There is nothing in the life of George
HW Bush that would account for his rise to the office of US President. A
successful WWII pilot, a successful oil-businessman he had almost no political
victories to speak of. He didn’t win the nomination for the presidential
election of 1980 either. But GB had something; he had ‘horse sense’. He tagged on to Ronald Reagan for a long time and was
picked for the latter’s VP candidate. It is as Reagan’s follower and VP for 8
years that GB finally got elected as president. “Many
people assume that success in life involves "trying harder". Nothing
is further from the truth”. That’s the publisher’s line for the book
‘Horse Sense’ by marketing gurus Al Ries & Jack Trout.
 |
| From Hollymonroe.Com |
“At the traffic lights - where our cars came into enforced
confrontation with poverty - and we saw a small hand stretched out for alms, or
a disabled man trying to wave a red rose or a magazine at us, imploring us for
help - we would barely look up from behind our over-sized designer sunglasses.
We would, in fact, sink back into the plush leather of our seats and be extra
determined that the story of India would no longer be told in picture-postcards
of poverty”. Barkha Dutt: “Writes of passage” Hindustan Trolls
April 13.
So you see, most Indian middle-class people wear designer sun-glasses,
drive cars with plush leather seats. They ignore the beggars and the disabled
selling magazines or roses at traffic junctions. Mind you, the only place a “middle
class” lady like Barkha can now eat “Gol-Gappas” is at the PM’s party. Not on the streets like “upper-class”
Indians. Let’s hear another similar heart-breaking story.
"The moralistic virtuosity of Team Anna rankles many of us. We who have
made our compromises, we who speed our cars when we see beggars approaching, we
who roll up our car windows when vendors sell us agarbattis at traffic
crossing, we don’t see children who are rag pickers, night soil lifters and tea
vendors. We are morally, spiritually, physically depleted, exhausted and blind.
This revolution that Kejriwal talks about isn’t for the likes of you and me. We
have made our compromises". Smita Prakash: “Who has the stomach for a revolution?”
MidDay August 6.
Damn! What’s with these two ladies and cars and traffic signals? Compromises? Read that as: “we have
chosen our horses”. Don’t despair! I managed to find someone who doesn’t talk
about cars and traffic signals. Instead, she talks about “Tits, Clits and
Elephant dicks” and “The Vagina Monologues”. Who could it be but our very own Social Genius:
“No wonder this neo Macaulayputra now faces a quintessentially desi
revolution, a revolt is brewing, something is stirring in the air. Kejriwal
versus Vadra is as much a class war as it is a war against corruption, it is a war
between an elite class—containing within it undoubtedly many many examples of
excellence and achievement—and an aspirant class of dhartiputra for whom the
moral crusade is sharpened by class anger…. Hindutva rage against so called
“English speaking secularists” has been manufactured as not just rage against
those who are supposed to love minorities but against those who are perceived
to be members of a left liberal aristocracy who practice vote bank appeasement
in order to maintain their own political and social monopoly of public life". Sagarika Ghose: “Vadra vs Kejriwal: This is also a war about class” FirstPost October 10.
There you are, it’s not just class wars but also Hindutva rage against
‘English speaking secularists’. That’s from a woman who wanted ‘female orgasm’
to be a Constitutional right. We get the humour, of course. For her and the
elites, the Hindutva folks are the biggest enemies who are constantly in the “manufacture-rage”
mode. All three, Barkha, Smita and Sagarika seem to forget they are indeed the
‘Elites’. They are indeed the MacaulayPutris who seem to trigger the
middle-class outrage being channelled by AK. Why do their writings smack of so
much hidden guilt? Barkha has umbilical ties to Hindustan Times. Smita is the
daughter of a Principal Information Officer of GOI. Sagarika is the daughter
of a Doordarshan director and her relatives include judges and ambassadors. All
very “middle class” eh?
All 3 women seem to be obsessed with Kejriwal and class-wars.
Coincidence? Would these women have gotten to where they are any differently
from Vadra or Kejriwal? Not in terms of multi-crore deals or anti-corruption
fights but in terms of position and influence. And all three are stupidly,
terribly wrong about AK too. They’re either simply too dumb or unwilling to see
how AK got where he is and they confuse his war as one of class.
By reports AK first approached former president APJ Abdul Kalam for his IAC movement. A Prominent TV panellist told
me Kalam said “I’m all for this anti-corruption thing
but I love eating so don’t ask me to fast and blast and all that”. AK
then approached Narayana Murthy of
Infosys. NM’s response was: “Look Mr.K, we must evolve
our social structure supported by a massive overhaul of our systems which bring
in investment and expands our capabilities to compete in the world and take
progress to the grassroots without upsetting the balance in our industrial
position in the world which can badly impact the morale of both the govt and
the people as also our fight against corruption and our methods must be secular
without offending the rightwing, leftwing, centrists, media, politicians or
neo-nazis”. Got it? I’m sure AK must have returned from NM with his head
spinning. So he went to Anna Hazare.
AH was known for anti-corruption agitations and fasting. AH was willing. AH was
willing to fast and be the face of AK’s movement. Ride the right horse! Can you now imagine AK carrying out his IAC
on his own? He was more or less a “nobody”, not even 20 people would have
turned up for him. Picking Kalam, Murthy or Anna is what’s called Horse Sense. Vadra, the national son-in-law, is the
horse that DLF rides as do many other business entities.
Consciously or unconsciously Sagarika luckily picked a horse too. The
moment Rajdeep Sardesai got to head
a channel of his own she was Deputy Editor at the channel. You think anyone
else would have expected that? Out of the blue some guy called Ashutosh Varshney was a panellist
frequently on NDTV. Except for stray comments here and there I hadn’t heard of
this guy before. Well, what do you know! Before you could say ‘horse’ he had
turned Barkha into a ‘Sabbateur’.
Er.. That’s my description of someone on a sabbatical as Barkha now claims to
be at Brown University under some fellowship. Varshney is Director, Brown-India
Initiative. Wait a minute! It could be the reverse too. It could have been
Varshney horsing around. The two can decide which one it was. Of Smita, I don’t
see a new horse to identify and I hope it stays that way.
Most people in public life in India strongly rely on horse sense. It’s
not a bad thing and not a bad route to the top. Think Ahmed Patel, think Rajiv
Shukla and make your own list. Some, unfortunately, take it to the level of
slavery. The entire clan and cult of
Macaulay Putris and putras are essentially outcomes of such horse sense. Calling
themselves ‘middle class’ is another of way of somehow defending their elitist
guilt.
Note: Responses of APJ Abdul Kalam & Narayana Murthy to AK are imaginary and shouldn't be confused for real.
