Will Modi do the new, by reinventing the old?
The 2024 election campaign by all the political parties reminds one of a wonderfully porous saying by Rahul Gandhi when he started his political journey, viz. “politics is poison”.
10 Janpath trackers at the time recall how when Rahul Gandhi discovered that Politics is poison, dyed-in-the-wool Congress veterans like Mani Shankar Aiyar and Jairam Ramesh promptly cried. Or rather wept inconsolably. In their hankies, or their trembling thighs (TT), we can’t be sure, for no one is allowed in the inner circles of 10 Janpath.
It was suggested that they did this, in their hankie, or TT (see above), to show their appreciation. Well, either way the truth has to out one day!
Now that the fire-eating Narendra Modi on his fiery campaign trail is digging out all that he can find on the grand old Congress since A.O. Hume founded it in the 19th century, he may next demand to know why veteran Congressmen of the time cried when Rahul made his poison discovery. Was it not because they found it too silly even by the lofty standards set by Rahul Gandhi?
How would one know? Only a CBI probe can out the truth on this. Maybe they will run an Intel Inside Test on Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress though countered that if anything, there was Intel Outside, which was being abused by fascist Modi, but was not scared of such tactics. It protested in a tweet, which said, Adaraniya Hon’ble Fascist Modiji, Darna (scaring people) Mana Hai! Congress always believes in Dharna.
“Will rewrite history”
The opposition INDI alliance is also cautioning the people that if Modi returns to power, he will rewrite the history books. The social media was agog with a rumour that Modi might even use artificial intelligence to rewrite all the history in a jiffy.
But as we all know, the history books that we have read till now absolutely does not need any more artificial intelligence than it already has! For instance, it tells us that Congress won India Independence from the British without firing a shot, and more or less over a fireside chat with the British. Like it happens in a video game?
Here is the excerpt of an answer sheet from a Class 12 exam of the 60s:
Q: Which was the only country to have won its freedom from foreigners through non-violence? Explain how dammit.
Ans: India! It was like, imagine Lord Mountbatten one day, lazily poring over the popular back page of The Sun, when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru walked in, with Lady Mountbatten on his side (yes, you read it right).
“Darling, me and Pandit were just doing some loud thinking…” the Lady puttered.
“Ah not too loud I hope,” said the Mount smiling mischievously and asked, “And what, may I ask, my lady, was it?”
“Well,” Panditji hesitated. “It’s like this… We want you to free us.” He then clarified hastily, “I mean not US exactly,” “but India”. “That is to say, Gandhiji wants you to free us, if only you are ready for that of course, and if you deem us fit for it, and if you don’t mind leaving us to our fate. I mean…” he stuttered, searching for any other possibility he may have left out.
The Mount got up quickly and patted him on the back. “So you want freedom, young man? Don’t worry. We will be off, when you say so,” and then turning to his wife, he asked, “Lady, when is the next flight to London?”
Sort of like that, is what our history books tell you, give or take a lone wolf kind of revolutionary or two, who parted ways with the Congress.
Frankly, studying history was a kind of alien torture for the students, and not a certified bore as it is guaranteed to be the world over.
For instance, Chapter 1 to Chapter 8 was about Mughal Rule. And Chapter 8 to 12 was about British rule. And in between there was a paragraph or two like a filler, so to say, on a Krishnadevaraya here, or the Marathas, there, with Jhansi Rani banished to poetry for a 2 mark question, just like the Marathas, the Pallavas, and Cholas. Interestingly enough, the aggrieved states to whom these kings belonged to, did not demand for a reservation quota system for the allotment of marks!
But the Mughal rule, the East India Company, the British rule — Dalhousie, Macaulay, his predecessor, his successor, his subsequent successor, the Mount, the Mount’s missus, and so on and so forth, were all essay-type questions for 6 to 12 marks! Which leads one to suspect: Was this not a case of Muslim and minority appeasement?
Now, whichever way you look at it, the Hindus come out as losers. We didn’t even have the opportunity to score higher marks, from a study of our own rulers and culture!
Hopefully, Prime Minister Modi’s third reign will bring in reservation for allotting higher marks questions to the Hindu kings in the history exams.
But India has changed
But of course, you cannot deny that India has changed after 2014. This is one thing on which both Modi and Rahul Gandhi and the entire opposition, the secular media and godhi media and even the western media are unanimous about.
Under Modi, if you observe closely, 2014 is followed by 2015. And 2015, by 2016 and so on and so forth.
Recently, the internationally acclaimed D. Raja of the CPI was interviewed by the Unhinged Hindu, excerpts of which are published here (no use in Googling, as the interview was not published anywhere):
Mr. Raja, what do you have to say about the changes under Modi after 2014?
Yus, Yus. Vaat waas the need to change? Yindya was progressing so nicely since Yendependence and even before that also… I think the Modi Government should yintrospect…
No, Mr. Raja, by change I mean, they are changing the calendar year, to commemorate…?
That is vaat I am saying. They have not left the calendar also?
Some cheeky thoughts
The thing about us is, India and Indians can be a world apart. Nehru himself, by his own confession, was a Westerner at heart, though with an Indian rose pinned to it. Even the great Mahatma spent decades traversing the length and breadth of India, burning up the equivalent of thousands of free flyers in second-class train compartments, to understand why the hell India experiments with leaders like…
Unfortunately for them, they couldn’t just Google to find out whatever they wanted to find out.
Like, Gandhi could have just written a FB post about his plans for getting India freedom from the British through non-violence (like, if Indians keep showing the other cheek to the Britain Queen, one fine day, she will just give up, faced by a lengthy queue of some 50-crore cheeks and say, ‘Oh I free you alright, but is this what you are going to do anyway after you are free?’).
However there is always the possibility that Gandhi’s FB post could have got more likes which would have annoyed more Indians to go after Subhash Chandra Bose who said that ideally Indians should rather have the British show the cheek.
Modi’s actually doing that already if you have not realized: Doing the new by reinventing the old.