TARUN TEJPAL – Mrs Gandhi And Her Extra God

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Mrs Gandhi And Her Extra God
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Tarun Tejpal - DEAR MRS SONIA GANDHI, We all know
the cliché that India moves on faith. We love our
gods, and it is at their feet that we place all
our successes and failures. It is in this
department that those who oppose you and
perhaps even some of those who support you will
assert that you have an unfair advantage. Through
marriage and masquerade you have acquired all the
gods Indian politicians have, while also
possessing one you brought along from your
faraway home all those aeons ago. Since we do
not oppose you, we are happy that you have an
extra god. As you know, India has so many gods
only because it has so many problems. (Yes, there
are men on the far left and far right who think
god is the problem, to be banished or to be
rescued but let these men not detain us, since
theyve failed to detain the electorate.) So we
are glad that you have an extra god. One more is
always handy.
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Our gods are playful, multi-faced, philosophical.
Often their moralities are slippery to grasp,
sheathed as they are in the complexities of karma
and dharma, moksha and maya. The one you bring
along, the extra one, is more cut and dried.
Quite clear about right and wrong, good and bad,
sin and virtue, charity and compassion. We who
do not oppose you welcome that. Amid the
material excesses born of our religious
abstractions, a little bit of clarity is not a
bad thing. Since we agree that you have one god
more than the rest of us, it necessarily follows
that your responsibilities must be more. It is an
easy catechism privilege and obligation. Of
course it is not easily followed. Our playful
gods tend to often muddle it up. But your extra
one is quite clear on how this must run. In this
case, wed be quite grateful if you heed him, not
for your own sake, but that of a few hundred
million others.
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To begin with, this means that you must banish
the thought that your labours are done. Without a
doubt you have been stellar in marshalling an
army whose officers did not even know which way
the battle broke, and whose chief skill lay in
swiftly putting the knife into each other. For
long years you did this in the face of great
personal abuse (inspired perhaps by your extra
god). It is not pleasant for a General to be
told she does not know how to hold a gun or speak
the language of the troops. But you understood,
intuitively, that cheap insults can so easily
keep the good and the great from the good and the
great tasks. You understood that wars, finally,
are won not by the size of bullets and the
decibel of bugle but by the strength of heart. By
simply staying the course, over 13 years, you
have unexpectedly changed the battle-lines.
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So your toil has been worthy. Your ragged army of
1996 is a renewed one in 2009. In the process you
have so cleverly and beautifully played out
two key precepts of your extra god. Thou shalt
not covet, the last of the ten commandments, so
artfully spun as an act of renunciation that it
sucked out the wind from the sails of your
opponents. And Mathew 55, which is also Manmohan
Singh 2004 blessed are the meek for they shall
inherit the earth. And both have been cleansing
of the public in unanticipated ways. Yet let me
assert it without any ambiguity. Manmohan 2009
needs you as much as Manmohan 2004. He may be the
scythe that clears the weeds, but you are still
the arm that wields the scythe. To slice cleanly,
the arm and scythe must swing in tandem.
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Since I am convinced that your work is far from
over, and since I am Mathew, let me remind you of
the exhortation in 107. Heal the sick, cleanse
the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils
freely ye have received, freely give. As one
must always do with divine scripture, I could
spell out the contemporary burden of every
phrase. But that would be fatuous. More than
those of us who write of these things, you know
best what it is in this calamitous nation to heal
the sick and to cast out devils. Even so as
humble epistle writers must let me say my
piece. Power brings with it a surrounding mist
great power a billowing fog. You may not be
blinded by it since you have always lived with
great power, but all around you, your partymen
will now be tempted to explode in arrogance. They
may tend to forget they have merely won a battle.
The war, or may I say wars, still rage around us.
The bigots who would divide us are still at
the gates, nursing their wounds, renewing their
munitions. They are far from a spent force.
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They have taken a fourth of our dominions. Be in
no doubt that they will storm the walls again,
and again. What will serve your legions well then
is not hauteur, but what brought them here in the
first place humility, and the steel that is
born of it. Across the land we cast our vote
against swagger let it be known, we will bear
our ordained objections but refuse to be hit by
misplaced arrogance. AS I said, there are many
wars. Of civilisational ideas, of inhuman
deprivations, of lack and want and misery and
dying children. In my city which is also yours,
which is the supercilious capital of this
limitless nation at every traffic light, six
and seven and eight-year-olds, their skins
lacerated, their limbs twisted, rub our car
windows for a throwaway rupee. Shining India,
booming India, superpower India these epithets
are not just jokes, they are obscenities, when we
cannot feed our children, or clothe them, or send
them to school.
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I know you know this as of now 46 percent of our
children below five years of age suffer from
malnutrition, with all the physical, mental and
emotional impairment that comes from it. A man
far greater than you, far greater than any we
have known, gave us a talisman which you would do
well to thrust down the throat of every person
you are now anointing with power. Recall the
face of the poorest and weakest man you have
seen, and ask yourself if this step you
contemplate is going to be any use to him. It
is a curiosity of the hour that while the beacon
is the future, the guiding light is still firmly
the past. There is nothing that can better unveil
to us the path that we must tread than the humane
luminosity of the founding fathers. In this
regard, if I may say so, you are well rid of the
vanity and bluster of the Left, but you might do
well to hold on to some of their concerns. As you
should also of the dalit queen and the Yadav
overlords.
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They stand at the head of hapless peoples, even
if they do nothing to represent them. The causes
are great but the leaders are little. Reject the
men embrace the mission. The task of the
reparation of centuries must proceed
apace. Inevitably then, maam, all this brings
me to the rich. Money is a good thing. And it is
no secret that we all love the rich yes, all
your partymen too. But will you please ensure
that they do not make their love a public thing.
In India, all elected leaders must speak only for
the poor. The rich have their money and the
media to talk for them. Those who have the
opportunity to create wealth much or more
leave them alone to do so, and place no obstacle
in their path. But instruct your worthies to
focus on those who have no hope, and bring unto
them a sliver. I must stop. It is ungracious of
me to deign to sermonise. That, too, at a moment
of your high triumph. Let me then offer some
praise. No doubt with the help of your extra god,
you have done a fine job of bringing up your son.
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He has humility, decorum, diligence, and he takes
the long and inclusive view. We do not like the
idea of dynasty, but we abhor the idea of
divisiveness more. In an ideal world we would do
away with everything feudal and undemocratic, but
for the moment let us concentrate on getting rid
of the engines of hatred. Mercifully, your boy
seems more in touch with the soul of India than
those who try to barter deities for votes. A man
from your party once told me, disparagingly,
Sure, he is well meaning. He wants to help old
ladies cross the street. Its no good. I wonder
what he thinks now. Young I must stop. It is
ungracious of me to deign to sermonise. That,
too, at a moment of your high triumph. Let me
then offer some praise. No doubt with the help of
your extra god, you have done a fine job of
bringing up your son.men who help old ladies
cross the street can also grow up to steer
nations across rocky roads.
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Can I leave you with one last quote (though its
likely you already know it)? A man far greater
than you, far greater than any we have known,
once said, To be in good moral condition
requires at least as much training as to be in
good physical condition. This man was called
Jawahar, the jewel. His books line your room. As
freely as ye have received, freely should you
give them on to your newly exuberant flock, and
that of your son. The jewels words will make
their morality robust. After all, it is still on
this mans plinth that we build our dreams. And
yes, as I bid you speed and strength, with the
extra god by your side, may I make a final plea.
You have given us of yourself, and of your son.
Now will you kindly also give unto us your
luminous daughter.
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It's Written by Tarun J Tejpal. Tarun Tejpal Who
can ever hold the essence of fire? Who can ever
know the alchemy of desire?. Tarun Tejpal is a
journalist, publisher, and novelist. In a 26-year
career, Tarun Tejpal has been an editor with the
India Today and the Indian Express groups, and
the managing editor of Outlook, Indias premier
newsmagazine. In March 2000, he started Tehelka,
a news organisation that has earned a global
reputation for its aggressive public interest
journalism. Also you can check Tarun J Tejpal.