What Is It Like To Read A Right-Wing Gobbledygook Propaganda Piece?

Screenshot of the post from a RW website

So a right-wing friend of mine who believes Congress is the worst thing that happened to India and Modi the best, sent me this piece (How the Congress Party has Surrendered to the Breaking India Forces) to read, so that I get aware of how Congress looted India. I usually do not indulge my time into these recommendations if they aren’t from known and reputed sources but this request was coming on repeat and from a school friend so I dived in. Here’s what the article had. Unbelievable gobbledygook.

• Our ancient political thinkers didn’t randomly make politics subservient to civilization and culture — it was the result of deep, sustained philosophical reflection on the nature of things and the nature of fundamental human impulses itself.

Who are these thinkers? What did they say? How did what they said made politics subservient to civilization and culture? No answers. We are just presented with wisdom like a good old religious text. This sort of generalization and sundry conclusions derived from who-knows-what continues throughout the piece so I will not mention such as above one repeatedly. Let’s move to other stuff.

• it can be argued that democracy as it has evolved over the centuries up to the present time has ensured that politics has indeed become all-pervasive to the extent that it continues to be one of the most dominant features in our lives without our own conscious knowledge.This is extremely unhealthy to put it mildly.

This is problematic conclusion and fairly wrong one too. Politics by principle isn’t bad. Certain politicians sure are and it is citizens job to choose better ones. Politics is the best arena there is to do public good. All other services bring changes in society by indirect and tenuous means while politics can affect and bring real change, swiftly and directly.

Politics is not just what professional politicians do. Politics surrounds our existence because it is about our socio-historical location, our engagement with power and the economy, and, our silences and voices. For instance, not to say anything against mob lynching or cow vigilantism while singing a bhajan song in a concert, or to celebrate sufi music while endorsing the Talibanisation of culture is not freedom from politics; it is a negative political act. Likewise, if it becomes exceedingly difficult for the daughter of a Dalit cab driver to get an entry into a Bharatanatyam academy, its political implications are obvious.

Everything you do is a political act. To vote is a political act, to not vote is too. Your place of birth decides if you can ignore politics at large. Some people do not have any option but to be political. To ignore politics amounts to ignoring their existence. A Dalit cannot say he/she doesn’t care about the caste, not because they do not wish to but because society doesn’t make them forget it. Being political also means taking interest in what our politicians, law and policymakers do and think, and that’s a good thing. Things they do, the kind of laws they enact, their actions at large affect us. If good laws make our lives peaceful, bad ones can ruin us. So knowing them, taking interest in politics is the best thing there is.

Next, the article moves to western democracy. Without ever mentioning how although we imported our Constitution and democratic ways from other nations of significance from that time, we did not copy any model available then down to its last word. We created a model of our own. A union of states where states had powers of its own but not in entirety and an all-powerful centre that has its own share of power but again in some matters it is required to consult the states. In such a setup we have so far survived where we have not only stood up as a nation as whole but state wise too parts of the union have been able to preserve their unique arts and languages unlike any part of the world where eventually the grand project of unification eats up diverse cultures and varies tongues.

India under Nehru implemented universal adult franchise, right to vote since its inception. All people, men and women of all classes and creeds above a certain age were given the right to vote in an independent India. Many don’t realize the significance and boldness of such an act. To make sense of that feat, think of a supposedly advanced country such as Switzerland, the right to vote was withheld from women until as late as 1971 there. There are other things unique to our model but I won’t go into them here now. While ranting on bad of western democracies, it presents how in US, a man like Trump got elected (I know what you are thinking. Didn’t RW love Trump?). Well, we also elected Modi who sat over riots and encounters. We have also elected bahubalis and worse. We have also elected women in large numbers, people from lower castes that were oppressed for long time. Point is, in a democratic setup people’s right to voice and choose is sacrosanct. They decide their representative. People voted Modi, people voted Congress and yes, it was people who voted Trump. If not for democracy we would not get a Trump nor a Modi. Not an Obama as well. Nor will there be a Vajpayee.

• In a democracy which is essentially a game of numbers, it is only a matter of time before the system morphs into a sickening and dangerous race to the bottom. Argument, disagreement, debate, and that new weasel word, “dissent” — all of these will last until the said race begins. What “debate” can you have with someone like Pinarayi Vijayan? And how can you “dissent” with someone like Mamta Banerjee?

I don’t even know where to begin and how on this. I’ll just remind the reader that the title of the post is “How the Congress Party has Surrendered to the Breaking India Forces” — Vijayan and Banerjee do not belong to Congress! Of course, Mamata isn’t an ideal democratic leader and she is known to muzzle dissent. Same like Mr Modi. In fact, in most of the ways, they are very much identical. Dissent and debate are the cornerstones of democracy, true. What else do you suggest? That we do not ask questions of our leaders? That we bow down and do as they command? Dissent is how Modi rose to power. Just pick up any of his speech before 2014 win. Whatever he is doing in those speeches is what dissent is. Countless people who pointed out Congress’ scams, those who questioned the then govt and the people who voted them out of power are all shining examples of dissent. If people had not dissented we would not have a Modi government.

Jean Drèze, a development economist who has toured most of the rural India when asked to define development said, “for me, development is about expanding people’s freedoms.” Strange as it may seem, Ramachandra Guha in his monumental work, India After Gandhi described democracy among other things as the enhancement of individual freedoms. And then he goes on to ask, are Indians, acting and thinking as individuals, freer than they were in 1947? Let’s move on, shall we?

• socialism, Marxism, communism, collectivism, Left, Far-Left, Extreme Left…these are merely external labels that really don’t mean anything concrete, positive or life-affirming. At best, a discussion of these terminologies is meaningless hair-splitting.

Really? And what’s the alternative?

• And the Vedantic genius lies precisely in piercing this external veil of surface intellectualism and placing one’s finger on the pulse of what animates and propels these “isms.” Unless we rediscover and recover this original Indian felicity, we’ll continue to be akin to a dog chasing its own tail. Never forget: Sanatana Dharma is the last man standing.

I wanted to stop here from this nonsense. But I also wanted to see where this goes. You see, I was recommended this over and over again. I really came to this thinking it’ll have some concrete criticism. It is not like Congress offered the best in the government. But I’m yet to get to any criticism that is factual and quantifiable. Maybe I’ll find next. Anyhow, what is this Vedantic genius? What is the original Indian felicity? Sanatan dharma is the last man standing? What does that even mean? So far I feel like a bunch of people sat in a room and they just clubbed Whatsapp University pearls and voilà! This article came into being. Anyway.

• You cannot have an enduring political system in India by sacrificing the civilization of Bharatavarsha…. the Indian state has been waging war against the Hindu nation.

Again, what is this civilization of Bharatavarsha? What’s a Hindu nation? We never had a Hindu nation. Pandit Nehru ensured that. He was insistent that we won’t have ‘Hindu Pakistan’. So I don’t see the meaning of this war against a nation that never existed. There is then a bit about communism and Nehru eulogizing Stalin. Many people forget that Nehru was widely read politician of the day and had views on vast arrays of subjects. Many books that he has written, letters that he wrote are all testimony to his brilliance of mind. So he did write on Stalin when he was not doing well and in bed. All state assemblies of then stopped their work when Stalin passed away. Did Nehru emulate Stalin? Clearly not. Nehru gave us robust independent institutions, popularized dissent, encouraged it even. Nehru praised among others Mr Vajpayee who was his colorful opponent. USSR had 7-year plans. So you can say our five-year plans were copied from them. But were they wrong? Please criticize them if you can. Rest, it’s gibberish and doesn’t add anything concrete.

• To put it bluntly, the last four years have witnessed the Nehruvian Indian National Congress party shed its clothes one by one and stand naked as the political face of Breaking India forces.

Okay. I thought the last five years were a reflection on Modi and his govt like the previous ten years were a reflection of UPA and Congress. But fine. Previous ten and subsequent five years, everything is a reflection of Congress party. Be in power or out of it. Poor fellows.

Then there is the flying statement about imagining Rahul as PM and apparently, some readers get all ticklish and laugh out rolling on floor upon such imagination. I did not but again it says people do. Why or how is left for us to imagine! So dear reader, imagine!

• … senior Congress leader and lapsed mentor of Rahul Gandhi, Digvijaya Singh’s alleged links with the breaking India group, Elgar Parishad. Digvijaya Singh also happens to be the former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. Let that sink in.

Hmm. What is going to sink in? And what is this Elgar Parishad, ‘the breaking India group’? The article doesn’t answer it. Maybe that's the purpose of it. They mention it as if to give an impression to the reader that Elgar Parishad is some fundamentalist body waging war against India. But for the benefit of the reader here, it is a program organized by Dalit activists and intellectuals at Shaniwar Wada in Pune. On December 31, 2017, and January 1, 2018, thousands of Dalit gathered in Bhima-Koregaon to honour the Mahar community — a Dalit community Ambedkar belonged to — who fought alongside British Army to defeat Peshwas. The venue of the event is considered significant also because it was a central power for the Peshwas who headed the military front of the Maratha empire. Likely, Bhima-Koregaon holds importance to the Dalits as this is where, according to historians, the battle of Bhima-Koregaon was fought on January 1, 1818. The Convenors of the Elgar Parishad are two reputed judges in Pune, retired Justices BG Kolse-Patil and PB Sawant. They also say they are its main organizers and sole funders. “We had organised a similar event in October 2015, at the same venue of Shaniwar Wada in Pune,” say Kolse-Patil. The programme was called RSS-mukt Bharat, or RSS-free India then. “‘Elgaar’ means loud invitation or loud declaration, and our main theme was to save the Constitution and the nation,” said Sawant, who could not eventually attend the meeting because of ill-health. “The right-wing forces do not accept our present Constitution. They believe neither in democracy, nor socialism nor secularism,” they remark.

So what is the point here? How are they breaking gang or whatever the article calls them? Do dalits or any group in India for that matter has no right to gather or protest? My dear author of the post, you might not like it but we are still a democracy and dissent is the cornerstone of this setup. Remember the anti-emergency protests? Do you know late George Fernandes who was a minister in the Vajpayee government, darling of right-wing? He planned to bomb Vidhan Sabha during the emergency! This nation and its citizens have even tolerated that. They voted him to power. And people loved the man. So protests and slogans against RSS or govt are all okay. In fact, it’s an indication of a still breathing democracy.

• today, there’s not a single person of any consequence in the Congress who knows Indian history, our native culture, epics, traditions, heroes, and even the names of our Deities.

I would not pain myself and the reader explaining how illogical this line is. It then moves on to mention how Rahul is a failure. No surprise there. We all know it. But again, he also recently won some important state elections. Oops. Wait, that’s not the point. How cleverly these people divert you from the real point. I had to constantly remind myself of the article’s heading.

How the Congress Party has Surrendered to the Breaking India Forces

So Rahul being a failure isn’t relevant. If anything it only points to the robustness of our democracy and how citizens have been exercising their rights and thereby not voting them in; in last years voters have made sure Congress party no more takes them for granted and that's a good thing. After all this I found a bit of factual stuff. Incorrigible though.

• (something something and) The daggers have been the deadly socialist nuclear bombs like RTE, Food Security Bill, MNREGA, and similar communist experiments of social engineering that became law.

RTE is Rigth to Education. It helps poor children claim their right to education. Food Security Bill is India’s necessity considering the amount of poor we have. We are a nation where even today people die of Starvation. There are Starvation deaths even in Modi’s tenure. He never spoke about them — that’s a different subject. MNREGA, I would just say this that Modi called it “living monument of UPA failure” yet his Finance Minister Arun Jaitley gave it one of his biggest allocations. So either Modi is right and his govt is wasting public money on a failure or he is wrong and his govt is spending right. Choose one. If one is interested more on this, please read starting chapters of Sense and Solidarity by Jean Drèze. Drèze is a development economist and brain behind some of these schemes himself.

Just realized this is a long piece. My head is spinning already.

There is then a bit about Nehru and his socialism. Rather going into why Nehru did what he did, let me do what RW revels in doing. Whataboutery. Factor in the scale of poverty of that time, factor in population, factor in the scarcity of food and suggest what else Nehru should have done. Otherwise, I feel, to indulge in a scholarly discussion with this gobbledygook (considering also how there are numerous good pieces explaining Nehru’s actions) is a waste of further time and energy.

Next we are on Indira Gandhi. Side note: These aren’t long discussions on topics but just small flyaway tidbits.

• Indira Gandhi continued to retain her iron-like grip both on the Government and the party… who inaugurated the now-commonplace, disgusting culture of public servility.

She did. She did worse than this. But just a cursory look at current govt (and BJP at large) would remind us of her memory. So what are we being suggested here? Is this piece a ploy to defend Mr Modi? Today, even slight criticism of govt policy is turned into speech against the nation. We’re in the time and age of “Indira is India”. Just that she is no more. Indira Gandhi destroyed the Congress of independence movement. She destroyed the Congress of her father. We know it. But how did Congress party surrender to…? There is long bit about her and emergency which we all know and condemn. Nothing new there. What’s new to me was how can you know about the emergency, condemn it but can’t see its signs now. We have newspapers getting punished for writing against govt, news organizations hit with expensive law suits, news reports held from being published, people jailed for their views, people stopped on stage from speaking, etc etc..

• Indira Gandhi could be ruthless and she had the numbers, guts, and her practiced brazenness to do so. The same skill was displayed by the late Christian Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Y S Rajashekhara Reddy. Both met gory ends.

The language? Are we justifying their deaths here? And Christian? Also, this was Frankenstein (important that I throw that word here for what is coming next)

• But what temporarily halted the march of this deadly Frankenstein was the extraordinary Hindu resurgence that began in the late 1980s and dominated most of the next decade. It was a true game changer but — and one says this with regret — as always, the Hindu leadership (for what it’s worth) was content with Idli and Poha instead of the full meal.

This Poha and Idli took many lives. It took down a 500 year old mosque which resulted in a cycle of violence that took thousands of lives. The ripples of that day are felt even today. Every Hindu-Muslim riot that took place after that day finds mention of that event. I don’t know what full meal means here. I fear for it and do not even wish to imagine what it might mean. This goes on and on, and then there is cribbing about people voting out govt of Hindus in 2004. Is this why they hate Nehruvian democracy?

• One of the first things they did was to repeal the highly-effective anti-terrorism law, POTA. What followed almost immediately was a spate of Pakistan-sponsored terror attacks against India with seeming impunity and frequency. Followed by the mother of all: 26/11. The response? Sacking a highly-dispensable Home Minister named Shivraj Patil. Which other country allows this sort of thing to occur?

This is plain conspiracy-talking. If not, please explain to me what did Modi do to have 49 soldiers killed in Pulwama? Also, you think Patil wasn’t to be sacked? Yes, most of the times sacking someone doesn’t serve the purpose but if someone fails terribly and repeatedly, they need to be sacked. Hello Rajnath Singh, how are you doing?

Finally, there is a bit about how Modi is not able to function because of, wait, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul. Yes. Actually, there is a postscript too. (Although I doubt the author understands why PS’s are!)

• And unless the BJP — or at any rate, folks who care about India as a civilization — recognizes this lethal, breaking-India force that the Congress has become, there won’t be a “next time” after 2019.

To be fair, I do not yet understand ‘this lethal breaking-India force’.

• Think about it. They have now directly recruited the chief of the Congress party by actually employing their resources to work towards his victory; and if not a victory, at least dashing Narendra Modi’s chances of reelection.

I sense fear. That’s another aspect of democracy. People in power should have fear of getting voted out. And that’s the end of it. I want to pray now. Pray to our founding fathers. Oh Nehru, oh Ambedkar, oh Sardar, oh Gandhi, oh Pant, oh Azad, oh many who gave us this setup, I have no words to describe your contribution. Thanks for this nation. We, the right-minded citizens, promise to guard this republic, guard against tyrants, promise to hold the powers that be accountable and keep raising uncomfortable questions; even after being called anti-national and breaking India forces.

If it is such a trash piece, why do they go viral? Confirmation bias. These are people who have chosen their side and now with pieces like this they try to convince themselves of their bias, they try to legitimise their hate of a party. That is not to say there is no fault with past governments, there is and there are countless genuine critical pieces laced with facts and sensible arguments. This wasn't one of them.