A Meeting Of Two 10 Percents

There is something about Justice Markandeya Katju that’s keeping him in the news. Yesterday, the former SC judge and now PCI Chairman once again reiterated his belief that “90% Indians are fools”. I don’t agree with a lot of other things that Katju says but I do find some sense in it when he frequently suggests 90% of Indians are fools. I am also quite certain that he doesn’t mean ‘fools’ as in deprived of thinking skills but rather the unwillingness to think. For a start, it is people from this very 90% that vote for an alien to power for no rhyme or reason. It’s also quite possible that ‘Fair and Lovely’ thrives on much of this 90% population. We have been told that 70% of the nation is made of up youth. Unfortunately, most of the 70% is also made of Katju’s fools. One can’t blame the 40% or so people below the poverty line whose daily struggle would leave them with little or no time to think. But Katju doesn’t specifically state anywhere that this ‘90% fool population’ also includes much of our media. Some of our media people are not just foolish, a few of them border on outright anti-national. That is the only explanation for their going overboard over a private visit of a much-maligned President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan. Affectionately called ‘Mr.10%’, Zardari crossed over to lunch with our PM, Manmohan Singh, on his way to pray at Ajmer. Perfect! Why MMS is not called ‘Mr. 10%’ is a mystery to me.

From Times Of India

Take a look at this cartoon from Times of India. Observe carefully. There is something seriously missing. I will leave it to you to figure what is missing for now. Sometime in 1998 in the middle of all the sex scandals Bill Clinton bombed Sudan and Afghanistan. Turned out the target in Sudan was a pharma company. Never mind. Clinton was then accused of diverting attention from the scandal and the incident even seemed inspired by a movie; ‘Wag The Dog’. Zardari’s visit is somewhat similar. Look at Pakistan – plagued with troubles, a bounty on terrorist Hafiz Saeed recently announced by the US, a general election around the corner and the list could go on. It was the perfect time for Zardari to go on a religious trip to a shrine in Ajmer in India. To add to emotional content he tags along son Bilawal Bhutto. Aha! Like our own Priyanka Vadra, Bilawal doesn’t seem very willing to let go of the Bhutto tag. Perfect! On the other hand there’s MMS, drowned in a sea of scams. If Zardari wants to pray at Ajmer MMS makes sure he doesn’t pray on an empty stomach. So he invites him to lunch on the way. Nothing wrong, these are common courtesies to be extended to any state head. Nothing wrong, except another foolish episode by our media.

From the morning of April 8 till around 4pm in the afternoon when Zardari finally left Ajmer all the usual suspects were on TV. Fortunately, Rajdeep Sardesai and Arnab Goswami chose to stay away. However, we had Barkha Dutt on NDTV, Suhasini Haider on CNN-IBN and the rest with a non-stop commentary on a non-event. Was there anything to the luncheon meet? Except for small talk maybe nothing was expected and nothing happened. The usual invitation to the PM to visit Pak, and a similar invitation by Bilawal to Rahul Gandhi apart, the other loose change was predictable. Zardari talked about Kashmir and Siachen and MMS talked about terrorism. This is the ‘foolishness’ Katju is probably referring to. Fed on a daily dose of tamasha and cover up of real news,  people generally ‘drink the sand’ even when they know it doesn’t quench their thirst. And if nothing came out of the lunch, there was always soap in the form of Rahul-Bilawal.

Pic received from @Sheefal

So some of our media slaves started belting out stories of how Rahul and Bilawal are similar. How both are soft-spoken and thorough gentlemen, though I’m not quite sure Rahul wants to get rid of his newly acquired ‘angry-at-everything’ image. I don’t know much about Bilawal because he is yet to demonstrate his stupidity. However, if stories that abound somewhere, as here in the Daily Mail, he is truly equipped to match Rahul in every respect. Like drama-queens they even strike similar poses as the pic shows. Would be harsh to comment on Pakistan and Bilawal. But yes, it does take a nation of fools to put an established fool like Rahul Gandhi in any seat of power. But like Katju says, we have 90% fools here and which is the reason RG is even in the limelight. The much touted ‘intelligent’ youth of the nation is brought up by our media on a healthy diet of Pyjama Cricket, Bollywood crap and shows like BigBoss. I can assure you 90% of these youth, the future of India’s glory, can’t find Bangalore or Bhopal on a map. I would credit them with extra-ordinary intelligence if they even manage to name the state capitals of MP or Kerala unless they are residents of those states.

One of the other problems with the media and our politicians is this mirage of  a peaceful and friendly Pakistan. This not only gives them enough to spin tales, it keeps the money flowing. Sons often carry on the legacy of their parent or the promises the parents made. This Bilawal is the grand-son of a Bhutto who has promised a “thousand-year holy war against India”. This Bilawal is the son of a Bhutto who can be credited with fomenting and sowing the seeds of terrorism in Kashmir. There will never be peace with Pakistan. NEVER! Our option is to not seek a war or any conflict but this charade of peace is a tool with which politicians and media fool the fools from both nations. And we have 90% of them, as Katju frequently reminds us.

Change is inevitable. But we have had a long line of PMs who have had less of a political inclination and more of an emotional attachment to the nonsense called Pakistan peace. And the media, in its quest to earn a few more bucks, adds to this blatant untruth. MMS may long for his hometown in Lahore or Advani might long for Sindh. The emotional connection is fine. But unless and until India has a PM who has no baggage of historical connections and is willing to look at Pakistan for what it is today, there isn’t the slightest chance of any reconciliation or peace. Zardari is affectionately called ‘10%’ but MMS is a ‘10%’ too. MMS is 10% PM and 90% either a puppet or a doormat. Worse, MMS could be 10% and the rest of him could fall in Katju’s basket. The problem with the TOI cartoon I first referred to is that it shows only Zardari sitting on the lap of his army boss. The right one would have been to also show MMS sitting on the lap of Sonia Gandhi. That would be reality. In absence of any real powers vested in either Sardarji or Zardarji, this is just a meeting of two 10 Percents.