Sitting far away from the State I was born, Kerala, I feel
nausea watching the Malayalam Television Channels and glancing through the
vernacular newspapers on line. The land of what is officially mooted as “Gods own
country”, is, as Vivekananda said more than a century ago is indeed a mad
house. A mad house, a mental asylum and incorrigible inmates! The genetic spawning
and evolution over the past one hundred years since Vivekananda glossed has not
affected any discernible change in the Malayalee mindset- “irredeemable”!
The only far reaching thought that entrenched in Kerala and that
aided immeasurably in transformation of social and economic livelihood of the
dwellers of the State was the philosophy of Communism and socialist ideology.
These revolutionary ideals did trigger social emancipation in the mid and later
part of the twentieth century. But now the same philosophies and their excess
are a challenge and a liability. The communist ideology is now defunct and
irrelevant socially, economically and environmentally, but spoils the Mallu
mind as much as the far right views. The
Malyalee acts aggressively and negatively to any situation and he has no sense
of priorities that assists in betterment and quality of life.
No election in Kerala , though a cent percent literate (sic)
State has had social , economic and environmental
issues as vital subjects in the agenda and upon which a political party or a
candidate was judged or chosen into the legislature. The pathetic state of
affairs in a State that boasts of all-round health care and forward thinking
populace is blatantly obvious if one cares to gently remove the exotic muslin
veil of the cliché ,”Gods own Country”.
Mallus love sleaze, vitiated pleasure as much as they
love alcohol. A State minister and a talented one at that as well as an
achiever in the portfolios he handled so far, is proclaimed first by a debased
political henchman of having been at the receiving end of physical assault by
the husband of his alleged paramour. The eternally misdirected press and the
predatory visual media laps it up in glee and sautéed with further innovations
and ingenious masala takes it to the salivating masses. After much hullabaloo
and opportunist acrimony orchestrated by the infertile and impotent opposition,
the story takes a twist with a new plot and it turns out that the minister was
indeed assaulted but by his own wife, an accredited doctor of medicine and not by
any stranger. The minister is accused by his wife of incessant physical and
mental torture (she nevertheless bore him two boys during their seventeen years
of marital cohabitation). The bottom line is that the whole episode that was scripted
and dramatised, had the tacit approval of the minister’s maverick father who
wanted his son out of the government so that the foot soldiers that stood by
him all many years can access trappings of power that was denied to them by the
young minister, his son.
The bottom line is the print press and the visual media in
the State are gaga over the la affaire and anchors are vying to show off
their skills at insinuation and innuendo. The State Assembly had to be dispersed
for as many days now as the opposition created melee demanding the resignation
of the minister and the Chief Minister who they accuse of tacit complicity in
the minister’s conduct.
The pressing problems of the State – the utter chaotic state
of sanitation and garbage disposal, the abysmal state of motor ways, perennial transport
bottle necks, the apathetic government health care and dispensation, the lost
case of water resources and potable water, the rising cost of living, the
degradation & rape of environment, the lawlessness, free for all acts of
muscle men with political clout, corruption, so on and so forth, are as always
in the back burner, usurped now by the marital discord in the life of a State
minister.
It was buffoonery and pathetic to see on televisions Sate
opposition leaders boycotting Assembly proceedings and congregating on at the
Assembly gates braying for the resignation of the minister and the Chief
Minister over the issue. They hardly ever thought of demanding that the total breakdown
of garbage disposal in the State be attended to, or ask why the tiny State with
three International Airports will want another one in Aranmulla on
pristine farm lands, while motorable roads are in dire straits of disrepair. Or
the precarious perch of a ubiquitous white elephant draining tax money- the
KSRTC .
The state of affairs in Kerala may not be an exception, but
a random sample of the country at large.
Long, long ago Winston Churchill the arrogant English man
remarked why he saw Indians unfit for Independence. “Power will go to the hands
of rascals, rogues and freebooters; all Indian leaders will be low caliber and
men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight
amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles. A
day would come when even air & water would be taxed in India”
The man may have harboured racist mindset, but jingoism
apart we must admit he prophesied and did that fairly well. Perhaps Indians are
vying to prove him right and Kerala is leading the charge of the light brigade.
The visionary English
commoner!