On an otherwise placid Saturday morning, Ahmedabad will wake up to the launching of fasting extravaganza by, a super political tactician and the BJP leader, Mr. Narendra Modi and the political veteran and the challenger from Congress, Mr. Shankersing Vaghela. The professed purposes of the actors are to bring social harmony through these publicly held actions, which are otherwise strictly personal in nature. Like the leaders who will indulge in this show of strength, the venues of their public performances are also distinctly opposite in character. The rising BJP leader is to fast at a hi-fi convention hall that has been spruced up to accommodate the egos of VIPs and hordes of common men to present larger than life images of the ‘prime minister in waiting’, whereas the guardian from the center is to fast in pseudo frugality in the proximity of hallowed abode of ‘the father of the nation’, attempting to make his point that he and his party are the true and rightful custodian of Bapu and his philosophy of fasting.
The battle lines are drawn. Never before in the history of independent India, has a shadow boxing of this scale for the run up to the parliamentary election ever been held. Never before, an exercise to galvanise the masses, to decide their mandate is conducted with such professional scale of event management. The truth therefore is difficult to hide. The purpose of the action is not what it is professed to be. It is not meant for cleansing the soul of the seeker or of the society but it is a clarion call of “Chaalo Delhi” by the one, who was merely a party worker just a decade ago; without a family or a clan to boast or the resources to gamble. On the other hand, the political general responsible to command ‘Ruk Jaao’ that is ‘Stop’, to this rising lieutenant is, though privy to the inside mechanism of the claimant, fighting a last-ditch battle. By sheer circumstances the Congress leader is destined to play the role of a respondent, the role that inherently denies initiative and innovation. Nonetheless, he has entered the battle with élan and he is the commander with credentials. That is what makes this war of fasting into the ‘battle royale’.
However, if this was just another political drama (though of unparalleled scale), a common man had no reason to lament and add to his gloom, for he has far more pressing things to do, starting from balancing his home budget that has taken a final blow with the rising petrol prices, fast depreciating return on his deposits, rising cost of children education and health etc. Sadly, the political battle being fought out at the split locations of a university and an ashram, possesses a most disturbing gene of country’s political ideology. It is the use of lies by the contenders. Pitted against one another, both the contenders have now resorted publicly and blatantly to the use of lies. These are the lies wrapped inside the misleading propaganda and subverted statistic. These are the lies about purpose and ultimate objective, about achievements and about the promises. Both claim that they are clean and all the progress that you see in the state is thanks to them. Both propagate that they stand for unity and equanimity. Both aver in the name of communal harmony and the rule of law. If there is such a commonality of purpose and method then why they are against one another, the common man muses, for he knows the truth.
The truth is that it is the Indian republic that is fighting its most historic battle, a battle which is fought not only in Kargil or on the LOC but in the streets and trains of Indian metros against the most dreaded terrorists. The truth is that it is the Indian worker who is fighting this battle in the Middle East and elsewhere by putting his blood sweat and tears in his job to send some money home, the truth is that an Indian entrepreneur is fighting his battle against the ‘Western Syndicate’ that has made his entry impossible under the guise of tax barriers and biased visa regimes, the truth is that the conscientious farmer of India is fighting his last battle against the aggression by the super rich industrialist to take away his land as well as the land of his cattle, the truth is that it is the Indian worker in Manesar who is fighting his last battle against the international capitalist to retain his right to say ‘no’ to his employer, determined to impose his ideology of ‘slavery’ in the guise of discipline. These are the truths. Rest is the lies.
And what will be the consequence of this battle? In the battle of lie versus lie, which lie will win? How long the battle of lies will shadow the battle of truths? If history is the guide, we may hope that our polity will survive the lies. The polity, which is exceptional in its capacity to tolerate will suffer the lies in silence but will ultimately bring forth the truth. It is the truth, for which the common man works and suffers. It is the truth that enshrines our identity and our being in the form of our national emblem by such prophetic words: ‘Satyameva Jayate’.
