WHEN MIDGETS HIJACK DEMOCRACY

Small men in big chairs are usually dangerous. It isn't just the Napoleon Complex: the tendency among short men to be overly assertive to make up for their lack of height. A politician who occupies a chair too big for him gets not only overly assertive but also contemptuous of others and their rights. The result is a dictator complex, the feeling that whatever they do is right.

Consider the case of Kishorechand Wangkhem, a television journalist in Manipur. One fine night in November he was arrested for criticising Chief Minister N. Biren Singh and Prime Minister Modi. The charge was sedition. A magistrate found no sedition in the remarks the journalist made and released him on bail. Within two days he was jailed under NSA which is beyond judicial review.

What exactly was the sedition Wangkhem committed? His style was typical Manipuri TV style, strong words strongly used, -- "street language" as the Chief Judicial Magistrate put it while allowing bail. The substance was something else. He objected to the CM weaving the Rani of Jhansi's struggle against the British into Manipur's freedom struggle. "When you praise the Rani of Jhansi as a freedom fighter covering Manipur your knowledge is nill and an insult to the freedom fighters of Manipur", he said.

A historically accurate stance. But CM Biren Singh condemned it as "prejudicial to the security of the state". At worst it was prejudicial to the security of the Chief Minister. Which makes this is a classic case of the Louis XIV mentality of "I-am-the-state". Which should not surprise those who look into the story of N.Biren Singh. This guy was a footballer who used that skill to get into the Border Security Force. But he wanted a political role and power, so he quit and started a publication of his own, using journalism for political ends. Like many politicians, he too developed an "ideological" affinity to whoever was in power. That helped him become a minister in a Congress government in 2003. When the pendulam swang in favour of the BJP Biren Singh became a BJP man. Mission accomplished.

Power gave him new insights. Addressing a conference of doctors, he outlined a vision no one else had done so far. "Be it doctors or politicians. We are here to serve the people. We are not here to take your abuses. If you think that common people can say anything to those in power, no you can't. If somebody in power has done something wrong, you can go to the court. But you don't have the right to abuse anyone publicly".

Criticism is not abuse -- and criticism is one of the pillars of democracy. If criticism is taken as abuse and penalised, many of India's intellectuals, academics, editorial writers and columnists will be in jail under NSA. However a closer examination shows that Biren Singh, in his BJP avatar, has merely learned the techniques of currying favours with his bosses. At a fair in Porbunder in Gujarat in March last year, he said: "During the time of Lord Krishna, there was no separate Arunachal Pradesh or Assam or Manipur. The entire northeast was one entity. Arunachal, Manipur and Nagaland are bordering China. Lord Krishna made them part of India during his time".This is a determined man. History and geography must bend to his will.

Is this a pattern among BJP leaders? At a meeting addressed by Maharashtra Minister Vinod Tawde recently, a student asked a question with his tape recorder on. The minister asked him to turn off the recorder and the student wanted to know why. The minister's response was to ask his security men to arrest the student and confiscate his recorder. The same arrogance of power made V.K.Singh, known variously as the Sanghi General and the foot-in-mouth mantri, to proclaim that "people making accusations over Rafale aircraft deal are illiterate".

Perhaps small men imagine that they can frighten critics away. The media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, found India was the fifth deadliest place for a journalist.The All Manipur Working Journalists Union disowned journalist Wangkhem. For them discretion was the better part of valour. However, the Students' Union found the courage to support Wangkhem while the Indian Journalists' Union said that the freedom of expression included the right to offend. Or course it does. But what do you do when a politician says that the right to rule includes the right to arrest critics and to call them illiterate. Either politicians win and others lose or others lose and politicians win.

MLAs FOR SALE, AGAIN AND AGAIN

What a curse democracy has become. It truly is bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people. With no stops. Look at the cabinet circus in Karnataka. Look at Devendra Phadnavis fighting ally-turned-enemy Shiv Sena. Look at Yogi Adityanath still struggling to figure out whether governance is animal or vegetable. Look, if you have the heart, at the tragic spectacle of Manohar Parrikar, stricken with advanced cancer, being forced to carry on as chief minister in Goa because the party wants to safeguard its interests. Pathetic.

The MLA circus of the kind seen in Karnataka is by now a familiar feature of Indian politics. Parliament went to the extent of amending the Constitution in 1985 to pass the anti-defection law. The aim was to stop "the evil of political defection". The evil never stopped. The resort politics popularised by N.T.Rama Rao continues unabated. The old motto of Aya Ram Gaya Ram has given way to the new bazaar practice of Buy Ram Sell Ram.

The Kumaraswamy government that carries on precariously in Karnataka was the result of swalpa adjust maadi between the Congress and Gowda-run Janata Dal United. The BJP's Yeddyurappa sat momentarily in the seat of power thanks to the connivance of the state's BJP Governor. But not all the treasures of Arabia could buy him a majority in the House and Yeddyurappa had to quit before he could form a government.

But the Buy Ram Sell Ram culture continued as the latest "crisis" has proved. The BJP was out to buy 12 to 15 Congress MLAs and negotiations must have progressed far enough for several MLAs to be housed in luxury water holes in Delhi and Mumbai and other places. More than ten Congress MLAs had apparently conducted their bargains successfully. But Yeddyurappa & Co still could not reach the magic number that would have toppled the government.

Then came the Congress shouting from the hilltops that no force could bring its government down. Translated into everyday language, it meant that the Congress-JDU had out-bid the BJP in the auction of MLAs. As the ruling combination, they could offer not only cash but also ministerships and boards chairmanships, both recognised routes to riches. Expect new ministers in the cabinet with plans of course to serve the people. Congress leader Siddaramaiah, sounding more innocent than a baby, accused Yeddyurappa of horse trading and "offering crores of rupees" to Congress MLAs. What a nasty thing to do to the pure-as-heaven Congress.

The chances are that the crisis and its sudden ending (has it ended?) were more than a Congress-BJP affair. A Congress-Congress combat could as well have been part of it. The power struggle within the Karnataka Congress is no secret. Siddaramaiah who headed the Congress government until Kumaraswamy took over in May last year is not reconciled to his loss of office. He speaks and acts like the Congress party boss if not also as the effective chief minister. That means a barely hidden confrontation with party maverick and troubleshooter, D.K.Shivkumar. The long standing ambition of Shivkumar to become chief minister makes him an active player in the buy and sell market. Ambitions are not snuffed out by temporary ceasefires. So the drama in Karnataka will continue, crisis giving way to peace and peace breaking into crisis.

That pattern has become part of life across the country. Those in power believe that they should remain there indefinitely while those in opposition believe it is their right to topple the government and take over. To achieve their aims, sworn enemies become close friends, like Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav have done in UP and Chandrasekhar Rao and Jagan Mohan Reddy in Hyderabad. Every tukda party is proclaiming that it will join hands with "like-minded partners". All are like-minded in their shared greed for power.

What makes politicians different from ordinary human beings is the certainty with which they can extoll their own supposed virtues and ridicule others. At a long, televised press conference in Guwahati last week the BJP's Ram Madhav did just that. He proclaimed how mahagathbandhan parties were unstable, corrupt and devoid of vision while the BJP was stable, corruptionless and visionary. As simple as that. What a pity that there are citizens in India who vote for unstable, corrupt and visionless parties when the saints and angels of the BJP are ready to sacrifice themselves for the country.

We already have the facts and figures of tomorrow: public presentation of lies as truths, intolerance, polarisation, religious violence. The future is already here.

AYYAPPA POLITICS IS SACRILEGE

Two factors are preventing the Sabarimala conundrum from moving towards a solution -- and the self-promoting politics of BJP-RSS forces are too unimportant to be one of them. It's true that Hindutva extremists' political obstructionism drew attention in the early days through violence. Although their campaign was in the name of tradition, they had no compunctions about breaking traditions; a leader climbed the holy steps to deliver a speech. Only when they realised the counter-productive nature of their agitation did they move to Trivandrum with the idea of "relay" fasting which, when we think about it, is a con game: One person lying in a bed for a couple of days without food and then going away to eat while another person takes to the bed, presumably after a hearty meal.

The real reasons behind the crisis continuing in Sabarimala are, first, wrong readings of the issue of discrimination and, secondly, the tactlessness of the chief minister that defies commonsense. Liberal opinion has taken a one-track position based on women's right to equality. According to them, a prolonged campaign was necessary in Kerala to let Dalits enter temples and a similar campaign has become necessary to let women enter Sabarimala.

This is a mixing of issues that have neither historical nor sociological similarities. Dalit oppression, which had reached sadistic levels in Kerala, was based on open, shameless, caste-based discrimination. It violated the basic tenets of any civilised society and had to be brought to an end. Sabarimala's no-woman stance is not a comparable case of discrimination. It is based on faith, tradition and, let it not be forgotten, a High Court ruling in 1991. The court remarked that the practice was there from "time immemorial" because women could not do the mandatory 41-day penance due to menstruation. The present court ruling has to be weighed against the previous one.

More importantly, the no-woman tradition in Sabarimala runs parallel to no-man traditions in other temples. What is considered the largest annual gathering of women in the world takes over the main roads in Trivandrum to cook rice in earthern pots for the Goddess in Attukal temple at Pongala time. Men are barred from participation. In fact, the Attukal temple is known as the Sabarimala of women. Another revered pilgrim centre in Kerala, Chakkulathu Kavu, is also for women only. So is the famous Bhagati Maa temple in Kanyakumari. No one accuses these temples of discrimination against men and there is no campaign for men's equality. By the same token, no one should accuse Swamy Ayyappan's temple of discrimination against women. The space for faith in our lives is legitimate. Those who do not have the faith should not hinder those who have. That is what makes a society free.

As has been said before, "It is natural for an old civilisation to have old practices. Justice is best when it recognises that there is no offence in the logic of the faithful being at variance with the logic of the rationalist".

The second factor that keeps Sabarimala on the boil is Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's haste in helping women to enter Sabarimala. The steps he has taken in the wake of the Supreme Court order and the statements he has made in a stop-me-if-you-can tone reflect a Communist leader's attitude rather than chief minister's. As head of government, he could have gained much by keeping tempers low, ensuring an atmosphere of peace and giving time to various players to adjust to new concepts. But he rushed into action saying that he had no option but to carry out court orders.

A week ago he showed that he did have options. A court order allowed a Christian faction to conduct services in a disputed church. An opposing faction physically prevented this, but the state Government did nothing to ensure that the court order was duly implemented. Evidently the Pinarayi Government picks and chooses cases in which it wants to use the courts and cases where it likes to ignore the judiciary.

Never has Kerala politics been in such a mess. Pinarayi is considered the strong man of politics, but there is no sign of his strength benefiting the state. He cannot even control the faction-ridden police force despite repeated reshuffling of top officers. The Congress is in Trishanku Swarga, not knowing who is its leader and who is not. In the melee, the BJP has outshouted others and matched communist murder politics with its own. These manipulators are only committing sacrilege in the name of the Lord of Sabarimala.

CLAIMS VS FACTS IN A NEW YEAR

Now that a week has passed, we can reckon how many New Year resolutions have already been broken and how many are left to go down the drain. There is nothing here to feel guilty about. What are New Year resolutions for if not for breaking? Anyway, a brand new New Year will come soon enough enabling us to make a whole new set of resolutions to be freshly broken. After all, the purpose of a new year is not to let us have a new year, as British thinker-writer G.K.Cresterton said. The New Year comes to tell us that "we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet and a new backbone, new ears and new eyes".

If we absorb the spirit of that sound advice, in the first place, we won't make resolutions that bind us to exercise every morning for half an hour, to save ten rupees every day, to drink 12 glasses of water without fail, etcetera. We will be able to look at traffic jams, pickpockets and politicians with new eyes and new nose, drink unsafe water and breathe poisonous air with a new backbone. In other words, we will be able to cope with what we cannot control.

And what about resolutions that should be made but are not? Justice S.R.Sen of Meghalaya High Court recently showed us how to proceed in this area. He said that there should have been a resolution by the makers of modern India to declare the country a Hindu nation. He urged a new resolution that would allow non-Muslims of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to come to India and claim citizenship here. Any takers?

The Union Government, for its part, appears to have resolved to lease out islands in Andaman Nicobar to private firms to build holiday homes for foreign tourists. These are islands the ecology of which is famously fragile. They are also considered important in terms of defence. Until recently there were restrictions, for strategic reasons, on visitors to Andaman-Nicobar. All caution is now gone as the islands are being opened for "private firms". Which are these private firms and how private are the forces behind them?

A resolution that should have been passed with some sense of urgency was one banning misinformation by the Government. Since nothing of the sort was done, the Finance Ministry and the PMO itself have been feeding us with false claims and false statistics.The repeated claims about the success of the Swatch Bharath campaign is an example. This mission, with Mahatma Gandhi's spectacle frame as its logo, grabbed headlines with a show of the Prime Minister sweeping a road. It describes itself as "the world's largest cleanliness drive" with "53,565 pledges taken, 26,565 activities done, 40,651 active participants".

The campaign was launched in October 2014. At the end of four years, how clean is India? Of the 15 most polluted cities in the world, 14 are in India; the capital city of New Delhi hit the headlines in 2018 with the air going noxious. According to Lancet magazine, 1.2 million Indians died in 2017 due to air pollution problems. In the Environmental Performance Index, India ranked 141 out of 180 in 2016. In just two years, it slipped further down to become 177th out of 180. Lakes in Bangalore became a science curiosity by catching fire; accumulated filth had turned into poisonous white foam covering the surface of the water. In the Global Hunger Index India stands 103rd out of 119. The highest number of malnutrition deaths in 2017 took place in India. The highest number of stunted children is also in India. Even the aftermath of the Union Carbide disaster 34 years ago received no attention from the authorities. The remains of the catastrophe that killed 4000 people continue to poison groundwater in the area.

This is how Swatch our Bharath is.

The listing of failures can go on because attempts to deceive citizens have not worked. Ten million jobs were promised, for example, while only 1.4 million materialised, doubling of farm income promised, but only a 5 percent rise materialised. But there is no need to go on because the picture is clear in spite of the usual tricks of denial. India has gone backward, not forward despite the New Years that have come and gone. That reality will prevail even as new promises and new claims rain on us this election season. "Happy New Year" has lost its glamour. It's more relevant to wish "Happy Old Years".