Shun the Desire to be King, Believe in Democracy

During the Emergency, Indira Gandhi had once confessed to her closest confidants, Pupul Jayakar, “How hard it is to keep from being king, when it is in me and the situation.” Very honest, indeed! Now I know that she only surfaced a universal desire when I see streets flooded with hoardings of “enthroned” politicians and headlines such as “Rahul Gandhi—Our future King”. As for the latter, he has already taken up this prospect rather seriously by impressing all and sundry with his ‘commoner’ ways. I have doubts whether his ‘subjects’ will let him be one of them he so desperately wants to be. The fact is, going by the pulse of the ‘aam aadmi’ thinking, it is difficult to accept Rahul Gandhi as one of us and that what he does (hopping on to local trains, having tea with slumdogs, etc.) is not a gimmick but is genuinely intended because we have already accepted him as our ruler, the king. Most importantly, we have already defined his class as one above us. It doesn’t matter if we blame him for the class divide once he is in power and advocates a policy or two which may not comply with our premises of comfort. Strangely, power, publicity, and a celebrity status have a similar escalatory route in our country—the top of the pyramid is always occupied by a king. Let us start with the most famous king, King Khan or the Badshaah of Bollywood. Never mind the “Khan” part as it may change with time but note the entitlement. Then, we have the underworld kingpin. Finally, there is an endless list of elected kings and queens, the Thackerays and the Mayawatis, who consider the semantics of being on the throne rather literally. They simply love to adorn golden and silver thrones, wear outlandish and garish clothes and make sure one hand is always in a kingly posture, that of a monarch blessing his subjects. A certain queen has taken this sentiment even more seriously by installing statues of her in this mudra all over the state. And this after a long independent struggle advocating equal rights and democracy, over 60 years of celebrating independence and reveling in the freedom we have, and taking pride in the fact that we are one of the world’s most progressive democracies. Why are we then not able to break free from the psyche of being the ruler, being ruled, or for that matter being over-ruled? Why are we unable to forget our feudal lords? Why don’t we behave as citizens of a mature democracy? Why do we go berserk trying to garland our ‘kings,’ touch their hands and feet, climb walls to catch one glimpse of them? Why are we still unable to understand that the leaders are one among us in whom we have entrusted our votes to serve the country because they volunteered to and we deemed them fit to do so?


The reason why this psyche needs to be acknowledged and addressed today is because it has bearings to the Maoist uprising which is on its way to become one of the biggest problems India is going to be facing in the times to come. Naxalites and Maoists originated to fight the class divide, to ensure equal rights, and to fight against the oppression of farmers and the ill effects of feudalism in India and China, respectively. Mao Tse Tung had a vision for China which was very relevant to his times. He accomplished it by bringing about a movement which changed the face of China and made him a legendary leader. He advocated guerilla tactics because they seemed to be the only solution to many of his problems as he saw it then. Well! That was half a century ago. So, how is it that an adapted version is still relevant in a democratic republic like ours? How is it that the Maoist faction is still not outcast as a group involved in unwanted terrorist activities even though they do nothing more than spreading terror and taking precious lives. Else, if they were genuinely fighting for the common man, they would have thought many times over before taking the lives of EFR jawans in Silda because every Indian knows to which rung of society a jawan belongs to going by their economic standing. They certainly do not belong to the exploitive class as much as how the pseudo-Maoists would like to think so. Simply holding guns do not qualify the poor jawans as bourgeois—the machine, unfortunately, is the only source of entitlement to their meagre salaries barely sufficient to sustain their families. If they had some heart, they could have undertaken this as one of their issues instead of catching them unawares and shooting them down like cattle. Any thinking individual can decide that if there is want of justice, who the exploiters are and which is the oppressed faction. And, yes! It is not exploitation only in terms of terrorizing and killing. It also includes misleading the youth of our country, driving their precious energy towards wrong causes. In other words, we are losing precious talent to an ‘indigenous Taliban’ which is bringing about absolute wastage of young blood. The ‘divides’ we create may simply be a topic for tea-time conversations for some of us, but sometimes they impact young minds to the extent that they remain immersed in resentment. Don’t forget that eagle-eyed separatists are always on the prowl looking out for brooding young minds and making them believe that it is through their means they will find justice. So it is all about never letting the resentment die down, never letting the causticity dampen and guiding fragile young minds to take up the path of violence to realize ulterior motives. I would love to believe that a certain Kishanji’s struggle has roots in some cynical resentment he may have been bearing with regard to his father’s involvement in the freedom struggle of India. As for his belief in the Maoist ideology, it could be nothing more a fascination for the “Red Book”. No matter how cynical and uncouth I sound, I refuse to accept an ideology which does not respect lives, which talks of violence, which brings about hatred and strife. I refuse to accept any ideology which threatens the very thread of humanity. I have lived by the belief that we are a free nation today because of the Mahatma’s tireless struggle based on non-violence and that democracy is the only route to universal justice, and I know I am not alone in this camp.

The fact that we still allow divisive organizations to have their way out is because, we love to remain divided--on the basis of wealth, caste, religion, regionalism, gender, sect, etc., etc., and take it to a level that this ‘divide’ is well represented by the most revered weapon of democracy, the vote. The fact that obsolete ideologies are still valid today in our country and that we are still allowing criminal mayhem-creating factions like the Maoists to thrive is because, we are continuously offering them some divisive issue to which they can attach their evil intentions of violence and replenish it as a valid ideology. The fact that some of our leaders are still not answerable for their unbecoming ways and that they are re-elected in spite of not delivering is much because, we still like to worship, indulge in adulations, and treat our leaders like Gods. So what’s wrong if they behave like one? Sadly, we may have embraced democracy to earn our rights suited to our comforts but we have yet to understand the spirit of it and accept the responsibility of being a uniform shareholder in the progress of our country. Therefore, we are very much responsible for not allowing certain ‘divides’ to die down and not letting genuine issues breathe. It is time we revisited democracy. It is time we recreated it and made it more relevant to today’s requirements. It is time we endorsed issue-based politics and competent leadership. It is time we addressed genuine needs rather than burdening ourselves with carrying forward obscure and outdated political ideologies. It is time to overcome the past, to live in the present, and to build a better tomorrow. It is time to realize that in order to bring about justice, we will have to strengthen our judiciary. It is time that in order to make our leaders deliver, we have to take them to task. It is time to empower issue-based politics to solve the problems of our country. If this is not realized, we may have to ready ourselves to commit our entire lives to fighting terror and to losing precious talent to the wrong causes. Think again, it is not that a Jagari Baskey is born everyday, but it hurts to think that the goons are taking pride in her abilities instead of the Indian Army.