ARE YOU AN EXTREMIST?

WHEN EXTREMES MEET

It is very interesting how , at extremes, things that appear to be diametrically opposite begin to resemble each other .This seems to be happening in many matters.

WHEN EXTREMES MEET

I have two relatives who are in their 90’s. Both these gents share a few things in common with small kids. For instance these old men wear diapers much like infants ! They keep asking the same question all day even after you have given them a simple reply several times. It’s like kids requesting you to tell the same stories or sing the same rhymes day after day. My doctor friends tell me that the problems of old age are quite comparable to the problems that pediatrics handle. One of these elderly relatives talks to imaginary friends, or fears imaginary and unidentifiable enemies like my 3 year old grand niece does .In both cases we are amused and can see that the very old need to be loved and treated with the same affection that we show kids. Truly pediatrics meets geriatrics!

But in politics is this any different? It’s uncanny how not many can make out any practical difference between an extreme fascist like Hitler and a leftist extremist like Mao and their followers right down to this day. Thus both will muzzle the media. They will slaughter those who hold a different viewpoint, they will demonise some people,they will not tolerate any expression of free thinking and above all both detest democracy.

The extremely devout behave not very differently from the radical communist. The total and blind unquestioning subservience that one gives to his version of God is not very different from the abject unquestioning devotion that the communist party member displays to the party ‘Chairman’ .

My thoughts raced in this direction as I sat glued to the TV and closely observed the INDIA AGAINST CORRUPTION saga that is still unfolding. The idealism of the man at the centre Anna Hazare and the young and old who support him is touching. That corruption has reached unparalleled levels is true .That we need drastic changes at systemic level is obvious. But I have a nagging worry that stems from the insights I get from the examples I have cited above.

HAS EXTREME IDEALISM LED HAZARE AND HIS PEOPLE TO THE KIND OF AHUTHORITARIAN THINKING THAT CHARACTERISES OUR POLITICIANS WHOM THEY WISH TO THROW AWAY?ARE WE IN DANGER OF REPLACING ONE MENACE WITH ANOTHER ? ARE WE SHOWING THE SAME CALLOUS DISREGARED FOR DEMOCRACY THAT WE ACCUSE MOST POLITICIANS OF?

Let me explain.

To touch on only one point out of a few .The Jan Lokpal bill as envisioned by Anna Hazare and his supporters wants the creation of a body [they term it Lok Pal] that will be selected by Indian Nobel Lauretes and Magsaysay award winners[no place here for the common man] ,will have the power to launch prosecution against anyone at all, can suo moto initiate action against anyone, will be answerable to none, and will combine in itself the power of investigative authority , judge and prosecutor !! Surely checks and balances are the very basics of democracy. Need I say anymore of the potential for authoritarian rule and the negation of democracy that this can and will lead to?

To carry this line of thought further extreme idealism starts resembling its anti thesis, extreme folly.

Our only hope is that supporters of Anna Hazare like Santosh Hegde and Harish Salve who have sounded a word of caution to Anna will be heeded. Or else we would have lost a grand opportunity the likes of which we may never get again.

To those of my readers of a corporate bent of mind I wish to recall a seminar I attended in 1992/93 in the first flush of liberalization. One of the speakers was Mr. Ravi Ruia who needs no introduction. This industrialist waxed eloquent at the opportunities that liberalization would throw open to a ‘ long suffocated private sector’. At question time I asked the man ‘Is it possible that when liberalization takes root, public sector inefficiency will be replaced by private sector greed?” I hardly waited for an answer in view of my insights into the human mind illustrated above.

I believe my premonitions have come true. At extremes the public and private sectors are no different as far as the common people are concerned. Is this not true Mr. Ruia ?

K.R.RAVI

WWW.KRRAVI.COM