If I were to describe Narendra Modi and his fan following,
perhaps I should say Lord and his men because that’s what Narendra means
(nar-man, Indra- God or lord), I put it this way—Debauch aspiring Ascetic to
lead them, fantasizing excess in near future, fascinated by Asceticism but
aspiring Debauchery. In short: Asceticism as a means to Debauchery. Here lies
the paradox—a practitioner of self-denial, asceticism, Mr. Modi is working day
and night so that our aspiring young ones, whom he praises so much that they
may also reciprocate naively, can fulfill their dream of excess. His fans are
everywhere, on social networking sites, newspapers, among Bollywood actors and
corporates apart from usual fundamental ideological base that he is part of and
represents. There are chants of growth wherever you go. The saint must work
ceaselessly for our surplus, so that we can “dream big”. And this is it!
Nationalism, superpower, growth and this is it. Well, I never feel associated
with such injected terms: Terms which I think come into common discourse
through state or aspiring state. Vocabulary must be taught to us before we can
even think of analyzing. You see, with these terms, whether or not they are
true on ground level, an atmosphere for discussion prevails. In this arena all
arguments must be either for or against the proposed vocabulary and its
sophisticated structure. For example, every discussion, and subsequently an
argument concerning growth of Gujarat, demands it to be either in support or
against. This vocabulary of growth and superpower infused into the mainstream
ensures that opinion, if any exists, must either be praising the proposed idea
or denying it. So a BJP fan must always support the “growth” and a Congress fan
must deny it. What is lost then? The loss is we do not know what it means to
grow. What it means to be a superpower! It is out of question—the need to
debate what is actually growth. Cancer also grows! Now we must imitate some
blur image assigned to these terms and that too, obsessively. The time for
theory has ended. We must immediately stop debating and act as if we have taken
all our time to define, everything is concrete and clear; the point remains of
implementing it. This is most dangerous belief. Recently I watched a
movie—“Django Unchained”. There is a scene in the movie where Leonardo
DiCaprio( Calvin Candy) mocks one of his black slaves for not knowing the
meaning of “reimburse”. Actually, Candy paid five hundred dollars for that
slave and expected him to fight at least five “mandingo” fights failing which
the slave must reimburse the master. I liked that scene not because I found it
amusing but because it contains much deeper meaning. The idea being—the slave
must know the meaning of reimburse and subsequently that he is morally expected
to reimburse no matter how much violent and degrading act, that is slavery,
brought him in a position to reimburse. The master must teach the vocabulary.
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within, a Brazilian film directed,
produced by Jose Padilha, starring Wagner Moura, is a semi-fictional account of
BOPE. I am not concerned with the overall story or theme. I am interested
mainly in the character of Sandro Rocha who is a lead corrupt boss of Rio
militia. Since he is powerful and corrupt, he is seen as someone getting his
share from drug dealer—a sort of tax you can say. He and his gang later kill
the dealers, the middle-men, and start operating directly. He now acquires a
bigger role providing internet, cable TV, banks, cafes, restaurants, every
business and acts as a protector to the slums. How will a guy living in that
slum treat Rocha? I think we deal here with a central and important problem.
Although Rocha does not form an official state here, through him we can see how
state actually operates. A guy living in that slum sees his relationship with
Rocha and his gang as of mutual benefit, protector. He sees the relationship as
that of specific roles defined in society. You know what I mean to say.
‘Rocha looks after our basic necessities. He takes care of
our wants. Rocha provides security. We must pay our taxes and all that.’
Rocha and his gang is state here. If we somehow disappear from our own times and
place ourselves when our civilization is just beginning to take shape, Rocha
represents the dynamics of state. Let us give our Rocha some bigger hurdles to
tackle, say employment generation. Rocha owns all lands and resources by
default and he generates employment. Now give Rocha a little bit of global
touch of growth. He now is a Messiah who intends to achieve a fantasy of
surplus for everyone—‘there shall be no poor, we will be a superpower.’ It does
not matter why there is a poor. What matters is we must act hastily. Poverty
should vanish from earth as soon as possible. Again the mantra: theory is
wasting time, acting is everything. As the time passes by,—sufficient generations
after Rocha—we have a totally new set of ideological points governing Rocha’s
posterity.
‘All problems are there because we do not follow the
fundamentals set by state. Or each problem exists because State doesn't have
sufficient funds. We should tax the rich and all that.’ State’s emphasis is to
present and formulate every bit of problem as a function of funds, which will
be solvable if we have enough funds—obviously that day of sufficiency never arrives.
Nevertheless, subjects of the State have become habitual of encountering the
problem as properly defined; the point is of for or against as I previously
pointed. Rocha is not the only one. You can see a reflection of state wherever
a sub-state or to be politically correct, a sub-governance begins to germinate.
Some street side vendor or one with a barrow often pays a part of his money as
extortion for selling in a particular area. In India, where the official State
is not vigilant enough, this is often the case. Now that is not the official
state tax but they pay it. Why? Because of sheer threat of violence or violence
itself! This is governance or state in its crude form which after sufficient
time acquires the status of what we call—social contract.
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