Karnataka, Nitish, naataks, and antaraatma issues

The Supreme Court had to hold special hearings in regard to an election result in the middle of the night, which is also symbolic of the times we are living in – darkness of the worst kind. While the whole country was hooked to the final outcome of Karnataka elections, in Bihar an interesting revolution is underway.

Tejashwi Yadav, defying laws of physics, has brought Bihar very close to Karnataka. The young scion from the Yadav clan has decided to demand justice for what happened in July last year. Nitish’s divorce from the Mahagathbandhan was marked with many interesting observations from all quarters but his personal explanation remained wanting of logic.

The Bihar CM’s antaraatma had told him to move away from the RJD on the issue of the alleged disproportionate possessions of the Yadav family. It was alleged that they own huge benami land and assets for which they must be held responsible. Nitish Kumar, the bringer of the so-called bahaar in Bihar, wanted to know the sources of income and reasons of expenditure of the Yadav family. In a seemingly unrelated news, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government have so far spent a whopping Rs 4,343.26 crore only for advertisements and publicity through different media, as revealed by a right to information query a few days ago. This is, noticeably, the taxpayers’ money which is being used to promote the ideology of the ruling party.

A possible reason why the Pradhan Sewak has had to use such a huge sum for promotions is because his schemes are mostly non-performing ideas recklessly strewn in the social space. From the hopeless manoeuvring of the Aadhaar card purely for political interest to the shameful lies about generating employment, the ruling party has enough skeletons in its closet which need covering up. Thus, any reasonable man would understand why the Modi government has used all our money to this effect. But what about someone like Nitish Kumar: a man with serious antaraatma issues?

The big question is why hasn’t Nitish questioned the Pradhan Sewak about this expenditure?

The antaraatma has been fast asleep since July 2017, even when children are being raped (oh, but that’s in Kashmir!), men are being lynched (oh, but that’s in Rajasthan!), no explanation for judge’s suspicious death (oh, but that’s in Maharashtra!), fake claims to government are being laid (oh, but that’s Karnataka!)… I believe, though, that Nitish’s antaraatma should have awakened when the Centre refused to grant him the coveted prize of Bihar’s special status. The CM had been making nationwide direct and indirect calls for the same and when he decided to jump into the Modi bandwagon, he was sure to get at least that? But, alas, no special status was granted to Bihar. A common Bihari suspects that Nitish’s antaraatma has been put to rest once and for all like Justice Loya, the little Kashmiri girl, and Gauri Lankesh.

What happened in Karnataka is proof of two important facts: first, the BJP is capable of manipulating anyone, even the governor (who seems to have infinite powers). Second, the Opposition has decided to act collectively because this is the only way they can combat political annihilation in the current state of masked Emergency.

While Rahul Gandhi played his part by keeping the Supreme Court awake, Tejashwi Yadav is planning a major protest to bring matters to the nation’s notice. As much as I place my faith in the unity of the Opposition to fight the economically sturdy and ideologically pathetic BJP, I am ashamed that the citizens of the country are ready to take even this sitting down. In a democracy, being in favour of one party and against the others is possible. But to accept the complete failure of democratic systems and to support those trying to mock the Constitution is the biggest tragedy a democracy can witness.

Lalu Prasad is serving jail time. Nitish has stopped wondering about Tejashwi and Tej Pratap’s assets as soon as he embraced the saffron brigade. The public is busy on social media upholding the myth of a brave soldier, even as it demeans farmers, the true heroes of any country. Democracy is dying a slow death and elections are being reduced to a game of laissez-faire that suits only those with bulging pockets. Antaraatma is in a trance and Bihar is standing next to Karnataka!

Courtesy: The Telegraph