Being a citizen of democratic India, I have got the right to pour out my ‘Dil ki baat’ and share it with everybody who does not give me a damn.
Abdul Qadir | Clarion India
LET me make it clear that I do not hold any constitutional position nor am I gifted with the art of effortless switch from ‘tear mode’ to ‘laugh mode’. But being a citizen of democratic India, I have got the right to pour out my ‘Dil ki baat’ and share it with everybody who does not give me a damn.
Unfortunately, I have no access to publicly funded broadcast/telecast platforms and as such I have no option other than using the word of mouth to transmit my ‘Dil ki baat’. The advantage of the word of mouth communication is that it is direct and therefore more effective.
I am not from Gujarat, but it does not mean exclusion of my name from the ‘Chatur’ list. There are only two kinds of people who can be named ‘Chatur’ (wily) and ‘Chatukar’ (cheer leader). My ornamental ego prevents me from being ‘Chatukar’. Moreover, you need not be a ‘baniya’ to be ‘Chatur’. In fact, non baniyas may be more Chatur than the original ‘baniya’. For being Chatur you have to be street smart enough to pick Rs 100 from a poor man’s pocket and give him Rs 10 through direct transfer as a dole.
My friends ridicule me for changing my dress a bit too often. They forget that I promised change. I cannot change all things, but I can easily change my dress and I do it more often to compensate for other ‘no changes’. Thank God I am not made of ‘doosri mitti’. But my feet is made of the same clay as millions of my compatriots including a disproportionately high number of ‘specially abled’ and ‘manually’ disabled.
I love all kinds of talk except its sensible variety. I can go on talking all day and night with occasional sip from the glass. I can do it with or without a tele prompter. There are other kinds of prompters too. Pardon me for talking nonsense most of the time. My real message is delivered through silence. You may also call it as ‘pregnant silence’ or ‘approving silence’. The language of silence is any day more effective than slogans that put the throat and the lungs to avoidable risk.
In this episode of ‘mere dil ki baat’ I will not blame Nehru for ruining the land of milk and honey, the reason being Nehru did not elect himself. My forefathers elected him and as such the real blame lies with them. I have to carry the burden of guilt of my forefathers.
My forefather too cannot be squarely blamed as the really good option was in the cradle when the first general elections took place. They could not have elected a baby. You may say that Akbar ascended the throne almost literally as a male baby. If I were to have my wish I would have dug up Akbar’s grave just only to dethrone him. The second best option was to punish Akbar’s name sake and we did it by pulling him out of the ministerial chair.
It is heartening to note that my generation undid that blunder not once, but twice and it is likely to go on doing this in the coming elections too.
Nehru’s major fault was that he tried to make India self reliant and as such went on setting up industries and centres of excellence including IITs, IIIMs and AIMS etc. But while trying to make India self reliant, Nehru grossly neglected the ‘Atm Nirbhar’ aspect of the issue.
For Harvadians, ‘self reliance’ and ‘Atm Nirbharta’ may mean the same. But those who work hard know the difference. If comparison is to be made, self reliance is like Jersey cow which may give more milk quantity wise. But Atm Nirbharta is like the milk of native cows that give nutritious milk and discharge gold. Jersey cows may be quantitatively superior but they can, in no way compare with the local breed in respect of quality and ultimately it is the quality that matters.
Congressmen claim that Nehru’s daughter made India self reliant in respect of food through a mechanism that is collectively called ‘green revolution’. I need not tell you the implications of ‘green’ revolution and symbolic meaning of green. Mind it, a country is known by the colour of its revolution.
No Indian revolution can be green. They may have a green revolution in Iran or Pakistan or even Bangla Desh for that matter. Red revolution too is not welcome in this ancient land and for that reason we banned Chinese apps while continue to import ‘Gods’ from the atheist country. A revolution that is not ‘saffron’ cannot be called a truly Indian revolution. Green revolution is appeasement by other means.
And then what have seen the implications of ‘green revolution’. It adversely affected our relations with Trump’s country as the only way that the USA could demonstrate its love for we Indians is now gone.
PL 480 was the only manifestation of the friendship between the world’s oldest and largest democracies. With PL 480 gone how can we know whether ‘that country’ is our friend or foe. On our part, we went out of the way to save Trump from his countrymen. But even God cannot help a country that fails to distinguish between right and more right.
And look what green revolution has done to the country. Use of chemical fertiliser to increase crop yield has badly affected the health of the average Indian with all kinds of diseases including those that damage the kidneys and lever and cause deadly diseases like cancer.
In ‘Atm Nirbhar’ Bharat we would be completely discarding chemical fertiliser and rely exclusively on the excretions of living beings particularly the cow dung to make India prosper. Green revolution also led to mechanisation of agriculture and use of tractors etc.
Introduction of tractor was part of an international conspiracy to create fissures in our country and promote anti national protests. Had there been no tractors, the farmers would not have indulged in sedition the way they did. India’s population was 130 crore in 2014 and it remains so even today. Nobody gives credit to our leadership for arresting population growth through data science.
NB: the ‘cradle baby’ is purely an imaginary character and its resemblance with any living character is as accidental as the Gujarat riots or some puppy coming under a fast moving SUV’s wheels.
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Abdul Qadir is a senior journalist based in Gaya, Bihar. He writes on contemporary politics with an occasional pinch of pun and satire.
