The Intolerance debate - Genesis & Reality
The following link provides a
good opening batting option to the raging
debate on hand about intolerance.
This is not about irresponsible statements of
anybody since with freedom of speech assured each is free to shoot their mouth
off and that anyway is a emotional issue not rationally possible to debate.
Intolerance as per a
dictionary is defined as “unwillingness
or refusal to tolerate or respect opinions or beliefs contrary to one’s own”.
Going by this definition one
can say that the two sides debating this issue today seem to have different opinions on issues but
yet one side claims that the other is intolerant. So who is actually intolerant here? In my opinion
BOTH.
Considering that intolerance has
been existing since long and is a common trait with many humans what is it
today that is making one section of the society rebel so strongly ? Considering
that their opinion and views are not
only being heard so loudly and substantial media space being devoted to them,
it is a misnomer to say that there is intolerance. So then why is it still
debated so furiously to the extent that artists return awards, celebrities go
on TV channels & talk about
humiliation while others go on strike
and so on.
This strong a reaction in my opinion is when those who scream loudest lose something that
it begins to hurt them.
In any society anywhere globally
there are rent seekers. These are the folks who bask under the umbrella of a
political party/Government in power and enjoy the perks that come with it. This
is not to question their personal abilities, talents or even their deserving to
be rewarded for their talents. It is the nature of the rewards they seek and
obtain. Rent seekers are not those who get rewarded by society and a grateful
government for their contribution but those who beyond the rewards live as a
“parasite” on the system enjoying rewards and benefits that flow to them owing
to their proximity to those in power. This power is what I call “proximity
power” or “reflected glory”.
In any democratic society
governments change, parties come and go, leaders change and with each the list
of rent seekers change. These rent seekers know that their time in the sun is
limited and always limit their ambitions to what is reasonable and invisible.
Never mind if the citizens of the society may not agree with their definition
of reasonable or what is invisible.
India in 1947 decided to be
a socialistic country and with a history of
monarchy be it under the British or the Mughals or even the other Kings
this was maybe understandable and even unavoidable. Monarchy by its very nature thrives on benevolence
and patronage. India and Indians embraced this willingly and these grew to become
political favours bestowed on a grateful public to a select few.
Businessmen moved ahead, adapted to the new rules, found new
means of controlling and obtaining patronage and life moved on. The life for artists, celebrities continued
as always.
Meanwhile in India riots, bomb
blasts happened with regularity and the following link gives a list since 1947.
2002 began the advent of prime
time TV with live coverage of events as they happened. What had actually
started earlier matured and for the first time Indian anchors found themselves
becoming celebrities in their own right. They began to be recognized
anywhere they went. People asked for
autographs, people deferred to them at airports, hotels & shops with respect and finally they achieved cult status in society. They realised
that they held the future and reputation of a person, especially a politician
in their hands. They could actually make or break a politician. I have seen a
very senior elderly politician
grovelling with as much dignity as he could in front of a young journalist. This class then became the new rent seekers who demanded their pound of
flesh. The now famous page 3 started in most newspapers and if you knew someone
in the media you could get them to print pictures of your dogs birthday party as if it was a event
that people clamoured to know about.
Cricket in the meantime grew
big and with IPL the cocktail became heady. Film stars, cricketers,
journalists, pretty women dressed to kill, rich playboys, businessmen and TV
all came together in a explosive orgy of
money, power, fame and exposure. TV journos could address the celebrities whom the citizens only dreamt of by first names and joked and laughed on TV in front of millions. It was like being on a drug high all the time
and still be aware of what they were enjoying. The money going around was obscene.
The gap between the citizens and those in power grew larger, the
communication channels broke down. Citing security the common man was physically kept at bay from the political leader except for the rent seekers who had instant access & mobile numbers on hand. From a stage where in
the ‘80s and ‘90s when you actually knew your local MLA and MP & his phone number, they were now faces
you saw on TV. Unless you went begging to their doorsteps and managed to get
past the rent seekers who surrounded the politician or became friends with the
rent seeker you did not get any work done. Good or bad the access to
information by citizens was poor and the ability to communicate with your Neta/ Govt – Zero.
Little did they know that
social media was the new democracy that actually brought down the Berlin wall
of every politician, celebrity, artist,
sportsman between them and the common man. What till now was the hoi polloi
suddenly found a voice, a platform to vent their opinion. If they didn’t like
someone they simply abused him online. They shamed them. Others then started
liking it, sharing it, adding to it and like a snowball this gained traction.
The availability of smartphones and cheaper internet meant that everyone from
the chaparasi who cleaned the roads to
the company chairman was equal. The chaparasi could take to twitter, often
anonymously and say what a douche bag the chairman was and nobody could do a
thing. Others created parodies of VIP folks and tweeted such that the original VIP ended up looking like a idiot. The target of the fastest finger first was identifiable and so anyone who read it connected dots and
added to the pot their own brew. The pot simmered and overflowed sometimes with
aroma but most other times with stink.
The rent seekers were now in
trouble in general since people exposed
their rent seeking effort, they exposed the hypocrisy, they caught the lies,
they stripped every celebrity,
politician, artist, journalist naked.
Depending upon how much general popularity
or credibility a person enjoyed
the effect was telling. Most did not know how to engage with this constituency, since so far communication was a one way, top down system. For
every sound byte they gave, they got back thousands. A populace that had hitherto no voice
suddenly found voice and like a dam burst they could speak “directly” to their
heroes, leaders, villains and the admiration, abuse and commentary continued
24x7 from across the globe. Incidents, news became so real time that breaking
news on TV sometimes was old news. I remember recently news of a air crash with
photos reaching me even before TV even
reported it.
The flood of feedback was something most have been unable to
handle. They were now getting exposed rightly or wrongly but exposure it still
was. They had to listen to a
multitude of opinions and like the proverbial argumentative Indian everyone
argued a point to death. The common man also could now address the celebrity by name and give his opinion on everything from their dress, acting, performance, political views etc. What the hell, the common man could give the President of USA and the Pope a piece of their mind. They could tell a TV anchor in real time that he was a jerk or a hero. For the first
time in decades the rich, powerful, famous had to listen to opinions from
people they didn’t know existed and from speaking to listening the transformation was
frightening. Their fortress turned into glasshouses. This change actually gathered momentum from 2011/2012 onwards when the
India Against Corruption movement started and gathered force with each passing
day. The glitterati and the rent seeker were in a state of shock. Just like the
business men in 1991. This time the
business man was actually rejoicing while everybody else got the stick.
Coming back to rent seekers, as I mentioned before,
every party, every government has them but they know and understand that they
have a shelf life. Some of the more
enterprising amongst them had managed to
straddle multiple horses and so irrespective of who was in power, they still
enjoyed their rent. The bigger rent seekers co-opted with further patronage those who may spell trouble or could be assets like those from the minority community or a regional power broker. The rent seeker always had a laxman rekha on what rent they
sought and got. They knew it was a
rent and not ownership.
The Congress post Sonia in my
opinion underwent a major change in character. While all other parties
continued to have and manage the rent seekers like before, the Congress
converted this rent into an entitlement, an ownership. While earlier the rent
seeker knew that if he broke the law and IF lucky, even get away. This breed of
rent seekers now felt they were above the law & that they owned India itself. From a stage where the rent
seeker earlier knew he was getting a larger share of the cake, now, this new
breed felt that they owned the cake itself. When you read of celebrities wanting to get exemption from law to build a beach house or enter
areas that barred them, skip security, take over public roads for their use, not pay tax on imports and many
such transgressions you realise that the delusion that they are above the law
and actually own the system is quite strong. This breed also had one other
thing in common – a English speaking aristocracy and superiority that knew how
to select a wine, enjoy a caviar and
swig their scotch.
With Congress having been in
power for 60 years the bonds were anyway strong and add to this that Congress
ruled for 10 years during this period of transformation and this delusion of
invincibility took root. They actually believed that Congress
would now rule forever and even if someone came to power they still enjoyed the fruits
since no one dared touch them. Even Vajpayee for 6 years mollycuddled
both existing rent seekers and his own set of rent seekers. Also for 25 years, coalition politics had
ensured that compromise and accommodation was the only way out, never mind if
they were undesirable ones. For 25 years everyone was scratching each others
back to survive and had got used to this.
The elections of 2014 turned
every assumption, every expectation,
every belief, every tradition on its head. It was as contrarian and disruptive
as it could get. A BJP coming to power with allies was acceptable, a Vajpayee
or Advani as PM who they related to and shared a film or drink with they
accepted. Even if a Vajpayee preferred hindi,
their English wasn’t bad and the suave smooth Jaitley was their own. Modi had been vilified since 2002 so much
that even the USA had denied him a visa.
He was persona non grata and for the BJP to let him campaign let alone nominate
him as PM would be political suicide. In Indian
history none but from the Hindi heartland had become PM except an aberration
called Deve Gowda. Narasimha Rao, was PM, but he was a politician who
had spent most of his political life in the Delhi corridors so he didn’t stand
out as an outsider. But Modi was from Gujarat, with no roots in Delhi and as
outside an outsider as you can get. Even
in 2013 who believed that this was a possibility.
But horror of horrors, BJP
nominated him PM well in advance, won a
majority on their own. Modi almost didn’t speak English at all. After all he was the
village bumpkin from Gujarat and he had
gate crashed their party. Even while they shrank back in horror, their children
wanted selfies with Modi. This elite, many of who were not on social media
since it was ultra dig for them anyway found that not only did Modi connect
with the masses, the hoi polloi but the masses were on Social Media too. And they had a voice as we said earlier. A Modi who didn’t know English
to the extent that a very senior editor of a national newspaper even mocked him
online openly, was feted globally and the reception he got from Indians living
abroad was more like a rock star than a politician. The following is an
illustrative example.
How many PM’s spoke multiple languages or for that matter anything apart from Hindi and English, except Narasimha Rao? This was a reference to his lack of English expertise – see the arrogance and intolerance. These are the rent seekers who are feeling threatened.
This says it all. The condescension about the fact that he actually spoke fluent English where she actually highlighted the word English.
SHE can have an opinion but
others cannot just because according to her THEY must not have one – see the intolerance. While abuse is not being condoned, fact that the hoi polloi dare to have an opinion and question her she interprets as polarising. It is this attitude of the rent seekers that social media and Modi are demolishing.
Barring for some awkward
moments, everywhere in USA or China or Middle East
the crowds which one would assume were English speaking, upper class, stylish, actually lapped him up. This was another new experience to the rent seekers. They had believed the western educated, western lifestyle living, english speaking NRI's would actually be uncomfortable with him. In the meantime a Modi in power did everything they expected him not to
do. He changed the rules of politics, he operated in a way that Delhi politics did not work or had seen. If
anyone expected him to trip up like an outsider would in a new place, he
didn’t. Worst of all he worked like a man possessed and the masses saw and
loved that. Even his most ardent critics
who hated him to the core had to acknowledge that the energy he brought was
beyond compare. Where many were disconnected with the hoi polloi he was not only connected with them but they rose to defend him against the rent seekers.
He demolished every power
structure that existed. Where earlier people used influence” to get
appointments, they now got it online. Where people walked in easily saying
“boss is calling”, they now found the boss saying that he cannot let them in
without reason. I myself have experienced this. I have found it funny when I hear my “friends” embarrassingly express inability to let me into buildings without reason. His
officers and ministers and the hoi polloi used social media to telling effect.
I myself am testimony to how senior most officers and ministers have responded,
acted and resolved issues over social media while earlier the same offices wouldn’t give me the time of the day. Thanks to Modi being an outsider every rent
seeker is today finding himself rudderless. A completely new breed of rent
seekers is maybe taking over. An institution built over 68 years is getting demolished.
THAT is the real issue in this whole
argument of intolerance.
The rent seekers of Delhi and
beyond are finding that their grasp over
the system seems to be slipping away. Many of the
rent seekers think that
inspite of having been a friend of BJP in the past they have been
sacrificed alongwith the other rent seekers. They have lost proximity power and to their horror the hoi polloi are cheering. They actually fear that this is like the french revolution all over again. THAT is the real fear.
This brigade across segments
have decided to get into action and are doing whatever they can to create an
impression that there is intolerance in the air. There is irritation, but
the intolerance you see is towards these life
long rent seekers. They are playing
victim in the hope that it will change the direction of this government.
Whatever I know of Modi, this is unlikely.
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