BJP has been winning all the elections. Or nearly all. It looks like it will continue to do so for a while, barring a few states. This situation is not unprecedented of course, Congress was in this position for years. But our memory is short. We have forgotten that. Elections are even getting boring. Our leftist “liberals” are in despair. The gravy train is totally wrecked. ₹1 lakh a pop RSTV gigs and free trips in Air Force One are a distant memory. You can’t even be sure your business class flight to Italy or London, earned after much licking, will go waste at the airport. Fearless independent journalism is in danger. Donation rackets are being called out not encouraged. Not my idea of India!
Let us help to reduce their misery.
I love quoting from Asterix comics. In the “Olympic Games”, the Greeks face a similar dilemma. Greek athletes win all the events. The organisers are worried that will make games boring and reduce tourist inflow and hence money. So, they devise a tactic – a new event where only Romans can participate! “May the least hopeless win” is their motto!
In that spirit, let us also conduct an imaginary race and declare our preferred winner! This race is not open to BJP, only to dynasts. And to reduce illegal betting and the pain of guessing, I am going to declare the winner upfront – Akhilesh Yadav.
Why? Because, if dynastic loot is our destiny, he is the least hopeless of the lot.
Dynastic loot is our destiny
I know this sounds pessimistic and ridiculous as I have myself stated that BJP keeps winning races. But remember, we have disqualified them early on! But let us also be practical. We are living in India where dynasts still run the show in most parties and continue to attract votes and huge crowds. We are not a Germany or Australia yet. If you are not sure, ask Magsaysay Ravish Kumar, and he will confirm. As my favourite columnist Prof Abhishek Banerji points out, he just did a show telling us that.
And let us not kid ourselves, these dynasts are fabulously wealthy. Figures of not just crores but hundreds, even thousands of crores are routinely quoted in private conversations and even in media. Much of their financial wealth is safely hidden from sight, perhaps in Euros and dollars. To be enjoyed in “private visits” to London or Singapore, that “brown-nosed” propaganda coolies that pass for fearless independent media in India, don’t question. (Thanks Tharoor saheb for legitimising and mainstreaming this phrase. I would not have used it without such erudite, tolerant, progressive, blue-tick liberal endorsement). But their palatial mansions, Harley Davidsons, large estates and expensive Swiss watches often can’t be hidden from sight. They don’t even bother to.
In fact, we have “matured” so much that such wealth is not even sought to be denied. We have come up with pat justifications – “Should only upper-caste enjoy wealth? Why my caste leader can’t enjoy it?”, “Why are you pointing out X but not Y” etc. It is a competitive sport, much like our Olympics.
So at least in my lifetime, perhaps in most of our lifetimes, this is not going to change. We are the third world only, to use a Hinglish phrase. To repeat, dynastic loot is our destiny. Whatever little growth we can manage is despite that and with their benevolence. If one day Modi loses, it will be to a dynast.
May the least hopeless win
That brings us to the race. I am referring to the race for the PM post, not state-specific races. Who are the potential runners? Akhilesh, Rahul, Tejaswi, Stalin’s kin, Reddy of AP, Thackerays, Gowdas of KA, Didi’s nephew. Did I miss any? Note that I am deliberately excluding leaders nearing their 70s as the race won’t even start until 2024, if not 2029. I am also disqualifying Kejriwal to keep the race pure.
In this field of allegedly multi-billionaire dynasts, Akilesh stands alone because he has shown far more sense and maturity than the rest. Why do I say that?
- He rarely makes vicious, venomous anti-Hindu statements. Unlike fascist dynast Rahul who took potshots at Lord Ram the other day and seems to hate the Hindu faith for denying him his legitimate hereditary right.
- He keeps the Stalinist left and its fake intellectual brigade and the Kanhaiya type parasites at a safe distance don’t become their B-team unlike, well, Rahul again.
- He rarely sounds like a loony JNU fringe left factory waste.
- His economic policy, if you can detect one and call it that, is growth-oriented. Not recycled socialist rhetoric.
- He is willing to work, at least in election season. That’s saying a lot, again compared to Rahul who, as I mentioned in an earlier article, expects others to work and deliver him the chair.
- Dynast yes, but he has shown many times he is his own man, even to his own father and uncles. In other words, he has a lot more to show than just a family name.
If he can avoid the Rahul trap
But this endorsement, if you can call it that, is not without caveats. He must avoid the Rahul trap.
He must continue to keep a safe distance from leftist malcontents and professional dynastic boot lickers. Like a spider attracting the insect to its web, they will lure him to their corrupt agendas. “Don’t worry we will get your Op-Ed published in Washington Post, even get UN to tweet for you or Greta to weigh in”. They will goad him to wage a hate campaign against this or that state and its people or leaders.
They will force him to take extreme positions on everything. Though he built highway(s) and was proud of them, now they will tell him to repeat after them “Development is violence”. They will ask him to lie through the teeth day in, day out, spreading fear, doom and senseless criticism of anything and everything. They will assure maximum publicity all the way to NY Times.
They will instruct him to fill inner circle with unemployable Stalinist malcontents from JNU that have not done honest day’s work in their entire lives. Having spent a decade or more on “African studies” or “Social science” on taxpayer money, they are looking for moneyed boots to latch on to.
That’s the Rahul trap I am talking about.
He should reject them just as India has rejected their imported Pol Potist mass rapist butcher ideologies and serfdom to the despot in Beijing.
With this caveat, and if he passes this test, he is my favorite dynast!
