social, economic, or political realities at play. It is more a web of notions,
cast(e) and recast(e), distorted for immediate gains, contrary to any reality
that an ordinary citizen can relate to, and last but definitely not the least subject
to false consciousness.
A notion is now an ideology!!!!!!
The ordinary citizens tell themselves
that welfare is important, governance primary, and development much needed. This
is merely borrowed language, temporary at best, and hardly empirical. What is truly
happening is a veiling of visceral and primal attitudes. Feel that primal pulse;
define its origin, and what we see is fundamental faith leveraged and distorted
by a certainty of power.
Campaign in poetry and govern in prose
The lyrics of CHANGE soon take shape
to assorted and plagiarized text. How else can one explain the frivolity of
Modi’s responses in the Times Of India?
Our Prime Ministerial candidate first takes Political
ideology as hostage …
“The use of the term Naxalism is outdated and
incorrect. Maoism would be a more correct description”. One cannot ignore the fact that it ‘Naxalism’ originated
in India as a rebellion against lack of development and poverty at the local
level; especially in Eastern India. It derives its name from that of a village ‘naxalbari’
in W Bengal where the movement originated and then spread to states like
Chattisgarh, AP and Kerala. Maoism is a form of communist theory that is widely
applied to political and military guiding ideology. It establishes a classless society
and rebels against imperialism. Referring to Naxalism as Maoism is a slur on the
fundamental ideology of the movement (as it originated). How else can one
explain the symbiotic relationship between the naxals in interior Andhra and
the government owned steel plants that provide employment to the locals? Is
Mr Modi displaying his inability to understand history and its inherent significance
or is he attempting to MODIfy it altogether by making it inherently insignificant?
The hostage is
now held to ransom ….
“It goes without saying that pragmatic
foreign policy has to be guided by an understanding of the ground realities. However,
I think the people in Pakistan increasingly want to strengthen the democratic
institutions in Pakistan”. A country’s
foreign policy consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to
safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals…. The operative word
being IT’S! Hence, Mr Modi, the ground realities to be considered are that of India and
not that of Pakistan!!! Are we
vying for the position of the ‘leader of the world’ so that we can play arbiter
to other 3rd world nations?
The hijack is now justified and hence hardly any need for discussion.
“Everybody has a right to form
opinions and to express them. However, where there is a difference of opinion
on facts and matters of law; it is in everybody’s interest to let there be a
finality of opinion with the judicial system”. This is perhaps his way of
chartering the hijacked flight via Godra! Sir, by definition there cannot be a
difference of opinion on FACTS. There can be interpretations of events, issues,
incidents and definitely so on statistics. Please understand that facts are
stubborn, statistics pliable.
The capture complete…
And so it goes on…. Be it comments on
Agriculture, creating employment, defense spending, or the role of the RSS! And amidst his well attired and bizarrely articulated political agenda,
we hear him and the opposition play the caste card. The ordinary citizen
applauds to both. The captor jubilant,
the captive secure! It doesn’t really
matter who is right. The enslaved is caught in the moral matrix of a cage and attempts
to seek confirmation of the grand narrative everywhere.
Just as I do….. I go looking for
people who bought the very same shampoo as I did, people who agree with me that it is the best
viable branded option in the market. They tell me that the shampoo gives me my hair a bounce and
I smile! I feel complete. My identity (as a consumer or political) is not a
series of choices I make, but a genetic mutation that is reflective of a
Darwinian contest. I pick a product or a political identity to assert
sophistication or perhaps to reflect that I am able to articulate a coherent
worldview. I am, in reality, asserting a pre-determined conditioned cleverness and
articulating a world view not my own.
True, maybe Naxalism is Maoism! Perhaps
Foreign Policy is for the ‘other’ and that there can be versions of facts. The nuances
of these inaccuracies (or not) is lost in the flood of vocabulary and its threatening
semantics. Errors muffled, the captive
rewrites history unaware of the shifting changes of a figurative line of
control – created, devised, manipulated and implemented by the shifting sands
of someone's political agenda!
No comments:
Post a Comment