Pied-Piper Politics

As someone who prefers India as a pluralist and secular society, I have my problems with this government as many editions of this column will have shown over the years.

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This is based ona difference rooted in ideology and principles. I think, like many others, that Hindutva is problematic and an unnatural imposition on this country. Of its achievements, the list of things to dislike and disagree with is long.

If asked to pick out at least a couple of things that I ‘like’ about what this dispensation has done, I would say that this prime minister is full-throated in his assault on minorities unlike his BJP predecessor. And the second thing is that because of this he has produced a devoted following, that is satisfied with his actions.

This might seem like a petty concession and that something else ought to be pointed out, but it is not easy. When one is assessing a saga that is currently in its 12th year, the impact of the entirety of it is hard to escape. When one finds a movie unwatchable, there is no point in then saying, well it was unwatchable but the hero’s costume changes were good. It gets only a star and a half from this reviewer, and that too with reluctance. But clearly there is another side to this, of those people who think that the movie is terrific and this column is about them.