A Girish Nikam website Every report that concerns India

By Girish Nikam (गिरीश निकम)

"

--

We seem to be living through a period of dualism in a philosophic sense. As pointed out in these columns earlier, when two brilliant minds like, Dr.Manmohan Singh and Prakash Karat, are involved in a battle of ideas, the ordinary mortals to whom it is aimed are bound to be left confused or even confounded. No wonder we are witnessing this battle now not just in the media space, but even in parks and offices, where people are seen and heard arguing vehemently for or against the ideas thrown up by the above two.
Now admittedly nuclear technology and all its concomitant connotations are certainly rocket science to most of the people. But that has not stopped people from having strong opinions. And the opinion keeps changing depending on the extent to which they expose themselves to the arguments of both sides. This has created a debate in this country of unprecedented dimensions, though certain sections of the media, and consequently people who get influenced by it, try to reduce this battle of ideas into petty personal battles, which it is not.
Now take for instance the entire argument of Dr.Manmohan Singh that India is too great a country to kow tow to any powers. Sounds very good and makes most Indians puff up their chests and feel proud. But at the same time when one hears the warnings of Prakash Karat about how Americans are dangling this carrot of lifting us out of nuclear isolation with the ulterior motive of ensnaring us into its long term imperialist game-plan, it does also sound plausible and ominous indeed.
Coming to the Congress and its intra-party dilemmas, when Manmohan Singh played out the Samajawadi Party master-stroke, even as he prepared grounds for the ejection of left front, one thought that it was the Prime Minister’s coming off age as a politician extra-ordinaire. He is even seen to have trapped Sonia Gandhi into his game plan, which again sounds altogether believable considering the bonhomie she enjoyed with the left parties. But then again when one thinks of how her son, Rahul had commiserated with that big mouth, Amar Singh when the latter’s father died, one wonders whether she was really out of the loop when “operation ejection” of the Left and “Operation induction” of Samajawadi party was being played out.
Now take that interview of the US Presidential hopeful, Barack Obama to Outlook magazine( it was an e-mail interview by the way, not a face to face one). When he says that he would not be inclined to change the text of the 123 agreement, if he becomes President and has to get its endorsement in the US Congress, it really sounds positive and also gives India the hope that even if President Bush fails to get it through during his term, his successor would. But then when a section of American media points out that Obama is already acquiring a reputation for policy u-turns, latest is when he supported a Security wiretapping Bill, which he had opposed vehemently a few months back, one wonders whether he wouldn’t make another “about-face” on the 123 deal too.
And now about the sudden respect being displayed by the Sangh Parivar towards the left parties and especially Prakash Karat, what can one say. Of course for those who are pathologically and xenophobically opposed to the Congress and Sonia Gandhi, this most unseemly and un-likely behaviour is also music to their ears and a reason to hope for the un-imaginable to become a reality. On the other hand when one hears the Left parties patronizingly dismiss these overtures as nothing but opportunism, one realises that left is not getting carried away. But at the same time it has found new reasoning to be found in the company of the BJP( while voting against the UPA in Lok Sabha), one also wonders whether this is any indication of a future miracle.
Talking of new political alliances, however fat-fetched it may seem, in the making, what about Prakash Karat wooing BSP’s Mayawati. If there was one party the Left parties had benevolently ignored all these years, it was the maverick Mayawati’s BSP. It was obviously because of Karat and his predecessor’s fervent belief that Samajawadi Party is their natural ally, until they found themselves betrayed last week. So no wonder in the bitter mood that Karat is now in, he immediately grabbed the opportunity to woo the SP’s bitter rival. Is this not as much opportunism as that of BJP trying to woo the Left? A valid question, indeed. But then again a future Left-BSP alliance is more plausible than a BJP-Left tango.
Even as these unseemly scenarios are being played out we have UPA partners including Congress indulging in “lovers’ games”. After having forced the Left parties to break alliance, like a crossed lover, they are sending out signals to the Left of a future rapprochement like a nostalgic lover. And the Left parties too are reacting like any hurt and rejected lover, who knows it is difficult to live without his/her love, once the initial sense of hurt and rejection wears off.
Amid all these main shows there are several side shows going on with minor players playing their own games. JD(S) Chief H.D.Deve Gowda desperately wanting to prove his worth at the national level playing footsie with both the Left and the Congress, and keeping all options open, and so is the dis-credited Telengana Rashtra Samithi Chief K.Chandrashekara Rao and the confused National Congress scion, Omar Abdullah, and the Akali Dal with divided loyalties between its long time ally BJP and a fellow Sikh, Manmohan Singh.
As all this churning takes place amid friends becoming enemies and vice versa and potential alliances are being shaped for the future, luckily the intellectual debate about the idea of India through the prism of Manmohan Singh and Prakash Karat continues to rage. And this duel is not in the classical western dualism concept of “benevolent” and malignant”, but more in the eastern mystical sense of the world being divided into two over-arching categories. And who knows this duel may reach the classical Tai chi balance, where two opposites co-exist in harmony and are able to transmute each other. Till then take your pick and let the debate continue.