Are we an extra polite nation? Nothing matters

Keki Daruwalla

Just got a call from Mumbai from an 83-year-old lady who was rejoicing at the fact that the usual Ganesh Chaturthi mayhem was less noisy this year. How come, I asked? ‘People don’t have the money to sponsor these acrobatics.’ And she, a great supporter of the government, raised a cheer for demonetisation of our currency having its effect now. Which brings me to the late Mr Jaitley, one of the finest politicians we have had in two decades. Former Finance Ministers have had a bad time last month — but Arun Jaitley’s fate was exceptionally sad. He deserved all encomiums showered on him at his tragic end. But in another country, say in the West, people would have asked why he did not resign when the PMO forced this currency adventure down his throat. Such hard questions are asked there, even in obituaries. It is generally known that the PM was behind the note ban, he spoke on television as he announced the decision. The Finance Ministry was bypassed.

Are we an extra polite nation? Look at our traffic. If we dare walk on a zebra crossing, any Delhi motorist worth his salt will mow you down and later phone his uncle or father-in-law to sort the matter out with the Delhi Police. I have seen a western visitor with his wife negotiate a zebra crossing, and with a loud blast of his horn a motorist sped past while the bewildered couple retreated in haste. You hold a door open for strangers and no one may nod or say a ‘thank you’.

We don’t ask hard questions, especially from politicians (with professors, however learned and famous they be, as recently shown in JNU, you can afford to be bumptious and insolent and get a pat on the back from the party, and ask Romila Thapar for her resume). Has anyone seriously questioned the then CBI as to why they let Quattrocchi off the hook and allow him to go back to Italy scot-free, reputation intact? The last bit about the reputation must have been manoeuvred tactically, especially in a British court. Such finesse one needs to admire. (There is complete absence of finesse in the current episode regarding Chidambaram. How come the soundless, silken legerdemain of the CBI has vanished?)

Was there an Italian connection in regard to Quattrocchi? One has seen the film An Italian Job and the newer versions, to no great profit. He became a member of the Delhi Gymkhana Club and played tennis, mostly doubles, was a regular sight on the lawns and also in the North and South Blocks.

Has anyone asked a question about the CBI shenanigans last year, when the establishment got around to ousting Alok Verma, the Director? Should inability to ask hard questions be coupled with loss of collective memory? The nation forgets so easily. There was a lot of talk two years back about China building four terrific dams and stealing away our Brahmaputra. What happened to all that? Was it a media shosha, or a state-sponsored scare?

Incidentally, have we heard a boo about the fate of more than a lakh of Rohingya in our neighbourhood, all in refugee camps in Bangladesh? Doesn’t our silence affect our relations with Bangladesh? Doesn’t Bangladesh protest to us in what diplomats love to call demarche? Countries and people in the West seem exercised over it. Doesn’t this eerie silence, which is not considered eerie by the establishment, affect our standing as a nation of right-thinking people? Have we raised a voice about the fires in the Amazon, and the Brazilian regime being accused? The planet and its environment are going down along with its icebergs and melting glaciers, and not a boo from us!

The venerable Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was in the news sometime back for being appointed ‘mediator’ in the Ayodhya dispute by the Supreme Court. Was that a concession to the spiritual or the Hindutva lobby? A spiritualist has no licence to cause material damage to the earth, but in March 2016 (people have forgotten already) he held a three-day ‘World Cultural Festival’ on the banks of the Yamuna. Government gave permission against all advice. A seven-member committee was set up by the government, headed by Secretary, Water Resources Ministry, to enquire into the ecological damage. It held that 120 hectares of flood plains on the right bank and 50 hectares of the left bank were adversely affected ecologically. The ground had got impacted and hard, no vegetation or water bodies existed anymore. The National Green Foundation had levied a Rs 5-crore fee for environmental compensation. Didn’t the Supreme Court know that only a few lakhs have been paid?

But let us forget all this. Let us move from the ludicrous to the sublime. Why not ask Virat Kohli how many passengers does he take with him and who never play a single match? There’s Karun Nair, hitter of a Test triple century who was not given a game in England. Months of warming the benches must be hard on the buttocks? Earlier, the Kashmiri Rasool did the same in Zimbabwe. And now Rohit and Ashwin seem on the same track. Will anyone please ask him as to why he can’t leave such passengers in India itself!