Inflated Patriotism:
Whipping up war-hysteria or hawkish air has been a favourite pastime of regimes in New Delhi even in peace time, for it’s a sign of being patriotic and nationalistic. At least, in the eyes of teeming millions in a country fragmented and polarized on many counts, patriotism comes in handy, provides a common leverage and a single redeeming factor to unite the land shred apart and blown to tatters by raging communal, casteist, economic, political and social conflicts.

Be it a scam tainted politico, a corrupt bureaucrat, an over-rated sportsman, an epicurean film-star or even a downright criminal: all of them can join the bandwagon of patriotism, and talk ‘high-voltage’ to fire passion of gullible commoners. Emotionalize, dramatize, lionize, and eulogize are the mantras which spell success in such a situation. The sarfaroshi-ki-tamana shown and exhibited by all and sundry either on their own or by some ‘driving-force’ is enough to set the tone for a high dose of nationalism. The distended bubble of patriotism, however, is easily pricked in the wake of elections, when politicos behave like typical kilkenny cats—the ones who fight each other until only their tails remain. And they die at last, swallowing their own lies. Pseudo-patriotism being one such lethal political lie.

Sarkari Intellectuals:
No person can keep away from the sirens of politics. It’s impossible to stuff the politics altogether. To quote the French critic, Max Adereth, “the inescapable moral is that even if we ignore politics, politics will not ignore us”. There is, no doubt, the archetypal allergy of the contemplating mind to the ugly and abrasive business of politics. There is certainly something in this brutal business which compels a falsification of the factuality. No sensitive soul may survive in such kind of moral squalor without paying a heavy price. The erosion in the end makes an otherwise fertile mind an impostor in retreat, before the assaults of reality. And that happens to be the fate of all those who end up as Sarkari-intellectuals.

 “Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth”, so cautioned Albert Einstein. The number of conundrums ranging from manipulation to mediocrity, brings into limelight a coterie of such ‘intellectuals’, who while proving their loyalist credentials vociferously throttle the very essence of their self-credibility. Prejudice and propaganda is churned day and night to suit the moods, tantrums and histrionics of their sugar-daddies and god-fathers in polity, bureaucracy and power corridors. Views, comments, discourses, discussions, analysis: all degenerate into a set of stanch beliefs beyond the ken of any reason or any truth. The whole drama smacks of nothing but a growing fascism of the post-independent mind, which aims at strident advocacy and the revanchist embrace of ‘religious nationalism’.

Political Intrusion:
Politics is the activity by which the framework of human life is sustained; it’s not life itself. The intelligentsia has its place but its intrusion into politics has been more or less a simple misadventure. Experience shows that politics tends to drive the obliging intellectuals and media-persons into moral black-holes and minefield of moral compromises. After all, human frailty is ubiquitous. It excludes none. Moral compromises lead to the sclerosis of the discerning mind, where every attempt is aimed to shape truth into false and vice-versa. It’s only when the shallow and besieged mind can break through the walls of bogus pelf, bogus power and bogus prestige and “wither into the truth”, to recall Yeats’ phrase, that any intellectual or mediaperson, or for that matter, any individual would be in a position to stand up to the darkness and the temptation that block his vision. Intrusion into politics, as such, won’t bring in any sort of expediency in calling spade a spade. It would rather be a commendable moral task.

Politics all:
Some thinkers believe that eventually politics will die, but everything will be politics. That’s to say, politics will creep in our lives. In other words, all our doings will be politicized. That’s why from offering prayers to paying condolences to playing in official chairs, nothing seems devoid of politics. And it can’t be otherwise. Politics—whether in common dusty street or in an ostentatious cozy office—is a lifeline for small-minded people who survive on CCC, Conniving Culpable Constituency (of gutless-cum-mindless yes-men & women) rallied around. It’s only when there is interplay of politics that their “ends” are achieved.

At least, in much-trumpeted ‘global village’ where blood gets colour only when it’s shown on idiot-box, politics wins. The death of a hundred people in an embassy of a non-descript country sends shock waves, but nobody cares when civilians are burnt alive in some part of any third-world. For lack of contortionist Sanchaar Madhyam (publicity medium) ala latter-day DD or Private News Channels, the thousands of precious Kashmiri brains simply evanesced under the soil of oblivion, unknown and unsung. They couldn’t gather hype. This is exactly, what they say, all politics!

It's politics when human rights violations are taken note of only after knowing domicile of humans. Its politics when excesses committed are ‘excesses’ only if perpetrators are lesser mortals, otherwise justifications follow. Its politics when sermons are delivered on peace-loving legacy of nation, but nuclear weapons manufactured to bully the neighbours.
 
There is not a single issue in which politics does not have an upper hand. All the organs, institutions and state machinery stand politicized. War, peace, nationalism, economy, sports, and every¬thing have been rendered meaningless without politicking.

What’s it that “we hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office” (Aesop)? Aren’t all decisions subservient to politics? Do some soul searching.

(The author teaches at Media Education Research Centre, MERC, University of Kashmir).

Lastupdate on : Sat, 26 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 26 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 27 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST