Verdict 2014: Clear Sign of Changing Times??
Intro: Shakhas aren’t for bringing in a revolution. They help in character-building. The participation of youth in shakhas is like fresh flowers being offered to God.?
The political drama is over, even as it began. The mother and son dutifully offered to resign from the Congress Working Committee and their resignations were promptly rejected, to nobody’s surprise even as they were offered. Both their resignations and their rejection were expected. It was a huge joke, and the situation in the Congress is back to normal. If Sonia Gandhi was truly serious she should have stuck to her decision, which she didn’t and the status quo has been maintained.
There were two reasons for what happened. In the first place there is no one capable to shoulder the responsibilities of the party’s presidentship. And in any event no one would have spoken up for the discontinuance of the dynastic rule, lest he or she is summarily dismissed. So raising a voice was out of question. True, in a veiled attack on “Team Rahul” over the party’s debacle, a minor segment of party leaders has voiced its distress. Thus, Milind Deora made the comment that Rahul’s advisers did not have their “ears to the ground and had no electoral experience” but he said his comments were borne out of a deep loyalty to the party. The second reason is more profound and inherent in Indian social ethos. It is that our fellow citizens are comfortable with dynasticism however much they deny it. We are comfortable with Maharajahs no matter how indecisive or incompetent they are. To Indians they signify continuity and in continuity they feel their security. This was for a long time true in the past. Some had the good sense to appoint capable diwans such as Mysore’s Vishweshwaraiah or Mirza Ismail to win the hearts if not the minds of the rules. Unfortunately for the Congress, the Congress had no Mirza Ismail, but only a Dr Manmohan Singh, and even he was too often sidelined.
Meanwhile questions are being asked why no action is being taken by the BJP against a few leaders who made sickening attacks on Narendra Modi. If Arvind Kejriwal can be charged for insulting Nitin Gadkari as a ‘thief’ why should so many Congress leaders, starting from the party’s own president be let off so easily for making more abusive hits against Modi such as maut ka saudagar merchant of death, sower of poisonous seeds, butcher of Gujarat, Nazi and mass murderer? Shouldn’t the BJP challenge those who made such remarks and get them punished? The point meanwhile needs to be made that apart from Congress many other family-based political outfits have withered this season.
Dynastcism surely is on the decline. Lallu Prasad in Bihar should be noticing it as should Farook Abdullah in Kashmir or Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu.
Meanwhile one notices another interesting development: the rising popularity of the RSS. According to the latest information, in recent months the RSS has been growing with 44,982 shakhas across the country, 2,500 full-time pracharaks, 10,146 saptahik milans (weekly get-togethers) and 7,387 masik milans (monthly get-togethers). In less than 3 months more than 2,000 shakhas have sprouted across the country. How does one explain that?
Is the younger generation tired of the secularism that has been in practice all these years? Is there a new feeling of being proud of one’s religion? Is it because of Narendra Modi’s approach and power of communications? For the voter, all that seemed to matter was Modi and as the media noted the BJP has won everywhere it had no footprint? Has secularism become an overplayed concept that has lost its relevance? The more Modi was abused and damned, the more support he seems to have gathered especially form among the young. One DP Singh, sanghachalak of West Uttar Pradesh has been quoted as saying: “Shakhas aren’t for bringing in a revolution. They help in character-building. The participation of youth in shakhas is like fresh flowers being offered to God. One doesn’t offer dry flowers while worshipping, does one?’
The word ‘dharma’ is getting a new significance. Modi’s acceptance speech, after the BJP Parliamentary Party nominated him as Prime Minister was graceful, emotive and designed to reassure his audience that he intended to stick to raj dharam. Such language is reaching out to people, young and old.
(The writer is a senior columnist and former editor
of Illustrated Weekly)
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