An uncertain march

Rajesh Ramachandran

FORMER Congress president Rahul Gandhi was kind enough to send a personal invitation for the Bharat Jodo Yatra as it enters our region. Had it not been for the lingering aches and pains of a terrible chikungunya infection, I would definitely have loved to become a yatri, particularly because he writes that ‘You, through all that you have done, are a valuable part of this conversation, and I would very much like to listen to you and share our perspectives. It doesn’t matter whether we agree or disagree. It’s important that we talk and listen in freedom.’ Even if it is a mere template for a polite invitation letter and even if everybody gets the same letter, it is indeed nicely worded.

Creation of an inclusive polity can only be done with rationalism and equal contempt for all clergies. Unfortunately, Indian secularism only means proscribing modernity and proselytisation of pre-modernity.

As a journalist, wanting to walk along with Rahul has one very important reason: to find out how much of the crowd is dependent on the organising skills of the Hoodas or Warrings (or the respective satraps in each state as the yatra goes through it) and how many have come to just look at Rahul, the celebrity politician, and how many want to ‘awaken the nation’s conscience to crippling inequality, brutal social polarisation, and violent authoritarianism,’ as Rahul’s letter puts it. If he succeeds in mobilising the masses and helping them to cleanse themselves of the hatred that has seeped into the soul of India, he would have succeeded in his endeavour, regardless of electoral outcome.

But, while putting on record all the appreciation that Rahul deserves for undertaking this gruelling journey from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, it has to be said that one cannot agree with him. Primarily, Rahul assumes that ‘the mainstream media has become an instrument that serves only the interests and destructive ideology of those in power.’ The Tribune is ‘the’ mainstream newspaper of the region, being its largest circulated daily, and it does not make sense to tar the mainstream media with such a terrible allegation in a letter of invitation to a mainstream media practitioner. It is an exhibition of ignorance of what the mainstream media is all about, or it is to mistake a few repugnant TV anchors for the mainstream.

Rahul is a member of Parliament from the hilly, backward constituency of Wayanad in Kerala. Nearly nobody in his constituency watches English or Hindi news television. None of the mainstream media in Kerala has anything in common with those who had tricked Rahul into giving a terrible interview eight years ago. There are vibrant TV channels, nationally-renowned regional language newspapers, magazines, websites and whatnot reaching Rahul’s constituency, and some of them are sympathetic to him and definitely opposed to the BJP. Will he not term them mainstream? Every state has its own mainstream media in its local language or sometimes in English. A few rogue, moneyed TV anchors of Delhi or Mumbai do not represent the diversity of Indian journalism. In fact, a person out to protect and nurture the country’s diversity should learn more about its media diversity.

Almost every regional party worth its symbol has attempted to create its own cultural space by creating newspapers, magazines and TV channels. Even the CPI (M), which is now electorally limited to Kerala, has a bouquet of entertainment and news channels in Malayalam. So does the DMK in Tamil Nadu or SAD in Punjab. And if the Congress cannot find good journalists to revive Jawaharlal Nehru’s National Herald and create its own ‘mainstream media’ in Hindi and English, its political rivals cannot be blamed. The attempt made by a former Congress MP to launch a TV channel anchored by a Radia Tapes-tainted veteran, borrowing the broadcast licence from a Christian evangelist, was a hilarious episode, showing why the party is where it is.

Another disturbing aspect about the Bharat Jodo Yatra is its messaging. With have-beens like a former RAW chief and failed political wannabes like Kamal Haasan thronging the liberal-secular mela, it is a grand photo-op for all those who failed to gain entry into the present ruling dispensation and are waiting for the Opposition to come to power to become relevant again. The message against Hindutva or religious exclusivism as a political tool is not being communicated because for its antithesis — a political philosophy of inclusivism — to be convincing, it has to be appealing to the Hindus. This was said by none other than Sonia Gandhi’s most trusted adviser and a former defence minister, who also happens to be a Catholic — AK Antony.

Some of his Leftist detractors had immediately slammed Antony for pushing a soft-Hindutva line. But in his own laconic way, Antony was trying to address the biggest crisis in the Congress — losing Hindu votes in search of minority consolidation. The politics of tactical voting, minority consolidation, splintering of caste votes, and caste and communal alliances for electoral opportunism has run its course. The new secular and liberal politics ought to eschew caste and religious markers altogether. The Congress that banned Salman Rushdie, maximising the political gains of the offence-taking socio-cultural industry, should apologise for the reversal of the Shah Bano verdict and inaugurate a new language in political communication for a new India where we can have a Charlie Hebdo-kind of a ‘mainstream’ magazine.

India’s Partition, four wars over the two-nation theory and the killing of lakhs of Hindus in East Pakistan do not make the creation of an inclusive polity easy. It can only be done with a heavy dose of rationalism and an equal contempt for all clergies. Unfortunately, Indian secularism only means proscribing modernity and proselytisation of pre-modernity. Hindus will continue to get mobilised under the Hindutva exclusivist identity as long as the Ulama and the Church attempt to unify people using religious identity. It’s worth noting that Rahul spent the longest in a state that witnessed Christian fanatics burning down a holy Hindu shrine long ago, and now sees Islamists of PFI threatening to kill Hindus and Christians.