The politician would never accept the truth but the intelligentsia should at least acknowledge that talking about caste and community discrimination all the time, would not douse but reignite the dying embers of prejudice, writes Prof. H C Pande
Are our country’s political parties or the intelligentsia serious about the removal of social inequalities and communal intolerance? The answer is…No, certainty not! Do they want to perpetuate and intensify the social fault lines? The answer is…Yes, of course! The logic is not far to seek.This is no longer the age of reason but the age of I, me and myself, which, on the political plane, transforms to, we, us and our party.
For victory over adversaries, ‘Bheda’ in Chanakya niti also translates to enlarging the differences if they exist, or, creating them if there aren’t any. The sole aim of the political parties of the day is to remain in power by any means if enthroned, and again, by any means, fair or foul, grab the throne if out of power. The damage being done to the society in this process is of no concern to them.
Human history is a chronicle of man’s generosity and kindness, as also, his greed and cruelty. Exploitation of the weak by the strong is present in all societies in different forms, since the dawn of civilisation. The heart of economics is creation of surplus value which is the bedrock of wealth generation, whether the wealth is owned by the society or by an individual is another matter. The element of exploitation is inherent in the process of wealth formation. The exploitation could be physical such as farm workers or mental such as computer programmers.The talk on exploitation in the past serves no purpose except rattling skeletons in the closet, long buried in the sands of time. Attempts at reopening, largely healed, wounds is rank exploitation for downright political purposes.
The political scientists with their sociological researches are in this game, as well, albeit, unknowingly but they can be forgiven for ‘ they not know what they do’. Unlike the medical patient who,on knowing the results of the medical diagnostics is concerned about the future and goes in for the prescribed remedies guided by an experienced doctor ,the social patient ponders over the past resurrected by the sociological researcher and goes gunning for the indicated past perpetrators of the social maladies under the guidance of an experienced rabble rousing political party.
The results for the two patients are,as one would expect,diverse, the former recovers and the latter gets worse. Politics, it is said is the last refuge of a scoundrel so a politician or a political party can go to any depth of degradation in its hunger for power and harp on injustices of the past but the tragedy is, that for the intelligentsia, the past sins continue to remain a hot topic of discussion long after the ‘Ganga snan’ of reservations and all, has been performed. Ironically reservation and caste system are the same things. The entitlement to placement being accorded under the former proviso is based on numbers, and, under the latter on lineage, with competence for the post nowhere in sight.
Morgan Freeman talking about racism,once said “The best way to finish off racism is to stop talking about it.”
The politician would never accept the truth but the intelligentsia should at least acknowledge that talking about caste and community discrimination all the time, would not douse but reignite the dying embers of prejudice.
(Prof. H C Pande is Vice Chancellor Emeritus , BITS, Mesra)
