Sagarika Ghose Bats for the Crown Prince

On its front page, CNN-IBN proudly features its nomination to some Webby award as “as one of the world’s best news websites.” If ever there was an award for being the most biased, casteist, and communal (all its terms, defined by itself) media house, it would win the award every single year. The latest Exhibit: Sagarika Ghose frothing meaninglessly.

She is torn between supporting the Congress party and Mayawati. Her angst-mixed anguish is understandable. She can antagonize neither: the former, mainly for monetary reasons, and Mayawati for…well, you can fill in the blanks. Starting her piece with Kabir’s hymn, she admonishes Mayawati with tiny doses of circuitous nonsense.

It is precisely these nasty diatribes that are contributing to the political isolation of a ‘virangana’ with prime ministerial ambitions. Sonia Gandhi recently declared that Congress workers would all go to jail if need be, under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, only to save Uttar Pradesh from Mayawati. During the Tikait episode, both Congress and BJP lined up against Mayawati. Her actions have almost achieved the unthinkable: the Congress and the Samajwadi party inching closer together in an attempt to dislodge a “common enemy”. The Congress knows that it can’t resurrect itself in UP without rediscovering the Dalit vote. The Samajawadi party knows that Mayawati remains its nemesis. So, while an Amar Singh may still not be invited to Sonia Gandhi’s high table, the fear of Mayawati is enough to send them scurrying for options.

The fact that Sonia declared thus is enough for Sagarika Ghose. Who needs to examine frivolities like the Madame’s credentials, track record, etc. Ghose goes steadily downhill from here–believe me, you won’t want to read the rest. But she manages to say some amazing things. Not surprising, amazing nevertheless.

…but the Congress forgets the social terror that used to hide in the green fields of UP for centuries. How on election day, Dalits, young and old, as recently as the 90s, would hide in the shadows of their huts in mortal fear of upper castes, and be prevented from voting. No law touched the UP Dalits in those days, no policeman would register an FIR if it was filed by a Dalit. It is this terrible age old injustice that gives Mayawati her permanent unquestioned political constituency, a constituency which will die for behanji, a constituency of which every other party is jealous.

Excellently written. However, why did Mayawati silently begin to woo these selfsame upper castes? And why did she give them ministerial berths? You are nothing in today’s politics if you are not an opportunist. Ideology can propel you to the top but opportunism lets you stay there.

And this is the most amazing assertion ever made in some time now:

Every upper caste, however progressive and liberal, must never be allowed to forget his civilisational guilt.

To a very large extent, the whole blame-the-upper-castes-for-everything-wrong-with-the-Indian-society-today is:

• Grossly exaggerated
• A consequence of accepting what the British wanted us to accept: there was never a caste system, there was only caste.

If you were to believe this incessant “oppressed” drum-beating, you’d think the upper castes, for centuries, had no other business than beating up, torturing, and generally harassing the lower castes. Ghose must really need to think for a change. When she says Every upper caste, however progressive and liberal, she doesn’t realize it is an oxymoron. Remember the poisonous secular-progressive-liberal “movement” that originated in the ’60s and spread like wildfire through the ’70s? By definition, these extraordinary mortals were casteless, religion-less, community-less, and whatever other-less. Recall also, the ridiculous lengths they went to, to prove their newfound fad: beef-eating, praying at Mosques (yeah, that’s permitted), decrying “Brahminism,” and other such assorted tomfoolery? Aren’t these antics sufficient penance for Ghose to de-guilt the now-casteless upper caste? The continual reminder of said civilizational guilt is for mere mortals like us. Sagarika Ghose stands absolved of her guilt by writing just this one article. [Aside: I admit it took some effort to write this paragraph.]

The message is straight: nobody in the Indian media will allow anybody to spoil the chances of the Crown Prince.

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