गणतंत्रवाद आणि राष्ट्रवाद

गेल्या दशकात जगभर आणि विशेषतः भारतात "राष्ट्रवाद" (nationalism) हा परवलीचा शब्द झाला आहे. राष्ट्रवादी (nationalistic) नसणे किंवा स्वतःच्या राष्ट्रवादाचे उघड प्रदर्शन न करणे हा जणू काही गुन्हा असल्याचे वातावरण निर्माण झाले आहे. या पार्श्वभूमीवर "राष्ट्रवाद" (nationalism) म्हणजे नक्की काय यावर विचार करणे गरजेचे ठरते. वारंवार मोठ्याने आणि सार्वजनिक स्तरावर "भारत माता की जय" ओरडणे, राष्ट्रगीत वाजल्यास उभे रहाणे, राष्ट्रध्वज फडकवणे ही प्रखर राष्ट्रवादाची लक्षणे मानली जातात. आणि अशा राष्ट्रवादाच्या ज्वराच्या प्रदर्शनाचे फायदे हे राजकारणी आणि सन्मानीत मंडळी यांना नियमीतपणे मिळत असतात. त्याबद्दल आपल्याला पोटदुखी व्हायचे कारण नाही.  इतरांचे नुकसान न करता एखाद्याचे भले होत असल्यास आपल्याला आक्षेप घेण्याचे कारण नाही. परंतु निदान "आपली दिशाभूल तर होत नाही ना?" एवढी काळजी घ्यायला हवी.

Nationalism म्हणजे नक्की काय हे समजून घ्यायचे असेल तर अगोदर "nation" या शब्दाचा अर्थ आणि सर्वात महत्त्वाचे म्हणजे या शब्दाची व्युत्पत्ती (etymology) समजून घेण्याचा प्रामाणिक प्रयत्न व्हायला हवा. "Etymology" म्हणजे शब्दाचा उगम व त्याचा ऐतिहासिक विकास. शब्दाचे मूळ काय आहे व आज त्याचा सर्वमान्य अर्थ काय आहे?  त्याचा एकच सर्वमान्य अर्थ आहे का?  या प्रश्नांची उत्तरे शोधणे गरजेचे ठरते.

Nation या शब्दाचे मूळ "natio" म्हणजे "जन्म" या Latin शब्दात आहे (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation). परंतु प्रचलित वापराच्या दृष्टीने पाहिले तर कालांतराने या शब्दाच्या अर्थास अनेक फाटे फुटले आहेत. Googleमध्ये "meaning of nation" असे शोधल्यास या फाट्यांचे दर्शन घडते.

माझ्या राज्यशास्त्राच्या अल्प समजुतीत परवलीचा शब्द "राष्ट्र" (nation) नसून तो गणतंत्र (republic) आहे हे आधीच सांगून मोकळा होतो.

१९४२ साली बाबासाहेब आंबेडकरांनी अनुसूचित जाती महासंघाची (Scheduled Caste Federation) स्थापना केली.  पुढे १९५६ साली या महासंघाचे निराकरण करून त्यांनी भारतीय रिपब्लिकन पक्षाची (Republican Party Of India - RPI) स्थापना केली. विकिपीडियावर आपण जर RPIचे संकेतस्थळ अभ्यासले तर पक्षाची विचारसरणी (ideology) या सदरात खालील शब्द आढळतात - घटनावाद (Constitutionalism), गणतंत्रवाद (Republicanism), आंबेडकरवाद (Ambedkarism), प्रगतिवाद (Progressivism), सेक्युलॅरिझम (Securalism), समतावाद (Egalitarianism).

("Secularism" या शब्दाचा मराठी अनुवाद वापरायचे मी टाळले आहे याचे कारण खुद्द नरहर कुरुंदकरांनी आपल्या "सेक्युलॅरिझम आणि इस्लाम" या निबंधात असा आग्रह मांडला आहे.)

रिपब्लिकन पक्षाच्या नावातच "गणतंत्रवादी" ह्या शब्दाचा समावेश आहे, बाबासाहेबांनी "राष्ट्रवादी" हा शब्द वापरला नाही हा निव्वळ योगायोग आहे हे मानायला मी अजिबात तयार नाही. भारताची घटना आपल्या हातून लिहिली जावी हा काही बाबासाहेबांचा शौक किंवा स्वप्न नव्हते. "ज्याचे जळते त्याला कळते" हे साधे व अपरिवर्तनीय सत्य तर त्यामागे असावेच, पण त्याहीपेक्षा, चाळीस कोटी जनता, त्यात अनेक धर्म, भाषा आणि विध्वंसक जातीवाद यांना ध्यानी ठेऊन अधुनिक गणतंत्राचा यशस्वी पाया ठरेल असे संविधान घडवण्याचे जोखमीचे कार्य आपण पार पाडू शकतो असा त्यांना आत्मविश्वास होता, तेवढी त्यांची क्षमता व विद्वत्ता होती आणि याची जागरूकता आपल्या सर्वपक्षीय राजकीय नेतृत्वाला होती.

तेव्हा "राष्ट्रवाद", "nationalism" च्या कोलाहलास समर्पक उत्तर म्हणजे "I believe you might be confusing republicanism with nationalism" म्हणजेच, "मला वाटते आपण गणतंत्रवादा ऐवजी चुकून राष्ट्रवाद म्हणत आहात" हे आहे. राष्ट्रवादाचा ज्वर चढलेली सामान्य जनता याचा फारसा विरोध करणार नाही. उलट दुर्लक्ष करतील आणि फार तर फार "तेच ते, उगाच कीस कशाला काढता?" असे म्हणून पुढे जातील. परंतु देशात हाताच्या बोटांवर मोजता येतील अशी धूर्त राष्ट्रवादी नेते मंडळी आहेत ज्यांना "राष्ट्रवाद" आणि "घटनावाद"/"गणतंत्रवाद" यातील भेद नेमका समजतो. किंबहुना, हा भेद आपल्या श्रद्धास्थानांना १९४७-१९५० या काळात एक तर समजला नाही किंवा "घटनाधीश" संविधान घडवत असताना त्यांना सामोरे जायची किंवा त्यांचा विरोध करायची बौद्धिक क्षमता त्यांच्यात नव्हती याची निराशा त्यांच्या मनात आहे. त्यातच आजच्या "राष्ट्रवादा”च्या आक्रोशाची मुळे आहेत. जे कार्य आपली श्रद्धास्थाने करू शकली नाहीत, ज्या कार्याची त्यांना साधी जाणीवसुद्धा होऊ शकली नाही ते कार्य सिद्धीस नेण्याचा पराकोटीचा प्रयत्न गेली तीन दशके ते करीत आहेत आणि त्यांना त्यात प्रचंड यश लाभल्याचे आज आपल्याला दिसत आहे.

भारतीय स्वत्वाचे अचूक रेखाटन साधायचे असल्यास आपल्या समोर आज दोन पर्याय आहेत. पहिला म्हणजे घटनावाद/गणतंत्रवाद. खरं पाहाता हा पर्याय १९५० साली आपण स्वीकारला आहे. त्यामुळे पुनःश्च चर्चा करण्याचे तार्किक कारण अस्तित्वात नाही. परंतु आज राष्ट्रवादाचा धोकादायक ज्वर हा कृत्रिम आणि हेतुपुरस्सर पद्धतीने इतक्या विकोपास नेण्यात आला आहे आणि सामान्य जनतेने स्वेच्छेने त्या ज्वराचा इतका तीव्र संसर्ग स्वतःवर ओढावून घेतला आहे की नाईलाजाने चर्चा करणे भाग आहे. निदान आजच्या वातावरणात ह्या दुसऱ्या पर्यायाची चर्चा संभवते एवढे तरी सर्वांनी मान्य करावे.

माझे स्वतःचे मत असे आहे की गणतंत्रवाद हा अचूक, निःसंदिग्ध आणि खऱ्या अर्थाने सर्वसमावेशक आहे; राष्ट्रवादास माझा प्रखर विरोध नाही, परंतु राष्ट्रवाद निःसंदिग्ध असू शकत नाही. राष्ट्रवादास आलिंगन देण्यात काहीच गैर नाही परंतु राष्ट्रवादाचा गैरवापर करून समाज विभाजित करू इच्छिणारे अस्तित्वात आहेत आणि "राष्ट्रवादा”चे अनेक प्रचलित अर्थ आणि व्याख्या अशा कुकर्मास अनुकूल ठरतात. "राष्ट्र"/"nation"च्या व्याख्येचे अनेक अवतार आहेत. त्या अवताराचा सारांश विकिपीडिया मानून तेथील व्याख्येकडे आपले लक्ष वेधतो:

 "A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a common language, history, ethnicity, a common culture and, in many cases, a shared territory".

"समान भाषा, इतिहास, वांशिकता, संस्कृती आणि बऱ्याचदा सामायिक भूभाग यांवर आधारित माणसांचा समुदाय म्हणजे राष्ट्र".

ही व्याख्या गोंडस वाटते. शाळा-कॉलेजच्या परीक्षेत अशीच्या अशी लिहिली तर चांगले मार्क पडतील ही खात्री. पण ह्यातील निकष जर भारतासारख्या वैविध्यपूर्ण देशास लावले तर संविधानाभोवती धूम्रपटल उभा राहतो आणि "बोलायचे एक आणि करायचे दुसरेच" हा वैचारिक बेबनाव पदरी पडतो.

घटनेचे आणि गणतंत्राचे एवढे स्तुतिपठण केल्यावर मी पुनः एकदा संविधानाची प्रत चाळली. तर तिथेसुद्धा माझ्या दृष्टीने आक्षेपार्ह असा काही मजकूर सापडला. माझ्या उपरोक्त युक्तिवादाशी जर मला एकनिष्ठ राहायचे असेल तर खालील बाबी नमूद केल्याशिवाय राहवत नाही. संविधानात अनेक वेळा "nation" हा शब्द आढळतो, उदाहरणार्थ - "national life", "national importance", "just and honourable relations between nations", "National Flag", "National Anthem" इत्यादी. आजच्या वातावरणात मला हे संदर्भ खटकतात.  संविधानात "Republic" हा शब्दसुद्धा आढळतो, परंतु "nation" या शब्दाएवढा वारंवार नाही!

आता समकालीन जागतिक राष्ट्रवादावर एक ओझरती नजर टाकूया. आज जगातील नामांकित राष्ट्रवाद्यांमध्ये स्टीव्ह बॅनन यांचा उग्र राष्ट्रवाद उठून दिसतो. बॅनन यांच्या विचारांशी परिचित झाल्यावर, आजच्या जगातल्या "राष्ट्रवाद" या शब्दाच्या वापरावर संशय घेणे मला भाग पडते.  भारतात बॅनन यांचे नामवंत चाहते आहेत. केवळ भीतीपोटी त्यांचे नाव घेणे येथे टाळले आहे.

मी स्वतःला कितीही घटनावादी/गणतंत्रवादी म्हटले आणि "संविधानिक गणतंत्रासारखी निखळ बांधणी उपलब्ध असताना राष्ट्रवादाचा फाटा नको" असा आग्रह धरला तरी माझे अनेक मित्र, परिजन, नातेवाईक आहेत ज्यांना ते पुरेसं पटणार नाही; राष्ट्रवादाचा धूम्रपटल दूर लोटण्यास त्यांचे मन कचरेल. त्यांना माझी विनंती आहे की तुमचा बेबनाव सोडा (तो अनैच्छिक असला तरी). घटनादुरुस्तीचा हक्क आपल्याला घतनेनेच प्रदान केला आहे. उघडपणे राज्यकर्त्यांना सांगा की "We the people" ("आम्ही लोक") यात काही राम नाही, त्याचे विस्तृतीकरण गरजेचे आहे आणि त्याप्रमाणे "We the Maharashtrians", "We the Hindus" इत्यादी विभाग/उपविभाग ध्यानात ठेवून घटनेत योग्य त्या दुरुस्त्या करा. अर्थात, आपणास हवी तशी घटना लिहिणाऱ्या विद्वानांचा शोध त्वरित आरंभा!

LALLANTOP

There are journalists and then there are journalists. And then there is this new breed of "TV anchors". They resemble ferocious creatures who are trained to gnarl and bark.

Everybody has their favourites. The bhakts love belligerent, pro-government, often cacophonical anchors. The anti-bhakts adore the Ravish Kumars. The Rajdeep Sardesais fall somewhere in between.

In this ugly dogfight, I discovered a social media channel and an editor with a difference. Lallantop and Saurabh Dwivedi respectively. I hope folks will take time out to evaluate both. Check out their YouTube videos.

I see the makings of a Larry King and a Kamleshwar in this young man. Unbiased, incisive, patient yet resolute. With a focused team of researchers.

I pray I may be proven right.

ARTIFICIAL INGESTION

Man answers the phone:

"Hello who is this? "

"This is Google Pizza. Our neural network realized you were hungry and craving for pepperoni pizza. So it ordered and  ate 6 slices on your behalf. We debited your account with $7.25."

"Thank you very much. I was wondering why I was feeling full".

"In exactly 26 minutes 18 seconds you will get the urge to crap. Please make sure you are close to a toilet."

"Can't your neural network instruct your digestive network to lay a loaf on my behalf?"

"Sir our digestive network is yet undergoing supervised learning for your city. We should be able to provide that service by next year. For now we have debited your account only for the eating service. Anything else we can help you with at this time?"

"No thank you. That's all....burrrrrp!!!".

नावात सगळं आलं

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21723815-tax-reform-does-not-go-far-enough-land-and-labour-reforms-have-barely-been-tried-narendra-modi

Economist वृत्तपत्राने अलिकडे भारतात येऊ घातलेल्या GST करप्रणालीवर (माझ्या मते संतुलित) टीका केली. यावर माझ्या मित्रवर्तुळातून अशी टीका आली की "ह्या स्तंभाच्या लेखकाचे नाव वृत्तपत्राने प्रसिध्द केले नाही त्यामुळे लेखास credibility नाही."

तेव्हा मी म्हणालो की 2013 साली Economistने याबद्दल स्पष्टीकरण दिले आहे:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/09/economist-explains-itself-1

"Why are The Economist’s writers anonymous?
Because it allows many writers to speak with a collective voice
LEADERS are discussed and debated each week in meetings that are open to all members of the editorial staff."

परंतु मंडळींचे समाधान झाले नाही.

आता पाहा...काय लिहिले आहे यापेक्षा कोणी लिहिले आहे यावर आपण चर्चा करत आहोत. हे आम्हा भारतीयांचे वैशिष्ठ्य आहे.

Economist मध्ये जे लिहून आले आहे त्यावर मतभेद असू शकतात परंतु मूळ हेतूबद्दल आपण साशंक असावे असे काही मला स्तंभात दिसले नाही.

GSTचे उदाहरण घेऊ. चला, सरकारी तज्ञ म्हणतात GSTने करोत्पन्नात वृध्दी होईल, आम्ही म्हणतो बरं आणा GST. परंतु प्रश्न असा पडतो की करोत्पन्न वाढवायच्या guaranteed व ज्यांनी जनतेला बिल्कुल तोशिष पडणार नाही अशा साधनांचा आधी अवलंब का केला जात नाही? उदाहरणार्थ Hindu Undivided Family नावाची tax entity. बरखास्त करा. त्याचा वापर करून करोडो रुपये कर बुडवला जातो. पण ते करायचे नाही. हितसंबंध आहेत.  GST, demonetization यासाखी धेंडं नाचवायची. ज्यांचा चांगला वाईट असर अनेक वर्षांनी जाणवेल.

"FEW countries would see a tax requiring some businesses to file over 1,000 returns a year as an improvement. But India might. A nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST) is set to come into force on July 1st.

The GST, although welcome, is unnecessarily complicated and bureaucratic, greatly reducing its efficiency."

यात आक्षेपार्ह काय आहे? मग ते नोबेल विजेत्याने लिहिलं काय किंवा एखाद्या सोम्यागोम्याने लिहिलं काय.

तथ्य असलेलं पण आपल्याला खुपणारं लिखाण आढळल्यावर थेट लेखकाच्या किंवा प्रकाशनाच्या हेतूबद्दल शंका प्रकट करण्याच्या आपल्या (including me) प्रतिक्षिप्त क्रियेस आळा घातला पाहिजे. हा स्वभाव भारतीयांच्यात इतका भिनलेला आहे की जागतिक पातळीवर गेल्यावर सुरुवातीला बहुतेक भारतीय यामुळे गटांगळ्या खातात. काही नंतर भानावर येतात, बरेच तिथेच अडकून पडतात.

Anyways हा "Credibility by name" प्रकार विचित्र आहे.
नाना पाटेकर शेती संकाटाबद्दल काहीही बोलतो पण खपतं.
पण "मिलिंद मुरुगकर" ह्या नावाखाली आलेल्या मतांना लोक महत्त्व देत नाहीत.

RUPESH GESOTA

Today I visited a Municipal School (मुनशिपाल्टी शाळा) in Airoli, Navi Mumbai. I went to meet Rupesh Gesota, who calls himself an "engineer-turned-math-teacher". Among other things, he works with a set of slum kids in Airoli, coaching them in Math using what he calls his "Inquiry & Discovery" techniques. Basically, these kids think and teach themselves.

Among the kids I met was Rohit. Read here what this 12 year old kid stumbled upon recently:
http://rupeshgesota.blogspot.in/2017/06/discovering-formula-for-area-of.html?m=1

A French teacher took note of this and published a video which you can find embedded at the above link.

PS: Rohit has just passed his class-7 from the  Marathi medium municipal school and lives in the slums surrounding his school, with his parents and younger brother.

At the municipal school I also met a gentleman by the name Sudhakar Sonawane. Mr. Sonawane has no qualms admitting that he is illiterate but says that he is determined he will educate as many poor kids as he can.

An introduction to Mr. Sonawane and you need to sit down on this one...he is the *MAYOR OF NAVI MUMBAI*, one of the richest municipalities in India. I found him loitering around the school yard on a Sunday feeding chicken strutting around the school compound. He told me kids need to be around animals hence he raised chicken around the school yard. Adjoining the school is a huge garden patch where Mr. Sonawane raises vegetables. He pointed out to a  structure which houses a makeshift swimming pool and asked me, "What?! Can't poor kids have a pool of their own? ".

Mr. Sonawane is Rupesh's supporter-in-chief.

Accompanying me were my son who is entering his second year of Math undergrad, a friend who I call "an amazing Math missionary teacher" and my daughter. My friend was bowled over. He is going back to teach those kids Combinatorics & Calculus - he feels they are ready. My son says the kids are miles ahead of where he was at their age.

Rupesh and his prodigies work daily out of a terrace loft in the school building. The entire school staff "studiously" ignore them.

On the wall we saw a chart in which the kids had constructed numbers 1-100 using digits of the current year 2017 in sequence and basic mathematical operators - try that for size.

Rupesh Gesota's YouTube channel has around 30 videos of his under-privileged (read " slum resident") students solving Math problems  independently and even in groups.
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCWxFLepEX2rJnuIJSfyIUkA

All in all a very different Sunday.

THE INK-SMEARED FOREFINGER

On 21st of February 2017 the city of Mumbai went to the polls to elect its 227 corporators who would represent the city's population in the Municipal Corporation of Mumbai.

By 9 AM on that day the following rich and famous celebrities had appeared on TV, displaying their ink-smeared forefingers as proud testimony of purportedly the holiest of civic duties that a citizen of the city can perform viz. voting in elections to elect public representatives: Sachin Tendulkar, Rekha, Zoya Akhtar, Ranveer Singh, John Abraham, Raj Thakeray, Sharad Pawar, Devendra Fadnavis, Kiran Rao et al.

On the same day the following routines also played out across the city.

Somewhere in the northern suburb of Kandivili a man woke up at 5 AM. He had to travel to Panvel to get to his job as an electrician. A 2.5 hour commute awaited him. He left home at 6 AM to reach work at 8:30 AM. The polling booths would open at 7:30. By the time he would get off work it would be 5:30 PM, exactly the time when the booths would close. As per the law his employers had to give him a 2 hour break to be able to vote. It was not enough time to make the 2.5 hour journey back to Panvel to vote. Meanwhile it is possible that Mr. Tendulkar probably rose at 6 AM, did the treadmill in his personal gym, had a hot shower and presented himself at the breakfast table while Mrs. Tendulkar instructed the bawarchi of Sir's gastronomical desire of the morning.

Somewhere in the North-eastern suburb of Mumbra a streetside hawker  woke up at 4  AM in his 10x15ft slum tenement to line up to fill water at a common community tap. The water supply  would start at 5 AM and last until 6 AM. After lugging back 5 buckets filled with water to his shanty, the man had to queue at the community toilet 200m away to relieve himself. He had to  reach Fashion Street in Churchgate at 8 AM to open his stall as early as possible, so that he could return to Mumbra by 9 PM with the princely sum of approximately Rs. 400 which was his earning for the day - if it had been one of his good days. The election booth where he is  registered would open at 7:30 AM and close at 5:30 PM.  While the man was queueing up for water, Mr. Thackeray was presumably still asleep, having been certified by Mr. Pawar as a late riser.  And why not! - his back-to-back meetings with his party lieutenants the previous night, predicting his party's seat projections in the elections must have sapped his strength.

At Prabhadevi a mother was woken up at 4:30 AM with the sound of her 5 year old son crying. The kid had a touch of fever. As the lady woke up, the rest of her day flashed across her mind's eye. She had to cook for  her husband's lunch dabba, then take her son to the doctor 2 km away after which she would drop him at her mother-in-law's place. The doctor, the mother-in-law and the voting booth were in three different directions from her home. She needed to join all three dots and then rush to Dadar station so that she could reach her work place by 9:30, 30 minutes late. She works as a clerk in a bank.  I leave it to your imagination as to what Kiran Rao was doing while this mother was walking the tightrope of a daily routine.

There is reason to believe that a large number of Mumbaikars do not vote because one or more parameters of the calisthenics of their daily routine went awry on election day.  When required to choose between wages  and an exalted civic duty, they choose the former.

The killing daily schedules that a majority of working Mumbaikars keep, are tenuous threads by which their existences hang. Every day several of these threads snap. Some are restored after a lot of pain and regression. Others are not, sending those hanging by them hurtling into an abyss of penury. Is it these precariously hanging lives that our celebrities pontificate to, when they appear on TV, immaculately dressed, well barbered, perfumed, brandishing their inked forefingers?  Should we also expect them to point their inked fingers at their politician friends and tell them that maybe the voting percentage might be higher if those wretched souls had decent, free neighbourhood schools to send their children to, if they had a mass transit system which ferried them to their place of work within 45 minutes at no more than Rs. 5 a trip?

The more I think about it, the more it amazes me that 45% of Mumbaikars always find time to stand in queues to cast their vote on election day.  It also puzzles me to no end when we call 45% a "low voter turnout" in a city where at times it takes 45 minutes to make the trip from home to the nearest train station. And what awaits them as a result of having discharged this most sacred of democratic responsibilities? A grotesque status quo carefully constructed out of perpetually dug up roads, a bus service which is as fickle as the English weather, and traffic snarls which render "rush" hours static.

So have a heart and applaud the citizens for not turning into Maoists. After you are done having a heart, pick your brain and think of the following.


Why do we assume that a 45% voter turnout is so low that it cannot reliably represent the collective wish of the people?  So here's a statistical ponderable...

If 45% of voters register their votes in Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections then what is the probability that the same party would come in first position as would have come had 100% of voters registered their votes?

I am convinced that the probability would be very high.  Good opinion polls get it right and their sample sizes are miniscule, maybe 0.001%. 45% voting is a sample of massive size. The result yielded by an election with 45% voting percentage is highly likely to be the same as with say a voting percentage of 70%.

Further, the voting percentage might be directly proportional to the unemployment rate.  If one does not have a job, one will definitely go and vote to vent out one's frustration and also to feel important.  Thus, a higher voting percentage in Mumbai may not necessarily be good news in all respects.

All in all, the voting percentage is in all likelihood a statistic which we don't really comprehend.

The undue importance accorded to the voting percentage manifests in bizarre ways.  The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court recently commented thus in court - “One can’t blame the government for everything. If a person does not cast his vote, then he has no right to question the government.” (http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/if-you-don-t-vote-you-have-no-right-to-blame-government-says-sc/story-1x94nFr2CwUFjUiclIhLcM.html)
I agree with the part that says "One can't blame the government for everything".
But I am stupefied with the statement "If a person does not cast his vote, then he has no right to question the government.”

I thought every citizen of this country has the right to question/blame the government.  So are we now seeing a redefinition of the "citizen" entity?  The laws of the land are very explicit about who is a citizen and who isn't.  But the honourable judge's proclamation leans towards hinting that anybody who does not vote does not qualify to be a citizen.  I hope the learned judge said this in a fit of angst and did not really mean it.  But behind his statement might be lurking a dangerous twist to the definition of citizenship.  As it is the prevalent expectations out of all of us regarding patriotism make a lot of us uncomfortable.  In that backdrop the judge's statement should worry us all.  If people can get thrashed for not standing up for the national anthem, who knows what punishment might be meted out hereafter for not voting?

The huge focus on the "voting percentage" may not be as innocuous as it seems. To me it seems to be part of a larger and deliberate mindgame, a series of psychological tactics employed to perpetuate the oligarchy in our country.

For at least the past decade I have noticed that the administrators and elected representatives have been singing a new song which I call the "Not us, but the apathy of the citizenry is responsible for the state of affairs"  tune.  While they sing this tune, celebrities pirouette around them like cheerleaders, sticking their forefingers smeared with ballot ink in the cameras.  I wonder whether citizens understand that this is a deceitful pantomime act.  I have my doubts because, after watching this show on TV, ordinary citizens themselves post images of their own ink-smeared forefingers on Whatsapp and Facebook.  This year the carnival was draped in the Chief Minister's grandiose tweet - "Thank you Mumbai for the record voting percentage and ... for participating in festival of democracy!"  In this melee, it is very difficult to distinguish between cop and thief, predator and victim, guilty and guileless, wily and naive.

Let us recite some of the verses of the song referred to above.  An Assistant Commissioner Of Police (ACP) was posted at the police station in my locality a few years ago.  Nice person - articulate, amiable  and engaging. He once took the initiative and held a citizens' meeting.  The folks gathered there started complaining - "You need to get rid of the drug dealers and addicts in this locality.  Vehicles travel in both directions on our one-way street." etc.  The ACP was an astute man.  While replying, he waved his burly arms in the manner of a person warmly embracing another and said, "We need your cooperation.  Citizens and police should work together.  You should provide us with information.  If we work together, we can solve all your problems."  Our ward officer of the Municipal Corporation advised us on similar lines - "You should form an Area Locality Management Committee.  We should meet at the municipal ward office on every Saturday."

I have always grappled to come to terms with such exhortations.  Are we supposed to work with public officials in addition to doing our jobs or running our businesses?  As a measure of reciprocation, will government employees come and help us with our duties in our places of work?

The fact is that our administrators and elected representatives have graduated to a new level of audacious cunning.  They have figured out the key to their survival.  If I were in the business of selling alcohol, I would hope for 100% alcoholism in society.  If I were in the business of selling smart phones, I would want to see 100% smart phone ownership within the population.  Naturally, those whose prosperity is inextricably linked with the electoral process would aspire for 100% participation in it.  If the voting percentage were to regularly drop, the country would be quick to question the relevance of the same.  What would follow is replacement of the current process by an alternative, thereby leading to unemployment for the oligarchy that is currently firmly entrenched in the current system.

Put simply, Indian politics is a business in which the sellers sell their product and collect their payment once every five years.  The product is never delivered.  Little wonder that the salesmen and their propagandists put in a herculean effort to increase the participation of the guileless consumers in this business wherein the seller is designed to win at all times and the buyer is set up to lose at all times.

गणपत गोविंद तेलप

मराठी व्यक्तिचित्र "गणपत गोविंद तेलप"



Please click the link below
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3Lr8h4I9j1wT2VqeVlteEg0aUU