Crossing the border: Skepticism to Atheism!

I wake up to the sound of a humming air-conditioner, the melodious rhythm of my wind-chimes and the sound of my doorbell. It’s the beginning of a work week. I let go of the comfort of my bed and as if by instinct go for the news channels. A terrorist attack at Karachi airport and around 20 feared dead… A fear grips me and there is a quality to that. It’s a fear unmingled with hope; a panic that confirms the fading of a promise; a confirmation that there is nothing to fear when danger is at hand.

A terror attack in a neighboring country should perhaps be the least of all reasons for one to turn into an atheist; nonetheless, it has happened. Skepticism and our relationship with Pakistan has gone hand in hand for decades and one could perhaps hope that with the advent of a leader we could look forward to health and hygiene. Am not sure of that anymore!

“People who ask us when we will hold talks with Pakistan are perhaps not aware that over the last 55 years, every initiative for a dialogue with Pakistan has invariably come from India”… and truly so were the words of Mr Vajpayee at one point in time…

And we keep at it, as do unpredictable skeptics, in anticipation of the achievability of the implicit claim in Vajpayee’s observation that we shall see (perhaps) the light of day.  Little did we realize that the demonstration, from Pakistan, of the implicit claim would be low-slung and could hardly be effective in a controlled environment.  And as skeptics do, we witness two images - the imaginative and placebo-ridden democratic Pakistan; and another, the real one being operated in a double-blind fashion. The former imaginative and the latter controlled. And like any skeptic, we resentfully infer that the implicit claim of Mr Vajpayee is indeed that of a moral one and can possibly be read as…

We have a duty to make all attempts possible to have a good and fruitful dialogue with Pakistan

The key insight here is that while politics and morality are interconnected; they are not necessarily indistinguishable. A skeptic operates from the belief that all political actions ought to be rational, logical and perhaps moral even; however, the reverse is not necessarily true and may not hold good. And hence the implicit claim espouses political overtones and is interpreted as …

Pakistan must be gently nudged to concede to a dialogue

This was bound to happen. Any attempt to link politics with morality or moral values is feeble due to the inherent and insurmountable differences of opinion woven into it. 

The resurrection of a failing skepticism marked by Nawaz Sharif’s India visit on the eve of PM Modi’s swearing in ceremony hails as one such subverted political morality moment.  Hands shake, eyes meet, and maternal instincts crystallize to be quickly dispersed with yet again. It didn't take too long to bring home the fact that a marriage of politics and morality would yield unintended (?) consequences. And today, the world has witnessed precisely that.

For a discussion with Pakistan on any issue, specific or otherwise, one needs to be all geared  up to deal with the invisible echelons of power; namely, the military - an organisation that casts its sullied shadow on the whole shebang of its democratically  elected premiers. In Orwellian terms, a ‘legitimately’ elected Pakistan establishes a dictatorship to safeguard a revolution; and its military fashions the revolution to establish its dictatorship. The sovereignty of military in Pakistan exemplifies the emotional fiefdom of an entire nation granting it the licensed liberty to use guns ….. And thus is born an unusual kind of radicalism. The skeptic settles for the word ‘terrorism’.

The attack at the Karachi airport (not Lahore or Islamabad!!) is symbolic. The past is the symbolic capital that the militia invested in and that cannot be forfeited at any cost. One wonders if the event is truly a terrorist attack as presented. Either which way, it’s the reign of Chaos. There is some seminal truth in PM Modi’s observation...

“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”. 

I was born post the Indo-Pak wars and have by default been immersed in a generational riot that questions the “love thy neighbor” commandment. This age band attains a contained insurgency when political leaders with their blend of morality attempt to suture singed relationships. Nonetheless, there is some merit to morality and there are indeed moral absolutes. We get blown away by a political language woven by one poet, and repeated by yet another a decade later, lending solidity to pure wind.  We trudge on and make for one final effort to retain a seed of hope; only to wake up and realize that we have got the framework all wrong.  Big Brother is watching. He is the fly on the wall. There can be no dialogue….. and what we see today is the vision of a future…”a boot stamping on a human face”

Skeptics are cynics. We doubt. We thrive on the despair that is caused by inexplicable ambiguity; or whatever that means. And nestled in that inexplicable ambiguity is the germ of hope; a perhaps! "Maybe, I am wrong"... moment.  It is that one seed that we fervently hope is not destroyed. It's destruction converts the skeptic into an atheist. We then travel to the other extreme and move from the realm of questioning to a space of negation.  We annul all possibilities; reverse any probabilities; and satirize galore the skeptics.

There is no dialogue that is going to work with Pakistan. It’s a dead-beat, dead end, and deadened conversation. I am the skeptic turned confirmed atheist on this!  

Grassroots Uprooted!!!

 Henryk Skolimowski, a Polish philosopher observed that it is the illogical man that advertising is after. It is anti-rational and aims specifically at uprooting not only the rationality of a man, but also his common sense.  And this is true not just of advertising, but also the social media (the forum within which advertising operates) and dangerously so with its apparent bed-fellow and significant other - ‘Politics’! Politics is for the illogical mind. It is for those who are perfectly ok to hand over their one deep-seated skill –their common sense. It is for those who are ready to forfeit its rewards for the devalued benefits threaded by political silence and theatrical pro-tem ignorance.  

The nation for the past 10 days has witnessed and perhaps even silently applauded the death of commonsense. The assault and murder of two young girls in Badaun, the insensitive comments made by the father and son duo, the inexplicable death of Minister Gopinath Munde and last but not the least the bifurcation of the state of Andhra Pradesh.

There is very little that can be done with regard to the bifurcation. One would have hoped that our politicians will learn from the kernels of history and make any division a painless moment. True, one can hope and that is all there is to it. This brings us to the horrific death of the young girls and that of Gopinath Munde. Both very diverse issues and are being looked at so very differently.  The rape and murder of the Badaun girls is being investigated by all and sundry who have nothing to do with it, commented upon by the irrelevant, irrational observations by those in power and all this is happening when the center holds steadfast.  Discussions on women issues continue on prime time, debates galore on the reasons for the insensitivity in our society (yet again) and incessant deliberations and speculations on lack of effective governance. Is there any specific reason why no one has intervened to speed up the investigation? What could possibly be the reason for this sudden shift of debate from the nature of the crime and its impact to the so called lack of eminence in the state of UP . How different is UP from Delhi? Guess, if Dec 2012 had repeated itself, the focus would be on…..? Check that … That’s NO ONE. We don’t have anyone in Delhi to blame!

The blame game endures!  It is criminal to steal a wallet, daring to steal a fortune, and a mark of greatness to steal a crown.  The blame diminishes as the guilt increases.  So let’s blame the poor people for being poor, the backward for being regressive, and the desperate for being timid.

And then befalls the rearward, over your shoulder event marking the tragic death of Mr Gopinath Munde. With this, the nation trails yet another social issue that is essentially a matter of discipline – road sense, civic sense and the use of seat belts. Guess that makes the subject simple enough!  It really doesn’t matter if a 1000kg Indica rams into a 1300kg SX4 at a speed (assuming) at a minimum of 80kms per hour in the wee hours of the day. It is not a matter of importance that there is hardly a dent observed on either of the vehicles due to the impact.  It is definitely not of consequence that a person who has suffered blunt force trauma is rendered unconscious immediately after and cannot therefore ask for a drink of water.  It is paltry to suggest that the impact which has resulted in the death of an individual (who suffered heart attack, lost 1.5 lts of blood, suffered a liver rupture, and suffered a C1/C2 rupture) should have been experienced by the rest in the car. There is no talk of airbag deflation (The SX4 was recalled due to faulty airbag). There is no deliberation on whether there will be a formal investigation; the driver of the Indica gets bail; Arnab Goswami talks about traffic rules and our disinclination of wearing seat belts; the media focuses on the astronomical role of '#3' in the life of the Mahajan and Munde family; we all observe a moment of silence, thank the lord (silently) for giving us another day of nothing to do … and life goes on.

The lame game continues. It is criminal to steal a wallet, daring to steal a fortune, and a mark of greatness to steal a crown.  The blame diminishes as the guilt increases.  So let’s blame the common man for the death of greatness and censure the grassroots for the demise of the establishment.

The issues that we have been talking about are those that hit us at the grassroots level – and by grassroots we are referring to issues that by their very nature are resistant to any central control. The issues taken up by the grassroots have the potential to alter an entire culture. Approached incorrectly, it will turn on those who try to exploit it.  This is not theory; but plain simple commonsense. The issues we face today distress those at the bottom of the social and political pyramid. The opposite is the ‘establishment’.

The commonsense questions (IF and when asked) are a reflection of the attitude of the people who believe in a kind of activism that reflects an attitude – an attitude of freedom, creativity, unrestrained political enthusiasm, of willingness to come together for a common purpose by asking the most fundamental,  uncomplicated, vital and central of all questions – How can we be in a better place? These commonsense questions should typically be the essence of politics. It is the dumping of tea in a harbor, it is making salt characterized by the dandi march, it is setting in motion the charkha that helps us weave our own clothes, it is the Mandela resilience in his diligence, it is participating in a nation-wide movement to say no to corruption, it is the silent coming together on the night of Dec 13 to protest  violence against women. These questions that emanate from a well sewed attitude cannot be managed. Any intent to manage or monitor is intrinsically antithetical and even offensive to grassroots activism – which typically is second nature to the common man / woman; the first one being fight or freeze.

Gopinath Munde, the OBC leader from Maharashtra took on Sharad Pawar with that one question that no one had asked him before - on his links to the underworld a.k.a Dawood Ibrahim. The father of the daughters at Badaun has asked that one fundamental question which hasn’t been responded to yet – ‘Am I not a citizen of India?’. These common sense comments, statements, questions, call it what we may are fundamental and indicate grassroots activism. It is what brought Munde to the forefront of Maharashtra politics and is what makes the murder of the Badaun girls that much more horrific. Our leaders and the establishment have found a way to respond to common sense. Find someone and Blame it on them.

To err is human….and to blame it on someone else is politics!

Mr PM and Mr Home Minister: we shall wait for you to come out and take credit for the rain. Meanwhile, please go ahead and blame someone else for the drought!  You have our vote!