Why India does not await her Barack Obama?

Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN has written a blog titled ‘Who will be India’s Obama?’ He has compared the Indian and American political scenario and ends his article by saying “For the moment, India awaits her Barack Obama.” This is my response to that blog article.

Why are we comparing apples and oranges? America is as different from India as Kerala is from UP. Just b’cos something is seemingly different and packaged beautifully, it doesn’t mean that it will be good for India. Obama is already speaking of Venezuela, Iran and others as the ‘enemy’ (not much different from Bush’s axis of evil). When he comes to power (note the certainty!) he cannot be much different from his predecessors b’cos what finally rules the White House is not the President’s charisma or education, but the dictates of the money bags and cartels who finally decide the American policies. You think nobody saw the US sub-prime problem coming? You think nobody sees the insurance-less Americans dying for healthcare? Yes, they do. But they are all powerless to make a change. As long as profit-mongering (as opposed to making) corporates rule the roost, there will be no change! One might install a black president, a woman president, a democrat as president, a republican as president or even a wooden doll as president, all they can be is mute witnesses to the policies formulated in their names.

Our leaders may not be that savvy or Harvard educated for that matter (tho’ many are educated abroad). They may be corrupt, feudal, dynastic, patriarchal and whatever. But that is just a reflection of our society and its priorities. If today, an entire national party clamours for Priyanka Gandhi’s entry into politics there must be a reason for it. If an entire national party and their supporters root for Narendra Modi’s leadership, there must be reasons for it. Those may not be “right” reasons according to us, but they do have the potential to make a change at the vote-office.

And by the way, how can urban, educated, middle class leaders lay claim to understanding, representing and responding to the needs across the Bharat-India divide. When most of India reaches that level of living, we will see leaders from that strata appearing. Until then, bye Obama, & best wishes to you!

Free speech with a neighbour

Last night a neighbour invited me over for dinner. He said that we could share some ideas, clarify our thoughts on some issues and also discuss the latest news. I gladly agreed, and went over to his place. As soon as I entered, he began screaming at me, called me all kinds of names and began hurling accusations. I could have easily walked out, but I chose to stay calm and discuss with him, because he was called a “professor” and an “expert on free speech”.

Well, this incident did not happen to me, but a strikingly similar incident happened to a fellow human, who also happened to be the elected President of a sovereign country – Iran. And the professor who invited him to an academic institution and insulted him was somebody who claimed that he was “only a professor, who is also a university president”. The professor – the one who claims publicly to be an expert (Latin), who did the honours, was the President of Columbia University in the US, Prof. Lee Bollinger.

The professor who is called an expert on free speech, probably understood free speech as inviting people over and freely calling them names. Prof. Bollinger in the guise of delivering introductory remarks, used statements like “astonishingly uneducated” and “petty and cruel dictator” to greet and describe President Mr. Ahmadinejad in the academic institution. What a great academic tradition!

Academic honesty would have meant that Mr. Bollinger would have invited President Mr. Ahmadinejad to speak at his university by being upfront about his feelings for him, and stating that clearly in his invitation letter. That letter should have read something like this – Dear astonishingly uneducated President, who exhibits all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator, we would like to invite you to speak at our university. Sincerely, The Free Speech Expert. Then the President would have had a chance to decide whether to accept an invitation from those who thought so highly of him.

I am not a great fan of Iranian policies, but I am with them completely on their opposition to this kind of astonishingly uneducated (to borrow a phrase from the free speech expert) behaviour. There is a strong opinion that Prof. Bollinger went overboard in his criticism of the Iranian President, to silence critics who were upset over the University’s decision to invite the Iranian President. If that is the case, I am amazed much more at the behaviour of the critics who do not like to see debate and dialogue, even in academic institutions.