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Saturday 22 October 2016

KHUSHWANT SINGH LITERARY FESTIVAL- A FEW TAKEAWAYS.

    The fifth KSLT was held in Kasauli from the 14th Oct. to 16th Oct. this year. Here are a few impressions that I left with.
    The audience/ attendees were the usual high brows at such gatherings, but the star performer was a simple, unassuming, Hindi speaking young man who goes by the name of Kanhaiya Kumar. Yes, the former President of the JNU Students' Union and currently being tried for " sedition " by a government and a system which have made a mockery of the law. Kanhaiya spoke on the 15th. on his idea of " Nationalism" with an eloquence which commanded a pin drop silence. His message was powerful but simple: in a country as diverse as India nationalism cannot be described in unitary or even binary terms; to define it in terms of one particular religion ( as is being currently sought to be done) is to misrepresent and demean it; it is equally obnoxious to define it in terms of support for the army- we respect and love our defense forces, but we have the right to question them without being called anti- nationalists; Indian nationalism cannot but be multi cultural, multi-religious and widely inclusive ; the current narrative on nationalism as framed by the ruling BJP exposes the face of fascism, not democracy, and has to be resisted by all right thinking people.
   [ Incidentally, I am in complete agreement with his views, especially where he spoke about an ersatz nationalism based on unquestioning support for the army. Any blind support is suspect. The pity is that senior officers of the army, unused to the wiles of the Indian politician, are being taken in by the BJP in its effort to coopt the defense services into its own narrative and give it a patina of respectability. The BJP is converting its religion based nationalism into a " religio-military " nationalism, which is even more dangerous for a democracy. In this it is being unwittingly assisted by a whole horde of retired Generals who have descended onto TV studios to proclaim that the army cannot be questioned. Why not ? A report in the Hindustan Times on the 18th. of this month shockingly reveals that it too can have feet of clay: a senior general, Lt. General B.K. Chopra, the Head of the Army Medical Corps. ( now retired) has exposed how the system of disability pensions is being widely misused by senior defense officers to fraudulently obtain hefty tax free disability pensions after retirement. Just yesterday Prashant Bhushan broke the story of defense officers being compromised in honey-traps in defense deals.These revelations prove why holy cows have no place in an open society. By stridently claiming a deified status these generals are just playing into the BJP's hands.]
    The logic and the passion in Kanhaiya's words were self-evident, but what was astonishing was the response of the audience. Remember, this was not the usual Kanhaiya crowd of leftists, activists, students and similar species for whom the government and TIMES NOW savants have nothing but contempt. The audience consisted of retired ( senior) military and civil service officers and their families, authors, journalists, academics and sundry socialites. Notwithstanding this, I was amazed at the response Kanhaiya manged to elicit from them- they were mesmerised, hanging onto his every word, every now and then breaking out into loud applause and clapping- he received more ovations at Kasauli than Mr. Modi did at the US Congress ! This is something the BJP should take note of: Kanhaiya's views are resonating with a much larger section of the country than the party thinks, and if even the privileged elite empathise with him then the BJP has cause to be worried. We have not heard the last of this idealistic and fiery nationalist, and I can't but help reflect on the irony of it: Kanhaiya is the creation of Mr. Modi himself- had the govt. not lost its head and sense of proportion over the JNU incident, Kanhaiya would probably still be sharing his ideas with a dozen students or so over aloo ka parathas in JNU's Ganga  dhaba instead of spreading his message throughout the country. Mr. Modi has unwittingly baptised him in the fire of police high-handedness and converted the raw ore into steel and made him a national rallying point- he may yet live to regret his mistake.
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   Given Mr. Khushwant Singh's love of the mountains and that the Festival was being held in Kasauli, his second home, one would have liked, and expected, that the organisers had spared some more time for discussions on environmental issues impacting Himachal. Only one session was scheduled on this topic, and that too was curtailed. Its a pity, because the Himachal that Khushwant Singh loved so much is plagued by devastation of  nature on a colossal scale by hydel projects, cement mining, unplanned urbanisation, unnecessary road construction and unregulated tourism run amock. The state's policy makers are now almost exclusively focused on politics and on feathering their nests in anticipation of an adverse result in the next elections, the senior bureaucracy, never known for any sensitivity to the environment, is too engrossed in managing promotions and postings, and the few NGOs who occasionally protest are ignored. Meanwhile climate change, impending earthquakes, rapidly expanding glacial lakes and disappearing rivers are becoming more real every day. I wish some of these issues had been discussed- surely they are as vital and relevant as the 1961 war, the state of the economy and the history of Rashtrapati Bhavan, all of which found more time ? Maybe next time.
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Kasauli is a disaster waiting to happen. I visited this once quaint town after many years and was appalled at its condition. I met many old residents of Kasauli who complained bitterly about the ruination of a once sylvan settlement. The main road from Dharampur looks like a bombed out stretch from Syria, Garkhal has become a choke point and desperately needs a by-pass, huge buildings ( with little or no parking), mainly hotels, are coming up all over the place, no thought has been paid either to the traffic issues or the carrying capacity before allowing these monstrosities, heritage buildings are being demolished ruthlessly ( I was informed by one lady that the old Rest-House, a British era structure, has just been demolished to make way for a multi-storey, cement and concrete hotel !) The less said about the four laning of the Parwanoo- Solan highway, the better. Its a highway to Hell, and I've already written about it earlier in these columns, so I won't repeat myself.   [ PARWANOO-SHIMLA FOUR LANING-- HIGHWAY TO DISASTER. 10th March 2015.] . Are we condemned to be ruled by philistines for ever ? 

2 comments:

  1. Being from W.B , I too have some pangs of so called intellectualism which got mixed with 23 yrs of defence indoctrination. From forced discipline, I graduated to self discipline , a hallmark of defence service only.
    I enjoy every open thought process including that of Mr Kanhaiya Kumar and believe even god is not above criticism. In an apple to apple comparison, if there were 100 wrongs in fauj, which I witnessed and undergone too but then seen 1000 insults , abject filth and corruption in outside world with no remedy.
    However your one comment of an army General from medical core (non fighting / support) pissed with non implementation of NPA and retirement age, seems either motivated or with serious lack of defence service understanding. Looks like bureaucracy is quick to give credence to a General ready to speak venom but other 1000 truth spoken fall on deaf years. So convenient.
    Just read the piece by Maj Navdeep at http://www.indianmilitary.info/2016/10/disabled-generals-and-truth.html , which will demolish your perception of truth.

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  2. Read with interest this write-up. However, would like to disagree with the putative belief that most people are buying the kind of nationalism being sold by a particular section of the society. Let devil be given his due – at least it made the nationalism being talked about and not taken for granted. And nationalism or to be precise patriotism is not the responsibility of defense forces alone. Isn’t it surprising that in a nation of over one billion souls it requires a Kanahiya Kumar to tell us what nationalism and patriotism is all about! Somewhere our education seems to be failing us.
    Environmental issues do deserve greater attention and discussions to find solutions that are practical and sustainable. May be the forum is not expected to deliberate on such matters and so it did not.
    I agree with you that Kasauli is a disaster in waiting. This despite the town being largely managed by Cantonment Board; the surrounding areas are under civil administration – a reason that it retained its original tranquility for so long in the face of various pressures. It may be too late to expand the jurisdiction of the Cantonment Board to include more of the surrounding areas. The suggested bypass of Garhkhal will again take its toll on trees and environment – then that is the price we pay for adopting a model of development which is barely sustainable.
    Keep writing. It tickles the fast dying brain cells.

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