Why India is a Hindutva nation. And why time won’t turn back

Why India is a Hindutva nation. And why time won’t turn back

I am sitting next to this guy in the plane. He’s from the North. We were both trying to get the most out of the little space on the hand rest. Before we took off, there was a little Cold War going on to get the most space on the hand rest. (I won)

While I was trying to jostle for space, I got a glimpse of what he was doing on his phone. Well, Facebook. He was scanning his newsfeed, his thumb swiping up and down. Hovering over posts, clicking on links. Reading half of a news story, watching a video stream on mute with subtitles. Then his thumb would move up and down his phone screen. It’s difficult to tell what a person is like without knowing them too well. It’s near impossible. 

So to say I got a glimpse of what he is like in real life based on a glimpse of his phone screen, is just wishful thinking at best. And me talking out of my ass at worst. 

Well, let the worst begin.

He first clicked on a link about how Hindus have been affected in the Delhi riots. He read half of it and moved on. Then he went back to his Facebook timeline and swiped down. A certain Mr Ashish Gupta posts kept popping up on his timeline. Mr. Gupta seems very convinced that there is a conspiracy against Hindus unraveling. He is sharing posts by TrueIndology, OpIndia and some other pro-Hindu accounts and portals. There was also Zee News in the midst. There are other items on the Facebook newsfeed that are similar in nature.

I am so ready to judge this gentleman sitting next to me. Then it occurred to me—Facebook has probably figured out what this man likes to see on his feed. It’s pushing those posts on his feed no matter how old or recent it was. All of them have the same theme—Hindu khatre mein hai. Or, something about the greatness of Hinduism.

I almost didn’t notice all of this. I was scanning through my Twitter feed. It’s peppered with folks who I agree with and those who I don’t. I follow around 7,000 odd accounts on Twitter. I have made it a point to not life in my echo chamber. It takes its toll on my mental well-being. If you found this piece on Twitter, just go check out my Twitter feed. I outrage about almost every stupid thing someone says. Whether it’s the Hindu khatre mein hai idiots, or those who praise Congress and hope this comatose political party saves us. Well, the last political party we thought would save us—Aam Aadmi Party, is busy committing political suicide. So, I think we should not keep our hopes up. 

If we scan everyone’s phone screen and notice the feed on their social media accounts—that could probably tell us why India will remain a Hindutva nation. The man sitting next to me on this flight is probably a nice guy. He wishes his dad good morning diligently. He’s probably a good husband to his wife who’s sitting right next to him in the line of “premium seats” that we three occupy. Till he fell asleep after the flight took off, he was on social media, just like me. He is being bombarded by everything that feeds his prejudice (my prejudice is to make myself so miserable that I yearn for a trip back home to see my brother’s kid). 

How many of us can, want to, or even care to live outside our bubble? How many of us want to question things around us constantly, and judge them by their merits? How many of us truly care to learn about different sides to an argument? How many of us care to know that Hindutva will eventually consume us all? That it will burn us to the ground, while editors at right-wing magazine, living in Thane, call for a civilisational war that Hindus must rise to. This editor runs the magazine that owns OpIndia.

Do you think that all this can be turned around in one generation or by wailing on Twitter? Do you think that you can change your family member’s mind and force them not to share conspiracy theorist and filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri’s tweets?

The genie is out of the lamp. We have used up our three wishes. The last one was to set the genie free. That was 2014. Now the genie has realised that it has magical powers of destruction. It has started to flex its muscle. It has convinced many normal people that Hindu khatre mein hai.

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The flight is facing turbulence now, and man next to me has finally given up the dreams of hogging the arm rest. He’s sitting compact and within his seat and let go of even his side of the armrest. He’s trying to sleep uncomfortably, like most people do in planes. Everybody is asleep on the plane, except for the flight attendants. As I write this, I realise that despondency and giving in to a bully is never a good choice. Even if it’s difficult to put the genie back in the lamp, it’s worth the trouble. And just like this man finally gave away the space on the arm rest, one must take back what one has lost. In our case, collectively as a society, we have lost decency and humanity. It’s ironical that our elders taught us these two things when we were kids, but now completely forget what they tried to instil in us, all throughout our lives. 

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Sometimes we must take the world as what it is. It’s we who need to change. Not change into loonies. But something else entirely. And that road is not an easy path. But good things don’t come easily do they. 

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The sun is rising in the east over a bed of clouds. Even in my overworked, sleep deprived state, it makes for something serene and beautiful. The night surely is darkest before dawn. I see a dawn coming.

In your head

Dolores was right. It’s in your head. 

Being on TV gives you a high, and makes you do things that are out of character. Former US President Jimmy Carter was caught on the kiss cam during a game recently. And the 92 year old man, much to the initial discomfort of his wife, smooched her on live TV. That’s the pressure that a camera puts on you. 

Now imagine that if you have to point a camera at people for 24 hours a day. Essentially your business is to sell FMCG products, television etc, and sometimes political propaganda to your viewers. What would you do to keep the attention on you? What if in the intervening period between the commercials, you had to pack news into it? What you get is a sweet reminder of why the opening monologue of Jeff Daniels’ character Will Macavoy in The Newsroom, when he reboots his 9 o’ clock news show into something respectable, is so apt for all of television news media today. Watch the YouTube video. 

But today, it’s apt in a very ironic way. 

“Another mother's breaking 

Heart is taking over 

When the violence causes silence 

We must be mistaken” 

The war-mongering by some of the television news channels, in the past week after the Pulwama terrorist attack on the CRPF motorcade, is unbelievable. People who should know better, are fanning the flames that can’t be doused before the monsoon sets into large parts of India by July. In the intervening period there is a small matter of a general election that over 800 million people will have to plough through. 

These people who should know better are the heads of some of the media houses, and their owners. Commercialisation of media at some level has completely blinded these people, that in the end they are just mouthing or writing words that float through the cyberspace, through airwaves, or onto the newspapers that still come to some people’s homes. 

“But you see, it's not me. 

It's not my family 

In your head, in your head, they are fighting 

With their tanks, and their bombs 

And their bombs, and their guns 

In your head, in your head they are crying” 

For all the tweets, and no matter how many glasses of scotch generals polish off before shamelessly spouting vile, incendiary spiel to millions on TV. They don’t understand. All of what you are framing as a solution, will have to be implemented by real people. 

Here’s the thing though, we have been here before. In the past, there used to be a measure of rectitude exercised by people who considered themselves responsible. But now, it’s just not visible. Now, even our leaders are stepping up to the bully pulpit to display their mastery at misdirection. And everybody knows where this goes. 

But we knew this would happen. When we build people up to be heroes, and then they abandon the dreams they promised were achievable, we always end up here: war-mongering. Bill Maher says the abundance of superhero movies makes us feel that there is always going to be a hero coming to save us. It never happens. 

To quote Sigrid 

“Everybody knows that the dice are loaded 

Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed” 

That’s what we did nearly half a decade ago. And for some reason we have ended up in a place that looks familiar, but doesn’t feel so. Sigrid continues. 

“Everybody knows the war is over 

Everybody knows the good guys lost 

Everybody knows the fight was fixed 

The poor stay poor, the rich get rich 

That's how it goes 

Everybody knows” 

Hope as an emotion is almost like a high, as long as there is light at the end of the tunnel. We will select another hero soon. To lead us into battle. But here’s the thing about heroes: we know they will fall. That’s because they can’t bear the burden of hopes of so many people. 

That is mass media coverage for you. We are strapped in and waiting for a hero who will come and save us. 

We think we know how the families of the soldiers who lost their lives in Pulwama feel right now. It’s all around us. From our WhatsApp inboxes, to Facebook and Twitter. And the news media is not far away. There are also reports on tweets by celebrities’ messages to the soldiers’ families. 

But the real heroes are the soldiers. Yes. I consider them as heroes. If the CRPF got half the amount of perks and facilities that the Indian Army did, maybe I would have said they are professional soldiers, and that’s their job. But not with the CRPF. 

We always want someone else to be the hero. Not us. We want someone else to go fight the fight we can’t. On Twitter, people want other folks to fight for them. This has now warped into organised trolling. Based on your political persuasion, you might tolerate some level of vile behaviour. These trolls are defending their anointed heroes. 

But in the end, the real heroes are those who go into war knowing that it’s futile. They’ll either kill or get killed. That’s for certain. Maybe that’s why we in South Asia love to refer to our slain soldiers as martyrs. They joined the fighting forces to make a living, but they know that they have to run at the enemy, and destroy them when ordered to do so.  

But we want our fix. We wish for death and destruction. We are high on nationalistic fervour. It’s like a drug. 

“O chitta ve, 

O chita ve, 

Kaiyan nu hai khush kitta ve, 

Hai mittha ve, 

Hai mittha ve, 

Kundi nashe wali khol ke dekh” 

So what’s in your head?

The Legend of the Curd Rice.

And the legend continues...

This is a story of the favourite dish of all that is Tamil.

Essentially it is not really a dish. It is more of an experience. If you ask any tamilian (excluding yours truly of course) what would complete his meal; the prompt answer would be 'konjum thayir sadam', as though life would not be whole without the gift of god to man kind, Curd rice.

The conditioning to thayir saadam( if you still haven't gotten it, it means curd rice) starts at a very young age for us. From the little morsels of 'thachi mummum' (again, curd rice) which were fed to you by patti (grandmum), to the suffocating tadka that precedes the preparation of this lovely delicacy.

I read somewhere that humans generally burp as an indication that the stomach is full. Tamilians though have a different mechanism, they eat thayir sadam to signify that the meal is now definitely over.

There are many explanations to the phenomenon of 'Thayir Sadam'. One that I really liked was from a teacher of mine. She said that tamilian food consists of three courses. Sambar rice, rasam rice, and then comes 'THAYIR SADAM'. Thayir sadam detoxifies the effects of the spices of the previous 2 courses. The fact being nothing can really detoxify the effects of sambar and rasam. Not even the lovely thayir sadam can conquer the after effects of those spices. Trust me.

The amount of times I have gotten dirty looks from my relatives for refusing to have thayir sadam is truly amazing. In a tamil household, to refuse thayir sadam tantamounts to an insult to the host. And if you happen to be a tamilian(other species are let off because they don't know the true benefits of all that is tamil), then the questions come pouring in. Why don't you eat thayir sadam? Atleast have thayir. What is wrong with you? as if you have committed the worst sin ever. It is expected that every tamilian knows the benefits of thayir sadam. And trust me, every tamilian is taught the benefits of it.

Another modification of thayir sadam is 'More Sadam'. This is nothing but buttermilk with rice. There still exists many variations to it, althought the time required to explain it is truly enormous. More sadam is usually served at weddings, where buying so much thayir is really expensive.

So, the next time when you see a tamilian going gaga over his thayir sadam and licking the trickling curd/more from his elbow to his fingers, remember it means so much more to him than just food.

Government investing tax money in banks equals cheating the taxpayer

The bad loan crisis in the public sector banks (PSBs) has had an unintended consequence. It has curtailed the ability of the PSBs to raise money from the stock market. The share prices of the PSBs have taken a battering and hence it doesn’t augur well for the majority shareholder i.e. the central government. However, it’s easier to raise money from taxpayers to fund the same banks. 

The real owner of the banks (citizens) don't ever demand dividend, except for when the government has run up a deficit. This money is deposited into the government kitty called the Consolidated Fund of India that we always hope is used for the benefit of citizens.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley assured the Lok Sabha, during a discussion on the union budget, that the government would fund the PSBs as and when the need arose. The central government is going to infuse around Rs. 25,000 crores this financial year and around Rs. 10,000 crores each in 2018 and 2019 in PSBs. This is required to meet the minimum capital requirements as per international banking norms and also to deal with the disastrous bad loan situation in PSBs. 

As the majority owner of these banks, the government has two options – sell shares to the public or raise taxes and pump in more money in the banks.

It’s a mystery why any shareholder would pump in money into a business that is giving bad returns. But when you can raise the money at zero cost through taxes, it ceases being a problem. Indians are being cheated of their tax money.

Banks and the economy

Banks lend money to businesses and who invest in projects. Investment in new projects will help in generation of employment. Employment leads to income generation and the income spent will lead to business opportunities for many more. This is the crux of the trickledown theory.

When a private bank needs to raise money to fund its business, it will either raise money from the market or raise a loan or sell shares to a financial institution. The government also has similar tools available to it. But, selling public resources (shares in PSBs) means the revenue has to be maximized. The shares of the PSBs are not the best available option for investors. Hence, selling shares in the stock market to raise money is out of the question for now.

The track record of the PSBs in past has been quite abysmal. After a diktat from the Reserve Bank of India in December 2015, the banking industry got its act together and started recognizing all the bad loans of the past. Many banks, including private sector, didn’t declare a lot of their loans as non performing until the RBI pushed them. This has led to a huge public outcry because PSBs use taxpayer money to fund their businesses.

Tax money and its use

The government of the day decides what it should do with the money that it has raised through taxes. But when it raises the money that these banks need from the citizens when there are competing requirements like healthcare and education, this move becomes a little tricky.

There are competing requirements for government expenditure. The fact that Indians pay taxes that is used to invest in banks means that public expenditure is funding many businesses in India. It is surprising that we have gone on with this charade for ages. Nationalization of banks has created a problem that we don't know how to get out of. And now we are spending public money on businesses that the public should never be invested in. What we should be investing in is health.

India has abysmal public health infrastructure. We are moving towards a public-private partnership model for primary health care as shown by Rajasthan. There is also a move towards a health insurance based model. This means lesser government expenditure on primary health care and in the future we may move to full health insurance model. A recent proposal by NITI Aayog also calls for outsourcing primary healthcare to private doctors.

Public health being a state subject means the central government policies will trickle down to the states eventually. That would mean less public expenditure on healthcare in the future. People who can't afford healthcare would be given subsidized health insurance at a bare minimum level and would be left to fend for themselves.

Minimum government?

The fact that we still have our central government owning banks is a joke in itself. This is not minimum government and maximum governance. This is the government being still in the business of lending money. This a far cry from the prime minister’s election rhetoric of “government has no business being in business.”

Here's hoping we find productive uses for tax money that all the government's raise. The rush to privatize most public services like healthcare, education, sanitation etc sounds nice in theory, but if we don't have a regulatory system to take care of the problems that might arise, we are killing the system. Small government doesn't mean that it's a fire sale of the government.

Would you please show me the money? I really want to see it.

Take this, a very minor offense if you consider what happens in our country as major.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2016/04/09/house-republican-busted-for-illegally-using-campaign-funds-for-personal-expenses/

The income tax law in India allows political parties to keep donations below Rs. 20,000 off the books, under the radar in a way.

Imagine that! That's donation below that amount off the radar. This has been debated to death before. A quick google search would suffice.

Then you have the retrospective amendment proposed in the recent budget that makes all indiscretions of our two major political parties legal. Google FCRA amendment in budget or something if interested. (I can't believe using Google as a verb is still in.)

So, we have one of the most opaque election funding system. Most parties are trying to increase their membership, so I as a member of any political party can give donations to both these parties below Rs. 20,000 a million times. (Damn I wish I hadn't quit CA as a career. Might have had that kinda money. NOT.)

That's like say, Rs. 2,000 crores minus a Rs. 1 crores. Where can I get that kind of money? Don't we have a black money problem?

We know the real estate sector has a black money problem. The government has set a limit of Rs. 30 lakhs for all transactions to be intimated to the income tax authorities. A really high amount I must say. But since we have had a property market boom in this country, good luck trying to find any property in major cities and nearby mini cities within Rs. 30 lakhs. If you do, then you are home free. As an aside, do you think people will fail to register their deals sometimes?

Now there are many sources of black money. There is even over invoicing in export transactions that legitimizes any money that is over paid and then routed through offshore accounts. The recent Panama Papers expose is a little close to that eventuality but I am not calling it that because all the information is not out yet.

Now let's go back to the retrospective amendment proposed in the recent budget and the limit of Rs. 20,000. Two major political parties were said to have received foreign funding and the Delhi High Court held that view as well. The parties have appealed in the Supreme Court and we will have to see what happens.

Now let's look at the amendment for a bit. It whitewashes every deed done from 2010 by these parties. The receipt of contribution from foreign sources is currently banned for political parties. This amendment would reverse that situation since it started happening. Now you're thinking what I am thinking, right?

If not, basically it's a clean slate when a legal process had concurred otherwise. In legal terms I guess the government is within its rights to change the law if it passes the scrutiny of parliament. Let's see what happens there.
I was always skeptical of the possibility of anything happening in the case, but this amendment might have changed my conviction. Hence, you are reading this.

The 20,000 limit means that if political parties had a huge membership expansion then, even if I had contributed less than Rs. 20,000, say Rs. 19,999. It's all off the books. No audit trail. Zilch. Only coupon sales. I could have gotten a million of those coupons, but as long as the denomination is below Rs. 20,000. I could print the same coupons and claimed that I contributed money to a political party. That means I could have my own laundering business. I wish I hadn't quit CA.

Now I leave you with a thought. Do you think we should have strict disclosures of the funding of political parties? Do we really need that? I saw this brilliant video of The Last Week Tonight where John Oliver did a satirical piece called Congressional Funding. Although it was funny, it made me realize something. We don't even know what happens below the Rs. 20,000 limit. We just can't find out who is giving what to whom in our political system.

That means we don't know anything. We can sit in our homes and watch TV and think we know how the political system works and find our place in it as it suits us. But we know nothing.

We can't even do a satire piece of that quality. There is litigation on right now to strike down that beautiful piece of law, which keeps the contributions below Rs. 20,000 off the books.

I am hoping for Satire. Let's see if we find out what's going on. I'll do some digging as well.

Check out The Last Week Tonight episode where John Oliver talks about Congressional Funding (American Federal Legislature. A little like their parliament.) here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylomy1Aw9Hk