The Year When It Is All Coming Together

Now you may think I am talking about some personal achievements but for a nut like me - obviously that is not the case. I am talking about the gigantic year it has been in the arena of sports and politics for me - who would have imagined that 2011 will be the year when government in India will start looking at corruption in a serious light, and the common man in India will give a befitting reply to all arrogant politicians and also the year when India will win the first world cup for the current generation of fanatics. To top it all, my adopted clubs Manchester United have won the Premiership and are in the finals of Champions League where hopefully they will beat the lights out of the team of Messi + 3 (Iniesta, Xavi and Villa) and a bunch of babies, and Dallas Mavericks swept the mighty L(F)akers in second round when no one gave them a chance and be in line to at least reach the NBA finals.

Let us evaluate the events of this momentous year one at a time - and I will start with my first passion Politics. It is hard to tell when I got hooked on to it but in India with its flawed but thriving democracy, it is one of the three things that you cannot miss - the other two being cricket and places of worship - no matter where you go. Having politically active parents and relatives did not help; I had read A Brief History of Communism in USSR before I ever saw a movie on my own and was following the NTR revolution in Andhra when I didn't even know anything about what Telugu Desam really meant. I have traversed the journey of being a communist - between my nappy days to around age 10 - to being a BJP/RSS supporter - during my teen years - and the current passive liberal "world is what you make of it" and "humanity is the only party I know" stance for the last 12-15 years and which I am happy to admit is the place I wanna be for the rest of my life.

Now you may ask - how is this piece of nostalgia relevant to what I was referring to about this year being the momentous one - so here it goes. The primary reason for me going from an active communist to fire brand fanatic to my current passive liberal state was the slow but unmistakable realization of the fact that it is not the case of a couple of dirty fish in the pond - the entire pond was unmistakably shallow and full of grime. That turned me and my idealistic zeal off and I became an onlooker - fully realizing that it is this attitude that perpetuates the whole thing and creates our own veritable Catch 22 situation.

But the events in the past few months are giving me hope again and the tide seems to be turning slowly but surely towards a better and more balanced future. It all started with the seemingly hopeless and lawless, I might add, land from where I hail - Bihar. The elections this past year clearly showed that people of this poor, illiterate and once written off state are ready to blaze the trail again. The oft repeated phrase of "you get the rulers you deserve" could not have been more appropriate when the silent majority decided that it was time to rise up and above from their petty disputes to give hope and progress for all a chance - and the cleaner person and party won. It is really irrelevant here as to who this person is and what party affiliations he has, the more important part is the fact that he and his allies won a two third majority which has been impossible in the fractious politics of India er evsince we threw our colonial masters out. That brutal and clear as a blue sky mandate showed to all that there can be a glimmer of hope in the starkest of landscape. As I said earlier, it really does not matter who the winner is in the big scheme of things - what matters is that people identified who the right person for the job was and gave him the power, in no uncertain terms, to do the job right. Now how often can we say that about any organization and that is where the optimism lies.

To be honest, I dismissed that as one positive aberration among a litany of gloomy happenings. And when the scourge of corruption made a comeback with a vengeance, I thought my wildest fears are coming to fruition. But among all my cynical commentary, I was noticing something very different. The issues this time as usual were big enough, scary enough and systemic enough but the brazen defense of it all was not a systemic one. For example, not everyone in a particular party or group was blindly supporting someone embroiled directly in the dirty deeds. This was a major departure from the past where a seemingly impregnable fortress had been built time and again by the accused group to protect itself - be it Bofors, Coffin, Hawala, Tehelka or other such scams in the long history of politics of scam in India. And then the tremors became a giant wave and the wheels of justice started turning in the right direction - admittedly slowly and reluctantly at first but gathering steam and speed soon after. The end game is not any closer and we may never get to the bottom of it, but how many times in the past we have been able to claim as a nation to have put in jail 70-80% of the primary accused of a case, including some very high profile ones. Now I will be the first one to accept that this is a small victory, but take my word, it is nothing if not a significant one, that sets a precedent for future. No matter who is in power tomorrow, they cannot always hide behind the excuse of the previous regime not having done something visible and drastic.

And then came the big one that had made me stop in my tracks and take notice - five states, five elections and all but one decisively in favor of the better alternative - now in one case the better alternative was the incumbent one and people realized it and supported it, makes it even more decisive than it would have been other wise, which is if people would have opted for change for the sake of change. But no, in this new brave world order, the people have seized power with a new found enthusiasm and become the beacon of rationality and reason - seemingly impossible till a few months back. Not to say that it is for certain that all newly crowned will pass the litmus test but at least they have the fear in their heart that if they do not perform they will perish without any doubt. And look at the participation - how many times in the history of democracy in India have you heard 85% people deciding to make their collective voices heard? The cloak of apathy is being shredded.

To top it all, there is this small matter of Lokpal to add to it. Now in my opinion, it has been given more importance than it deserves and even more than the events I have talked about above - for the simple reason that a law is as good as the enforcement and finally it is the people in charge of implementing it that matter the most. Also, the other issue I have with this item is the "Bandwagon Revolutionaries" - which I define is seemingly normal folks who either to stroke their revolutionary ego in the best case or to hide their conscience in the worst case attach themselves to something they think will make them look more humane, more in touch and a cut above the rest. I know, I know - strong words these are but more on my theory of "Bandwagon Revolutionaries" in a later post.

I am exuberant internally and hopeful externally not to say with a lot less faux intelligent cynicism about the state of affairs. And I have realized one more thing - what is even better than being a passive liberal - yes you guessed it - being an active liberal. And god willing I will be one some day. But here is to hope and to a new beginning.

Best till the next - and more on my theory of how all the events are connected in one big cosmic equation of balance!!

Rajnish

P.S. Please leave your valuable comments / feedback / suggestions.