The Anti -Nationals or Non-Nationals or Media-Nationals..

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup

 

"The serendipitous profile of the mainstream — Hindu, urban and mofussil, upper-caste, middle-to-upper-class, mostly north Indian, mostly male, and perhaps most importantly, liberal-to-Right in ideological persuasion — matches that of the majority of persons in the legislature, bureaucracy, judiciary, police and paramilitary force, the business and trading communities, white-collar corporate employees, teachers, and, tellingly, media workers (especially in the electronic media). It is through this media that this nation of a privileged minority sees itself, and only itself, as the true nation — the true ‘India’ (or ‘Bharat’, depending on linguistic and other ideological preferences).

But the vast majority of the population of India lies outside this profile. They don’t belong to this ‘India’, this ‘Bharat’. They live in the gutters and ghettoes, the fields and forests, the roadsides and ravines, the backyards and brothels of this nation. They are the rejects and the failures, the ones who didn’t or couldn’t acquire this profile. They are India, but they will always remain outside this ‘India’, and become anti-national the moment they question their exclusion".

 They are also India, agreed. Then the question is posed: So would anyone else who questions their exclusion, or who supports them, or speaks up on their behalf stand as potential criminals in the terms of the unstated law of anti-nationalism.

The answer is: certainly not. But the mainstream India as defined above by the 'questioners' themselves, does not see or acknowledge that the latter represent the rest of India, the underprivileged. It is in fact very apparent that the 'questioners' are just another section, often highly privileged, highly politicized, highly vocal, anti-rightists, or leftists and extremists who stage a self-righteous dance drama,  ostensibly for the underprivileged, but in fact for their own enhancement. There in lies the hypocrisy, the deceit, the perfidy of the left- of- center. They are the myopic drowsy Rip Van Winkles, the neotenic Marxists and Maoists who in fact, if history is any guide, prey upon the underprivileged.

That makes it prudential for the mainstream India to pick up each of these road show creatures with a pair of forceps and  examine it for what it really looks and sounds like. And you will find that under the lens they all have distinct stripes poke marks and scarlet colors. There are political recruiters who hurriedly make a beeline for enlistment and campus selection with promise of immediate stardom and  fat remuneration. These neo-liberal political corporate entities  are a new breed of failed business CEOs desperately scouting for some political and providential manna falling from the skies to feed on.

But it is sheer drought for them and obviously and drastically harakiri staring in face.