I am not sure if my forefathers liked the Raj or not (my father surely didn’t), but it seems that bypassing my father the genes of ‘Raj love’ managed to sneak into my system. I like all things ‘Raj’, including its Thackeray version. This bespectacled, boyish man looks like a hardboiled, nicely-fried and thoroughly cooked politician who has taken upon himself to give the new generation a taste of ‘Divide and Rule’.
And he is doing it by administering a political injection of pride and identity to the people, who like him for the perceived sweetness of the medicine. So, if he stopped saying what he says, nobody would listen to the poor guy. He just wants to be heard, and is doing all that it takes to have willing ears. He is no Mahatma Gandhi who would come with a nearly-unique political ideology and instill a sense of purpose into the masses who, for the most part, behave like a herd of goats.
But then, why single out Raj? Who, among the politicians today, has a fraction of Gandhi’s strength and conviction? Who has the moral courage to take on the high, mighty and unreasonable solely with the intangible force of truth and virtue? Who would die for the ‘greater common good’, if there is such a thing?
Raj represents our loss of identity as one nation. Thus, to regain it, is the most effective remedy against such cheap. Let’s cease to be puppets and kill the puppeteer, once and for all. That’s what we did during the Raj; let’s do it to the likes of Raj, too.
PS: Don’t take the first sentence too seriously. I don’t like Raj at all, any of the varieties.
First published on my WordPress Blog on October 24, 2008.
