Slavery By Any Other Name

Sometime last year I wrote the post “Independence not the same as freedom”. While we are an independent nation some have still willingly chosen slavery over freedom. In the US, where slavery was legal for long, some believed slavery is neither sinful nor immoral, was natural and inevitable. Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery in the 19th century. In India there are still many who find slavery a natural and inevitable state of mankind. People are still called Nawabs or Rajas, Begums or Ranis, by a slavish media. The ones who set the worst examples are actually from public life. Here is an extract of the speech from the video I carried in that post last year by former US president John Adams:

This is a recent issue (of the Executive Review, from President’s office), and there's an article in here written by a "keen mind of the South," … who asserts that:

"There has never existed a civilized society in which one segment did not thrive upon the labor of another. As far back as one chooses to look -- to ancient times, to biblical times -- history bears this out. In Eden, where only two were created, even there one was pronounced subordinate to the other. Slavery has always been with us and is neither sinful nor immoral. Rather, as war and antagonism are the natural states of man, so, too, slavery, as natural as it is inevitable."

Now, gentlemen, I must say I differ with the keen minds of the South, and with our president, who apparently shares their views, offering that the natural state of mankind is instead -- and I know this is a controversial idea -- is freedom. Is freedom! And the proof is the length to which a man, woman, or child will go to regain it, once taken. He will break loose his chains, He will decimate his enemies. He will try and try and try against all odds, against all prejudices, to get home.

It doesn’t take a wizard anymore to understand that ‘freedom’ is the natural state of mankind. So what makes some behave in an absolute slavish manner? “Blood” worker Salman Khurshid says Rahul Gandhi’s cameos aren’t enough and they need ideological direction from him. From Rahul Gandhi? Haha! “10 out of 7” times RG is not even in India as his Congress foot soldiers point out anonymously. Permanent sycophant Digvijaya Singh demands RG be given “decisive” responsibility, even PMship. In September 2012, Khurshid again asked people to expect an “exciting greater” role for RG. Then as recently as October 20, Rediff reported a makeover for RG: “Congress leaders are toying with several ideas to lift the morale of the party and the government. They are finding ways to make glamorous RG's much-talked about promotion”. A makeover? From what? To what? You can change his appearance a bit, here and there, but I doubt you can change the way RG thinks (if at all) and all his public utterances so far have been worse than a 3rd grader. No wonder Congressmen are disillusioned with him as various reports suggest. But still, to some of these people RahulG is the great white hope for India.

Even after royal titles and privy purses have been abolished our media can’t stop being slaves to so-called royalty. Be it a Saif-Kareena wedding or to the Dynasty itself. Home Minister Sushil Shinde is willing to “shoot to kill” if ordered by Sonia Gandhi. Salman Khurshid is “willing to die” for her. In the previous post I mentioned a Mungeri who equates SoniaG to Mother Teresa. What is wrong with all these people? I can understand Khurshid though. You see, he is steeped in history of Mughal durbars. He writes novels and plays on the Mughal kings and nawabs. Even so, one can forgive wanting to be a durbari but willing to die? Naturally, Arvind Kejriwal lampoons him and asks if Khurshid is India’s Law minister or Sonia’s Law minister. If they make a Die-Hard 5, there are many options in India to replace Bruce Willis.

Nothing, nothing though beats B. Raman. The man is supposedly a former intelligence bureaucrat from RAW. No, not all of them are the James Bond types, so don’t picture that image please. He has lately discovered that Priyanka Vadra (aka Gandhi) is probably the one saviour that India desperately needs. The pic is a stunning tweet from him (August 30). I can understand the NaMo and darkness part. For long, the Congress, the media, some NGOs and lately Raman, have painted Narendra Modi as ‘Rahu’ who gobbles up the sun during an eclipse. That part was easy. You know, NaMo is dark, from an OBC community, not of royal lineage, was a tea-vendor at one point and it’s disgusting that he can even be a successful CM. To the likes of Raman, no court, no SIT is authorised to declare NaMo innocent of any crime. Trust me, that part I get. But it does baffle me why a reasonably educated man would call PriyankaV brightness at night. I truly hope for Raman’s sake it has nothing to do with her fair skin that would radiate brightness even in power-less dark nights in the constituency she usually campaigns in. Reminder: “Slavery has always been with us and is neither sinful nor immoral..”.

Let’s assume Raman was just being poetic with his “brightness at night” tweet. But it’s not just a tweet, there are whole articles. He recalls the innocent childhood of Priyanka and Rahul on his blog. Ahem! In the book 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Harper Lee does say at the opening even "Lawyers were children once". Everyone was. I guess even Raman was. And this is not the first time he is raging. In an earlier post ‘Raman Rage’ I mentioned how he went berserk in his defence of Sonia Gandhi, Barkha Dutt and Sagarika Ghose. He went to the extent of calling those ridiculing them Jihadis, Extremists and Neo-Nazis. He is also on record calling NaMo supporters ‘Nazi storm-troopers’. Now where does such hatred come from?  He is known to be a great fan-boy of Barkha, which is fine and understandable. He lately dislikes NaMo or his work or policies. Fine too. Does that make others Nazis? The number of times he has called others Nazis is phenomenal. And then he feels offended if he’s called senile? That is quite a light insult compared to his frequent outrage and calling others Nazis. Never mind!

Let’s ask why Raman sees PriyankaV as a possible saviour of the nation. An opinion? Fine! But even if he is peddling a mere personal opinion that surely needs to be backed by some logic. There is nothing that PV has done or demonstrated that makes her the saviour when compared to many other individuals. There may be any number of such individuals within the Congress itself. But why Priyanka? Only one thing explains it; Slavery! Mindless, senseless slavery to a dynasty. He calls himself a ‘strategy analyst’! Surely, one has to be Ravi Shastri to see any strategic analysis behind Priyanka as saviour. That wasn’t the first time though. In June 2012 he came up with some astonishing absurdities. He recommended MMS be made President and Priyanka be made PM (see his letter to Sonia Gandhi). Isn’t this nation lucky? Promote a non-performing PM as President and promote a no-work, no-experience, no-performer as PM. Someone who isn’t even an MP yet. Logic? Slavery! How is it different from Laloo appointing his wife, Rabri, as CM? And we know what happened to Bihar, don’t we?

Now that the Robert Vadra land deals are more in the open Raman must feel a thousand eggs on his face. Of course, the argument might be put forth that Vadra may be involved in irregularities but Priyanka is still the brightness at night. This is the tragedy when slave mentality forces public figures to pick leaders for the nation without reason and without accountability. Raman even suggests Sonia panicked over Vadragate but Priyanka calmed her and the Congress. He must still be in the "intelligence" business or must be getting daily secret briefings from the Congress eaves droppers. We are yet to get past the MMS disaster. There is a big difference between admiration and slavery. Congress minister, Ramesh Bagwe, even carried RahulG's shoes to protect it from bombs. Take that!

People admiring Sonia Gandhi is one thing; they may have valid reasons. She has done and at least demonstrated a few things. But if mindless slavery is to determine the course and leadership of a nation then one need not write long letters and argue or try to pass slavish nonsense as logic. It’s any day more appropriate for such slavish minds to simply put out an ad like that Chennai dealer. All it takes is to say “Madamji at your feet”. This nation has been a slave to many forces in history. One would have expected intellectuals and public figures to ensure “never again”. Instead, evidence grows that these very intellectuals may well be the admirers and causes of slavery and they even love being slaves. Slavery by any other name still remains slavery, it can’t be cloaked with intelligent claptrap.