HVK Archives: The die is caste
The die is caste - Mid-day
M V Kamath
()
17 June 1996.
Title : The die is caste
Author: M V Kamath
Publication : Mid-day
Date : June 17, 1996.
So we have a United Front government. Virtuous,
secular
and anti-communal. I presume that occupying the
high
moral ground that its members do, they turn their faces
away when they pass by a temple, bow deeply in front of
a
mosque, cross their hearts when they see a church
and
otherwise behave like good secularist who should
automatically disown their religion.
To be secular, one only has to be anti-Hindu. One can
address an exclusively Muslim audience on
Mohammed Ali
Road, as Mulayam Singh Yadav did. That will not be
communal.
It is only when a Shiv Sena pramukh addresses an
audience
at Shivaji Park that he gets a communal tint. It is
alright if one appeals only to a Muslim electorate; that
is not communal.
That is minding social justice. After all, the United
Front believes in social justice, even if it means
denying the talented among the socalled upper
castes
their right to jobs and seats in colleges.
These upper caste fellows should be shown their
place,
shouldn't they?
Remember, for many centuries, these lads -- and if not
actually these lads, their grand-dads and the
grand-dads
of grand-dads before them-- have been tyrannising
over
the er.. downtrodden, haven't they?
And what fun it is to see the higher caste boys
groveling before a Mulayam Singh Yadav, a Laloo
Prasad
Yadav and a Kanshi Ram!
So, as they say, we have a new government. Its chief is H
D Deve Gowda, who, during his tenure as Karnataka
chief
minister, couldn't even get Veerappan arrested!
Veerappan, who? You know, that chap who is known to
have
murdered over a hundred innocent men, who is in
hinting
in the jungles and who has been merrily giving
interviews
to journalists.
Same to same. Gowda's police couldn't apprehend
this
fellow.
Now I understand Gowda is going to project this nation
from Pakistan. Some joke.
He has a finance minister who was involved in a a
scandal
and had to resign from the Narasimha Rao government.
Not
to worry. Scandals do not affect United Front
governments.
The names of most of Gowda's ministers are new to me
--
and I am an avid newspaper reader. They wouldn't be
known
in any other state but their own. But who wants national
figures?
A Mahantma Gandhi, a Jawaharlal Nehru or a Sardar
Patel
will be so inconvenient to everyone.
Gowda, does not know Hindi. Why should a prime
minister
know Hindi?
Why shouldn't Hindiwallahs know Kannada?
You know that lady called Marie Antoniette who reportedly
advised a starving population to eat cake if they could
not have bread?
Gowda will ask not only for a security guard but also for
a simultaneous translator's brood whenever he travels
north. It, that is, he will ever travel north or will
address northern audiences.
So we have a bunch of jokers ruling us, who are not
known
outside their charmed circles of their wards.
It is this which makes a `national' government one
made
up largely of non-entities who have been elected by
fellow casteists.
In Gowda's Karnataka, the Janata Dal has put up a
40-plus
Cabinet and the party will probably make all its
legislators ministers without any qualms. After all, what
is the point in getting elected if one cannot become a
minister?
Democracy means that if pappa becomes the prime
minister,
his son must be made at least a minister in his home
state. Or else what is pappa for?
I mourn for my country. Surely it deserves better that V
P Singhs, Mulayams and Laloos? And Gowdas?
India has become a country of the least common
measure.
Hypocrisy is enthroned in the land. False values are
paraded as great principles of social justice.
Tyanny -- legally sanctioned -- passes for the correction
of ancient wrongs. Stupidity is raised to the status of a
desired quality.
I would be ashamed to be seen in the company of many
of
our ministers, who can't speak a correct sentence in
English.
But I am not afraid for my country. It will survive. It
has survived many rasclas, as our tortured history
shows.
Surely it can survive the contemporary crop?
In the months to come, I hope the country will go back to
the polls and duly exercise its wisdom. I have patience.
And as the poet has said, he also serves who only
stands
and waits.
Milton, thou shoudn't be living at this hour. At present,
India is a fen of stagnant waters.
M V Kamath, veteran political commentator, takes on all
comers
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