Inside the mind of a bandh agitator

Pic for representational purpose.

Raju Korti
As I retraced my steps to back home this morning stymied by the agitators seeking reservation for the Marathas, I exercised my mind on what goes into the minds of agent provocateurs during a bandh.
A bandh and the violence that follows are not a new phenomenon in this country. They are forced on people who do not subscribe to it, whatever the justification.
This blog is not about bandh per se, nor is it meant to sit in judgement on the politics of bandh. Enough has been written about bandhs and the way they paralyze public life. That is discounting the loss to life and property. I have done a bit of research on the agitator's psychology and these are the highest common factors that emerge out of it.
The bandhs usually get going after 9 in the morning. That is because agitators prefer to treat themselves to a sumptuous brunch before they set out for their purported objective. Sloganeering, throwing stones, looting, violence and arson require energy. The agitators cannot do that on an empty stomach.
The agitator satiates his hunger on two other fronts. One, violence being an effective way of ventilating grievance and two, the free run to vandalize and loot. Both are facilitated by the absence of law and order machinery because it is hopelessly outclassed by the sheer number of hooligans. The Police know that discretion is better than valor and prefer to be bystanders. The uniform is just no match and deterrent to mob fury.
Bigger the city, better the scope for the agitator's to showcase their histrionics. There are innovative ways of playing the "Victim Card". Tonsuring heads, standing in knee-deep waters, carrying earthen pots on heads, throwing away essential supplies like milk and vegetables, cornering officials in their cabins and abusing whoever comes in their path are some of these. I am inclined to believe the agitators hold brain-storming sessions on coming out with off beat ideas in disruption.
It is not just about coercing people to shut shops and close schools and colleges. Morning time is the best to stop people from commuting. So first target trains, buses, autos and cabs. The names are as potent as they can get: Rail Roko, Raasta Roko, Bus Roko and what have you. Once office-goers and students are prevented with all means of rampaging, half the battle is won. The other half can be used to proclaim that it was a peaceful bandh.
If you wonder why life limps back to normalcy by 4 pm, that's a no-brainer. The purpose of the bandh has been met with. Inadvertent blessings come from people allowed the pleasure of a holiday. They cannot be faulted if the situation was forced on them. Most important, the agitators are tired after a hard day's work. They need to go home, rest and exult over a job well done. No fear of being caught or punished. Better still if you are supported by a political party. So don't call it bandh. Say "Show of Strength" instead. For an agitator, it is a win-win situation.
What the bandh pirates conveniently ignore is if people owe allegiance to their point of view, they (the people) will consensually abide by that call. For the bandh protagonist, the argument that extra-constitutional and illegal methods are necessary in democracy for pressure groups and political parties to achieve political rights stand no ground.
Ask any agitator and he will give you this skewed and specious argument about bandh being a spontaneous expression of protest based on the fundamental freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. That's fine but what about the  freedom and fundamental rights of the people who don't sign up to it?

Pakistan polls, another copy-paste story

Raju Korti
Elections and referendums in Pakistan are a watershed for traditionally wrong reasons. As India's estranged progeny goes to another election tomorrow, there are rising apprehensions whether power will be transferred from one civilian government to another. I say that because this is a freak scenario for the country in its 70 years of turbulent existence. Between and behind successive governments, the Army has played the ventriloquist with its proven flourish.
For a country with more than 200 million people, Pakistan continues to grapple with its animation in a land constantly trapped in war compass. Having sacrificed every bearing of national progress in a frenzy to acquire nuclear weapons out of its India-phobia, Pakistan seems mired in perennial confusion about safety at home or security from perceived external threats. There have been enough indications in the past that the country's incompatibility towards itself is much less than its antipathy towards the US and India.
The pro-democracy euphoria that precedes every election in Pakistan evaporates with suppression of information, maneuverings by the military and rise in religious fundamentalism. That is bizarre when you consider that it is a nation without any pluralism. I have been making out a case that Pakistan will get crushed under the weight of its own problems. The war drums that the country keeps beating periodically is a silly but time-tested rhetoric to divert its own attention from issues at home towards those that they claim from their perceived enemies. The killing of more than 150 civilians in the run up to tomorrow's elections is ample testimony.
Eking out a desperate subsistence from the mess it has created for itself in all these years, its politics has routinely toggled between elected governments and army dictatorships. It is not my case to tell you that none of the prime ministers has ever completed his or her tenure, but this time round the Army has bent backwards to nudge out the earlier party -- Nawaz Shari's Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and to pack its patriarch to political oblivion. For cricketer-turned politician and thrice married Imran Khan, it is now or never. Although his latest ex-wife has been using every possible brush to paint her husband as a compulsive philanderer, Khan's political fortunes have been rising steadily since he petitioned the country's supreme court to disqualify Sharif on corruption charges.
Some of the methods that Khan has used to promote himself are not exactly honorable even if you concede that politics is a game of scoundrels. He has been polarizing people with a poisoned-tongue campaign. In an earlier blog, I had written how Khan balances between religious dogma and liberal economy to pander to contrasting audiences. The Oxford-educated cricketer has transitioned from a compulsive playboy past when he partied with the likes of Mick Jagger to now denouncing the Westoxified Pakistani liberals. It is fairly evident that he has so far successfully manipulated the military in his ambitious quest to ascend the prime ministerial throne.
In political terms, Khan has a number of incentives to seek out shortcuts. The black out of supportive media and the defections engineered from PML with the help of the Army are a case in point. Sharif, who has had a roller coaster in Pakistan stands the risk of being eliminated the same way as some of his predecessors. Political turf in Pakistan was never prepared for fair matches.
It is amazing how hope springs up from the most desperate and hopeless situations in Pakistan. In all the manipulative politics, there seems to be a reasonable sense of optimism that the elections would serve as some kind of referendum on the most crucial issues facing the country. That optimism turns into a joke when you finger-count those crucial issues. Pakistan's economy faces the tricky predicament of which way it should be inclined: Western or Chinese. Will the so called democracy under Khan, presuming he become the PM, be robust enough to include or discard extremists, and can the military and the courts be trusted to be impartial and objective? Both have their pitfalls and the answers can be only guessed in a country where instability and conflagration are the only stable factors. So if Pakistan has served as a strategic base for the American forces in Afghanistan, it has also been an obstacle to the same troops  in secretly offering aid and safe harbor to militant groups like Taliban and Al Qaeda.
It would be naive to think that Pakistan's complications are just about regional security. They are more about misgovernance, corruption and environmental stress. The reluctant US ally has done little in curbing Afghan Taliban and other sundry militant groups. It may have turned to China for aid and support but it must realize this will happen with the Chinese extracting their pound of flesh. Already, Pakistan has debts that they look in no position to repay. And that makes both dangerous customers for India and US. All parties contesting the election have grandiose manifestos promising voters the moon but political bottom line is the running feud between PML and the Army. Sharif's future seems fairly predictable at this stage but Khan would be deluding himself that the field is clear for him. His problems will start when he is voted to power.
That Pakistan has always lent itself to status quo is loud and clear from its history. Either its politicians don't understand or love to play suicidal games.

Of hugs and winks

Raju Korti

If hug changes the metabolism of a person, I do not know what happened to Rahul Gandhi's when he walked up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give him one during the no-confidence motion on Friday. But for someone who should make it to the record books for hugging as a symbol of  international diplomacy, I am sure it did something to Modi, having been at the receiving end himself. Rahul took the craft to the next level by following it with a wink at his party men.
While that looked like running with the hare and hunting with the hound, I have always believed that a hugs and winks are double-edged weapons. Having lived in a city where people, especially youngsters, hug each other at the drop of a hat; whatever the provocation, I am inclined to believe that hugs and winks have been shafted in society and people either tend to under-estimate or over-estimate them. And that makes them dicey gestures because the chemical reaction that results from both can be unpredictable.
In my 62 years of nothing-to-rave-about existence, I have realized that for many, hugging is a mere figure of speech. People who claim to love being hugged are often found to squirm when they get one. Winking is even more unpredictable. It can invite a genuine chuckle or a tight slap. Since discretion is better part of valor, I prefer the old-fashioned "Namaste" which is as safe as it can get. That sense of wisdom dawned on me when I was barely 14. I had hugged my aunt and she gave me such a scandalized look that thereafter I never summoned the courage to hug even those of my own gender. The safest thing to do is to allow yourself to be hugged than taking the liberty of doing it yourself.
I have never winked at anyone even in jest. In my college days, I had once blinked because a pebble had hit my eye and a pretty young thing around thought I was winking at her. Mercifully, it just ended with the lady giving me a dirty look and walking away. Once bitten always shy. Since then, my world of winking has remained restricted to sleeping. I often wonder if people winked in real life as much as they do in text messages this world would be really a creepy place. But I am prepared to make concession for a hug being better than a message.
Rahul proved that peace is only available to those who want it, and only possible to those who will hug their enemy to enjoy it. Little wonder then that Modi was stumped by Rahul's googly and could respond with an embarrassed smile and a pat on the latter's back. The lesson for Modi here is hug others before they hug you and wrest a diplomatic initiative. To be fair to Modi, he has done well for himself with all those bear hugs. The winks should come for free. The debate about the propriety of what Rahul did in the august house therefore should become redundant.
With due apologies to my lyricist friend Amit Khanna's song from Dev Anand's 1978 film:
"Hug to har dum, khushiyan ya gham".
There was Raj Kapoor who made "Jaagte Raho" in 1956. Some day in future I propose to make "Hug-te Raho". If you think the word has been used in dirty sense, you have a soiled mind.