Chotu! do chai..

can’t read, we them
can’t write, them out
understand neither, without a pout

it is not what we crave
that frightens us
it is what we are.

there are times
we stare
times we scratch

there is a language
we harbour
there is a tongue

while we  speak some
we less intelligent
we are weak.

it is a language
it is a tongue
not many understand

it is a bane
only we suffer
for we are them

it is not what we crave
that frightens us
it is what we are.

we are those few
restless and sad
we are those few

romantics.

Writing honestly is not a difficult art. It is easy. Too easy to be practised sometimes. It bends morality, it betrays syntax. At times, it is raw, uncut and crude. Unedited, unrehearsed. It brings along waves of prejudice, bias, ego and repressed anger.

Re: Political commentators.

India (like every other country probably) has a tradition of hosting political commentators who are not confined to TV studios and newspaper houses. We probably have  a political commentator in every varendah, every balcony and every living room. And since the evolution of broadband and smart phones, online medium has extended this space. Now we have a political commentator on every second electronic arm-chair. Unfortunately, the level of debate has not changed much. Having been a part of both the communities, I am aware of the commentary that ensues in these places – mostly a bipolar debate, often revolving around political parties/leaders.

However, for a very brief while in the first week of April this year, there seemed to be a semblance of unison in the political fervour, when an old man with no apparent political leanings gripped the public and media’s imagination. Without arguing on the merits of who/what Mr.Hazare is/did, if we focus our attention on the nature of most political opinions that week in April (fresh off the World Cup victory – boosted national ego and all), one would realise that a very rare and ironically clichéd flavour of ‘desh-ki-bhalaai’ had overtaken one’s traditional political preferences and the cynicism that we often associate with the public mood.

Soon however, things returned to normalcy.

Over the last few months. as I followed the news of Indian affairs on mainstream/alternative media, one word kept popping into my head – “one-upmanship”. Politics had become about scoring political points. Again.

Us-against-them.

Now the question begs to be asked – is politics ultimately just another excuse for an argumentative Indian to bellow his point of view. Or does (s)he really have an honest intent to the exercise?

Mainstream political commentators – journalists, columnists, etc. invariably come in political colours due to the natural political preferences that they might harbour. His/her writings are but a consequence of these, still under the pretext of a common man’s POV. Their discourse is a masked shade of opinion, whilst reporting facts. They naturally fall under the purview of the above argument.

But the more alternative commentators, like bloggers, unpaid freelancers, twitteratti, etc. do not bear the Cross of equanimity. Unabashed, they are free to endorse and flaunt any political preference. What it resulted in is a very loud cyber-mohalla where different varendahs/living-rooms have people shouting various comments. If we dare not to  close our ears, and restrict our debates to mumbling amongst our kith, one can gauge the level of political discourse in our country. Many would argue it imitates our national scene.

The political commentary on the internet is dominated by the right wing. Recent furore about the  lack of civility in political “debate” has been mainly targeted towards the majority of right-leaning commentators, who are tagged “Internet Hindus“. They are the proverbial wise guys of the mohalla, who readily serve as an eyesore to the purists.  You’d be called a dog, a shoe, a rat or any object they might fancy, if you disagree with them. And quite specifically, your objectified self belongs to the Congress, they’d reckon. Their comments are usually straight, unmasked and crude.

* Writing honestly is not a difficult art. It is easy. Too easy to be practised. It bends morality, it betrays syntax. At times, it is raw, uncut and crude. Unedited, unrehearsed. It brings along waves of prejudice, bias. ego and repressed anger.

In a strange way, Internet Hindus are romantics as well. In a stranger way, I had a hard time understanding why I didn’t qualify to be one. I am a Hindu, on the internet, and am as earnest about my opinion on the country as the next chap. I sat down to note what differentiates me from them.  It was only then that my naïveté came forth, as I realised they are right-conservative and I am (centre) left-liberal. The nomenclature! The horseshoe theory sort of made sense again.

But what bothered me, was that a bunch of people with a particular political choice, have hijacked my identity on the internet. The divisive me-against-them again. Though I commend their passion, their intolerance towards others’ opinion and preferences, make me wonder if I could ever be like them. May be it is not necessary to be the same, as long as I am tolerant.  My religion had taught me that.

I also wonder if political thoughts are a product of one’s milieu or religious identity.

While they joust in rancour, in the name of Bharat Mata, the right-wingers are not waging any national or diplomatic war on foreign elements, but their own compatriots who share a different worldview from them. The more centre-leaning conservative right, in encouraging (or rather, not disrupting) these aggressive elements, only aids in the degeneration of political deliberation.

Many fence-sitters and centrists have regularly turned away due to the lack of meaningful debate, from what is supposed to be the largest community of politically aware citizens online. While the mantle has been readily (easily) worn by these political commentators, their role seemed to have been somewhat misconstrued.

A lil’ throwback to April, should remind us that we are in it together, and not to engage in mutual labeling from an extraneous political spectrum and call ourselves fancy names, whilst deriding the others’ political preferences. Tolerance is something that can be taught to our system bottom-up. One commentator at a time.