Archive for the ‘Footloose’ Category

Eliminative Patterns

Posted by Dev Baul - 26/09/24 at 06:09 pm

Various patterns in governance have emerged, or so the opposition claims have emerged over the last ten years. Hitherto not-so-common terms like Crony Capitalism, Majoritarianism, Clientelism, and Rent Collection have entered the public lexicon. Even new expressions like Antinational and Urban Naxal had to be invented to counter this discourse. Perhaps in more genteel times, such debates would be considered healthy democratic dialogues but not in these intolerant times of the new millennium.

A rather disturbing and novel pattern in governance has surfaced and this pattern or tendency is observable in most government policy pronouncements or actions. As the concept is relatively new, it has not been researched extensively nor has it been named. We will call this eliminative pattern or eliminative tendency and define it as a tendency to selectively implement the law or restructure the law with the express intent of eliminating or decimating alternate POVs that do not align with the government’s views. This pattern prevails across the two branches —the Legislature and the Executive. Let us look at examples to see how this eliminative pattern manifests across the two branches of the government.

The Legislature

The ruling coalition had a comfortable majority of 330+ members after both the 2014 and 2019 elections. Despite the comfort in numbers, the treasury benches felt threatened and resorted to some extraordinary manoeuvres to restrain the opposition, as evidenced by three cases in particular.

In the first case, a senior leader of the opposition was dismissed as he was sentenced to two years in jail. The dismissal order was legitimate, and the Lok Sabha Secretariat could not be faulted for executing the order. What made it remarkable was that the conviction was for an election speech of four years vintage, that the case was filed and adjudicated in a state other than the state where the speech was given, that the sentence of two years was unprecedented in defamation cases, and that the two years exactly met the criterion for dismissal.

In the second case, around 150 MPs, constituting around 20% of Parliament (Lok Sabha + Rajya Sabha), were suspended from the parliament. The presiding officers of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha must have had valid reasons for doing what they did. Still, it was very convenient for the government to pass three important bills during this suspension. Three laws governing the criminal justice system of the country were passed with minimal discussion — normally such bills would invite referral to a select committee and days of discussion.

In the third case, a most vociferous and articulate opposition MP was expelled from the Lok Sabha on charges of “Cash for Query” and “Security Breach.” Some may have felt that the materiality of the gift value was overlooked and principles of natural justice were ‘not applied by not questioning the bribe-giver’s intentions. But this remains as the most above-board of the three cases and the MP had to pay for her indiscretions. That it helped get rid of the government’s most virulent critic, was just an accruing collateral benefit.

The Executive

Eliminative patterns are difficult to detect and pinpoint in the Executive branch’s activities, but certain designs are noticeable. Watchdog positions like CEC, CVC, and Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) provide for checks and balances in the system. Earlier, these positions were selected by a committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition(LS), and the Chief Justice of India — this was a healthy tradition whereby the three branches of the government had an equal say. Even the CBI chief was selected using the same process. At present, this committee comprises the PM, the LOP, and a senior cabinet minister. So, the Executive has 2 votes, the Legislature 1, and the Judiciary has none — decisions are majority-driven!

Even absurder theatre is playing out in the Ministry of Education. In 2023, as a part of its “syllabus rationalisation,” NCERT made some revisions to the school curriculum. The three most talked about revisions were removing some Mughal History chapters from Class 12 history books; the removal of Pythagoras theorem from Class 10 mathematics textbooks; and the removal of Mendeleev’s periodic table from Class 10 chemistry textbooks. Without going into the claimed goodness or badness of these revisions, it must be pointed out that Education is a concurrent list item and the states may or may not take up NCERT recommendations. So, depending on their state of residence, the students will learn about Pythagoras theorem or not know about it.

These patterns are disturbing but they remain subjective conjectures and do not constitute actionable evidence. At the same time, patterns are critically important and society cannot ignore them. One can only hope and pray that the eliminative tendencies remain restricted to alternate POVs and do not lead to the physical elimination of the alternate POV holder. We, as a nation, have still not recovered from the consequences of such a physical elimination after 74 years. In 1948, the assassins were disowned and called fringe elements — status quo ante persists in 2024.

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Spectre of a Sceptre

Posted by Dev Baul - 12/09/23 at 11:09 pm

King Ottokar’s Sceptre was published in the Late 1930s when Europe was in a big turmoil. It was published as a serialised weekly comic strip in a children’s supplement of a Belgian Newspaper. The book has intrigued Tintin scholars for decades, and they have researched the backstory and contents with an energy generally reserved for more serious literary works. While they have differed on nuances and details, they have converged on:

It was an indictment of dictators and megalomaniacs in general.
That it was a scathing criticism of Nazi expansionism—Germany annexed Austria in 1938 and Herge named the main baddy Musstler, a portmanteau name derived from Mussolini and Hitler.
That there was a subtext of political power drawing legitimacy from religion—the king could ascend to the throne only on the designated St Vladimir’s day,

It was courageous of Herge to publish the book in 1939—Belgium was to fall in the next few months to Germany.

I read the book in 1977—I was fresh out of school; the Emergency had ended; Indira Gandhi had been voted out of power; The dictator lost, and Janata(pun intended) won. Those were euphoric “ballot over bullet” times and the Syldavian King’s story appeared so alien. We were a civilized and enlightened people—we could select or reject our rulers based on their performance. Unlike the unenlightened rest of the world, our rulers did not draw legitimacy from some divinity-ordained sceptre or a royal lineage.

Flash forward to 2014: We, the people, rejected an earlier set of rulers and elected a new set with a massive majority. This party, with a highly rated world leader as PM, has been in power for the last 9 years. That they got re-elected in 2019 with an even higher majority, was a vindication of their ideology and a victory for their crusade-like campaign. It was the grandest spectacle of democracy. But on May 28, 2023, things changed and changed hugely. On the inaugural day of the new parliament, a group of holy priests presented the PM with a sceptre, Sengol—a symbol of transfer of power (as per GOI communiqué). It was so reminiscent of King Ottokar’s investiture ceremony on St Vladimir’s day.

Here was a ruler who, despite enjoying the support of the masses and the attendant power, was still seeking the legitimacy of his throne from divine powers. Future researchers may investigate the compulsions and motivations for this course of action but for now, as they say—the more things change, the more they remain the same.

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BooMillennial Dialogues

Posted by Dev Baul - 26/03/22 at 07:03 pm

This is a record of a series of conversations between a Boomer father and his Millennial son over a period of thirty years. While it does not claim to answer any question of earth-shattering consequence, hopefully, it will strike a chord in some other parent or child.

Boomer: the generation born roughly between 1946 and 1965

Millennial: the generation born roughly between 1980 and 2020

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Abide with me

Posted by Dev Baul - 29/01/22 at 11:01 pm

Abide With Me

I have walked a bit in Shanti Niketan—in and around the various departments of Viswa-Bharati University.

The Kala Bhavan premises are strewn with works of art from the master artists/sculptors and students—Ramkinkar Baij’s eight sculptures stand out amongst them.

Owing to the unavailability of suitable material and financial constraints, Ramkinkar made do with materials like concrete and laterite mortar to create the masterpieces. This has given an earthy feel and helped to weather the elements for eighty-plus years. Also, granite or bronze would be a rather unbefitting material for Ramkinkar’s spartan subjects—Gandhi, Buddha, Santhal Family, and Sujata.

The Gandhi statue was under repair at the time of my visit. The scaffolding around the statue made it surrealistic—as if the Mahatma would come to life and break open the fetters and walk away from the pedestal.

Curiously, the ruling entity of the day always found it convenient to keep Gandhi under fetters or on a pedestal. Whenever the British needed to move Gandhi away from the action, they would arrest him and release him unconditionally after things cooled off—in 1942, this cooling-off period stretched to two years. After 1950, the newly elected government found it handy to use him on currency notes, put him on a Father-of-the-Nation pedestal, unfollow him, and run the country as per its own counsel.

The present government has dropped all the inconvenient Gandhi shibboleths and has officially decided not to abide with him.

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The Mobile Camera : A Modern-day Madame Defarge

Posted by Dev Baul - 16/11/21 at 10:11 pm

Circa 1780s, France

Dickens in “A Tale of Two Cities” talks about how Monsieur the Marquis runs down a child with his carriage and moves on after throwing a gold coin at the hapless wailing father. Now, the Marquis was a member of the French nobility and would not have lost much sleep over the death of such an insignificant commoner. He might never have been “brought to justice” but for one Madame Defarge.

Madame Defarge was the wife of a wine vendor in downtown Paris. Through the day, she sat at the shop knitting. She kept a mental note of all excesses perpetrated by the nobility and knitted down the names of the perpetrators in her knit—on a later date, the list would be used to bring them to the guillotine. The Marquis’s name also got registered on the list.

Circa 2021, India

Not many had heard of Lakhimpur Kheri, UP, one nondescript village of the six lakh villages in India, before October 3, 2021. On that fateful day, an SUV hit a gathering of farmers from behind, ran them down killing four farmers, and fled from the spot. The SUV was the lead vehicle in a convoy of cars—the convoy was carrying workers of the party in power, both at the centre and the state. The lead car belonged to the son of the Home Minister of India and as per the FIR, he was driving the car.

That it was not an unfortunate accident but a deliberate act, was amply established through the mobile camera videos that surfaced after the incident. Like the gold coin thrown by the Marquis, some money has been promised to the bereaved families. But what is bizarre is the brazenness and alacrity with which the ruling dispensation has gone about shielding its home minister and his son. And this is happening despite the Supreme Court taking Suo moto cognizance and driving the investigation.

A period of 250 years or a quarter of millennium separates the two incidents; but the more the things change, the more they remain the same—just the actors and the stages change. Do we need another Madame Defarge and the attendant judicial system to give justice to the dead farmers? The thought is mind-numbingly scary.

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Lord Jagannath Strikes Back

Posted by Dev Baul - 12/07/21 at 10:07 pm

The word juggernaut (derived from Jagannath) was taken to Europe by some missionaries in the 14^th century. The story of an enormous carriage carrying a statue of “the lord of the world” caught the imagination of the English and juggernaut became a popular word connoting a massive force, campaign, movement, or vehicle that crushes everything in its path. The “crushes everything” part is attributable to the legend that devotees threw themselves in the chariot’s path.

Although the English had the word in their lexicon and mindshare for long, they did not get to see a “Jagannath Rath” till the 20^th century. In 1968 ISKCON celebrated “Rath Yatra” for the first time in London.

I happened to be in London on the 40^th anniversary of the London Rath Yatra and by a turn of events landed up at Hyde Park—the starting point of the yatra. Not being overtly religious, I never felt an urge to take part in a Rath Yatra while in India, but in unfamiliar surroundings of London, I found myself pulling the rope of the chariot.

The cavalcade of three chariots with Balaram, Subhadra, Jagannath, and priests of non-Indian descent started slowly from Hyde Park and reached Trafalgar Square, passing Harrods and Piccadilly on the way. The three-mile journey was made in over two hours. For two hours, normal traffic was allowed only on one side of the road and people had lined up on the sides to witness the spectacle—I saw some youngsters climbing up the Piccadilly fountain to get a better view.

The three chariots ensconced in front of the National Gallery of Modern Art did not seem out of place at all—it seemed as if the NGMA dome had spawned three smaller domes.

Note: I am forced to use standard stock images from the internet as I had run out of battery in my camera

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Posted in Footloose, Uncategorized
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The Migrant Worker Family

Posted by Dev Baul - 21/05/21 at 07:05 am

The Migrant Worker Family

Corona has turned out to be pretty much an equal-opportunity affliction in that it has not discriminated between religions, castes, genders, or social hierarchies. But there has been a marked variance in the way lives of the haves and the have-nots have been affected by the pandemic. Urban poor, mostly migrant workers have been worst affected. Loss of livelihood, lack of transport, and desertion by society at large underwrote their despair. In their desperation they started walking for home—some reached, few fell on the way.

Using my privileges, I managed to escape the lockdown-driven cooped-up existence in Kolkata and go to my all-time go-to getaway–Shanti Niketan. The walks I undertook were serene, quiet, and eerie at the same time. In Kala Bhavan premises, usual tourists were conspicuously absent around Ramkinkar Baij’s Santhal Family.

Santhal Family, sculpted by Ramkinkar Baij in 1938 is widely considered to be the first modernist sculpture in India. It depicts a father with a child carried in a basket, a mother with another child on her left flank, and a dog from a Santhal family carrying their scant possessions and going in search of a new life—uncannily similar to the images of migrant worker families moving back from cities to their villages on foot. It was as if Ramkinkar had some oracular vision to foresee events that were to unfold eighty years down the line.

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Big-Endians vs Little-Endians

Posted by Dev Baul - 16/05/21 at 06:05 am

Big-Endians vs Little-Endians

In the course of his travels, Lemuel Gulliver met two warring factions in Lilliput—Big-Endians and Little-Endians. Big-Endians broke their boiled eggs from the bigger end while the Little-Endians did the same from the smaller end. A crown prince had cut a finger while breaking the egg from the bigger end in earlier times. Whereupon the emperor decreed that his subjects were ordained to break their eggs from the smaller end only and default would result in stiff penalties. People resented this law and rose in revolt multiple times. These rebellions, often aided and fomented by the monarchy of neighboring Blefuscu, resulted in a loss of life of one emperor and thousands of Big/Little-Endians. At the time of Gulliver’s visit, Lilliput and Blefuscu had been engaged in a war for “six and thirty moons(three years).”

I came across this bulletin board while walking around in a modern Egyptian museum in Cairo and it reminded me of the Big-Endians vs Little-Endians story. Here were two peoples with identical prophets but for the names, engaged in an eternal war. Their salutations (shalom vs Salaam), headgears (kippah vs taqiyah), rituals (brit millah vs khatna), and concepts of purity (kosher vs halal) are similar too. They agree even in their taboos (pork) but keep firing rockets at each other and have kept at it for decades! Unlike the Big-Endians vs Little-Endians story, there is no egg in play here let alone the big or small ends of the egg.

Jonathan Swift had used Big-/Little- Endians as metaphors for Protestants/Catholics and Lilliput/Blefuscu for England/France. I have examples from closer home in mind but desist from citing them lest I hurt someone’s sentiments and go behind bars under UAPA/NSA.

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Posted in Footloose
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Big-Endians vs Little-Endians

Posted by Dev Baul - 15/05/21 at 11:05 am

Big-Endians vs Little-Endians

In the course of his travels, Lemuel Gulliver met two warring factions in Lilliput—Big-Endians and Little-Endians. Big-Endians broke their boiled eggs from the bigger end while the Little-Endians did the same from the smaller end. In earlier times, a crown prince had cut a finger while breaking the egg from the bigger end. Whereupon the emperor decreed that his subjects were ordained to break their eggs from the smaller end only and default would result in stiff penalties. People resented this law and rose in revolt multiple times. These rebellions, often aided and fomented by the monarchy of neighboring Blefuscu, resulted in a loss of life of one emperor and thousands of Big/Little-Endians. At the time of Gulliver’s visit, Lilliput and Blefuscu had been engaged in a war for “six and thirty moons(three years).”

I came across this bulletin board while walking around in a modern Egyptian museum in Cairo and was reminded of the Big-Endians vs Little-Endians story. Here were two peoples with identical prophets but for the names, engaged in an eternal war. Their salutations (shalom vs Salaam), headgears (kippah vs taqiyah), rituals (brit millah vs khatna), and concepts of purity (kosher vs halal) are similar too. They agree even in their taboos (pork) but keep firing rockets at each other and have kept at it for decades! Unlike the Big-Endians vs Little-Endians story, there is no egg in play here let alone the big or small ends of the egg.

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Posted in Footloose
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Talking the Walks

Posted by Dev Baul - 03/05/21 at 03:05 pm

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