You spend a fortune to buy a pet dog of the finest pedigree but you’re surprised that it doesn’t, that it simply won’t roar like a lion. If that sounds absurd let me tell you what’s even more absurd. The whole shock-turned-outrage-turned-sympathy for IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal. The people of Uttar Pradesh elected a party of rogues, thugs, murderers, and Islamic fanatics and you still expect that honest people wouldn’t be persecuted? Worse, you get all outraged when this inevitable happens. That is more absurd than expecting a dog to roar like a lion.
Oh and also please spare me the nonsense about how Uttar Pradesh under Akhilesh Yadav has quickly turned into a Government by for and of all kinds of crooks. In this department, it’s leagues behind the Congress-led UPA, which has so systematically, comprehensively wrecked the country for about 10 years and has so successfully managed to get away with it each time. Truly, the five-star shucksters in the Congress party would be laughing merrily at the way poor Akhilesh’s Government is getting slammed for…what? Just the mere suspension of a pesky IAS officer? Remember Khemka? But we know Khemka only because he made it to the papers…and disappeared as quickly. What about the plight of the unreported Khemkas? And so don’t waste your sympathies for Durga Shakti. Sure, applaud her courage, admire her honesty, and invite her to your schools and colleges to deliver inspiring speeches on…whatever. If that sounds cynical, I don’t see a scorching blast of billions of rays of hope anywhere in this country. More on this later. You see, there is really no other way of saying this: Akhilesh Yadav and his chainsaw-wielding gang of goons masquerading as lawmakers are the headache of the people of Uttar Pradesh. They should’ve known better. They had suffered similar excesses under Yadav Senior’s previous regime, which had a minister openly calling for the murder of the Danish cartoonists. Yet they elected Yadav Jr who seems to be on a mission to outdo his father and that at a blazing pace.
While the media’s stellar role in keeping the Durga Shakti episode on the front pages is laudable, it begs an urgent question: had UP been ruled by the Congress instead of the SP, what are the chances that the media would pursue this episode with the same self-righteous seriousness and outrage? Recall Khemka again. None of the outrage in his case apart from making the right noises. (Reminds me of a Bollywood dialogue: bolo! lekin awaz nahi aana chahiye.) Why? Four word answer: Madam will be unhappy.
And that brings us back to the Congress. There’s a reason I said that the Samajwadi Party is leagues behind the Congress. They, the Congress, are the original conmen–indeed, “Con” is their first name. Indeed, the Conjob began several years before Independence–corruption among others was one of the reasons Gandhi asked the party to be disbanded after attaining freedom. And so, as we see, for nearly fifty years, they demonstrated how they could pull off the worst scam, perpetrate the worst kind of abuse on the Indian nation and society and still return to power. Show me just one party which has managed to do that on that scale and with that frequency.
Why look at the past when you can look at just yesterday? Yesterday, with the Crown Prince, the Dimpled Deliverer, who commanded that poverty was merely a state of mind and that only confidence was required to eradicate it. This statement is perhaps worse than Marie Antoniette’s infamous bread and cake statement. At least the French citizens understood the meaning of “bread” and “cake.” The poor in India who were the recipients of the Dimpled Deliverer’s message don’t even know English. Even if he had said it in Hindi (or a regional language), how does one translate “state of mind?” Think about it. And while you’re at it, think about the enormous cruelty and nonchalant heartlessness that it takes for someone to say something like this. And the media didn’t even bat an eyelid. It merely reported that the Dimpled Deliverer’s comment “drew flak .” So you see this is another of the Congress party’s success mantras.
Among others, there’s an important reason that none of the Congress party’s misdeeds stick to it. A gentleman is often a wolf wearing a tuxedo. In other words, it’s only the street goonda, or the petty thief who gets caught and clobbered by the cops. The white collar criminal when caught, is politely escorted to the police station where he sorts out misunderstandings and everybody is happy. And when a bunch of trigger happy Jihadis mowed down our soldiers today, our Defence Minister’s bluster chillingly reminded me of the stunning bravado of former Home Minister Shivraj Patil (remember him? No? See, another feather in the Congress’ cap of success) each time terrorists hit Indian soil. Is it a mere coincidence that the Monsoon session of the Parliament opened yesterday and this attack happened today? But the Congress party knows nobody will ask it such difficult questions. A few days of braggadocio and angry statements and denunciations and condemnations and….oh come on, why so serious? Rahul Baba wants to party.
The Congress party’s white-collar skulduggery also includes prized assets like the Nobel-winning charlatans like–who else–Amartya Sen who finally shred his cloak of academic hallowedness when he declared that he was as much a devoted party worker as the nation-wrecking wretches in the NAC by asserting that he did not want Narendra Modi as the next Prime Minister. I suppose recruiting Amartya Sen is also part of the Congress party’s Bharat Nirman snake oil corporation. Congress-watchers and critics in India might simply give a knowing shrug at Sen’s open admission but a significant audience on the international stage still does associate respectability with Sen and does take him seriously. See how the Congress party gets away every time? Poor Akhilesh Yadav.
Durga Shakti is neither the first nor will she be the last. Yes her courage, honesty, dedication and other nice things are exemplary but she couldn’t pull it off because she is no Vinod Rai whose position put him out of the reach of the tainted tentacles of the Congress and other parties inspired by the Congress. Second, her plight is also an eloquent and shrill proof of the state of the IAS. In a line, majority of the men and women in the Services are completely shorn of character. Which is why the IAS Association hit the mute button after the mandatory round of being seen as saying the right things. And it is precisely this characterlessness that continues to strengthen the hands of the members of the vast spectrum of Samajwadi scum.
And so it is futile to shed tears for or outrage over Durga Shakti Nagpal’s plight. If you really need to feel sorry for anybody, it is for your own miserable selves. Those of you who read this, you are educated. Your education has equipped you with skills to think, analyze, and use discrimination and judgment. Despite this, you enable the discourse that enables criminals and murderers to lord over you in the name of secularism. And you think your candelight vigils and your protests and your angry rants on social media and your citizen journalism will somehow scare these goons and restore decent politics. But when they come for you, you wet your pants and offer bribes and apologies to these same goons and you curse and holler that the country has gone to dogs not realizing that it was your doing in the first place.
There’s a reason you occupy the #1 position in my Most Loathsome list year after year.
Tags: Commentary, Durga Shakti Nagpal, Durga Shakti, Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav, SP, Indian Politics, Uttar Pradesh, IAS Officers, Indian Administrative Service, Congress, Pseudosecularism Hall of Shame, Criminals in Indian Politics