A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves
Atanu Dey
28 December 2012
Act 1: Let
me tell you a story about an old man who lived in a small village
somewhere that does not matter. It all began when the man’s sons came to
him and told him that some people from the neighboring village had
stolen a chicken from their farm. The old man told his sons to go after
the thieves and recover the chicken.
The sons said, “Father, it’s only one chicken. We
have hundreds of chicken. One won’t make a difference.” The old man said, “Do what you please.”
A
few days later, the thieves stole a goat. Once again the old man told
his sons to not let them get away with it. The sons said that they have
dozens of goats and it’s not worth the trouble. The next week it was a
horse. Once again the sons rationalized it away saying that they still
had six horses that the farm needs.
Finally,
the next week the sons came back to report to the old man and said,
“Father, our sister has been abducted. What shall we do?” The old man
said, “It’s too late. You should have recovered the chicken. Now there’s
nothing you can do.”
* * *
Act 2:
I
heard this story from an expat from New Zealand who runs a very
successful school in Singapore. David told me that in the early years of
Lee Kuan Yew’s government, a minister was suspected of having taken a
bribe. People said that since the minister was a close associate of LKY,
in all likelihood the man would get away with it.
But
as it happened, LKY had a brief chat with the minister one afternoon.
The next day the minister went out with a bang — he put a bullet in his
head.
Singapore
is one of the least corrupt nations in the world. LKY’s policy is
simple: zero tolerance for corruption. That’s so because he himself is
incorruptible and therefore does not tolerate corruption. The wages of
public corruption is death. People know it and act accordingly.
* * *
Act 3:
India’s appointed prime minister is
Dr Manmohan Singh. Under his watch, the most egregiously blatant
instances of public corruption have taken place. His ministers and other
office holders have been involved in acts of public malfeasance that
are stunningly incredible — but for at least a significant segment of
Indian voters, it is quite alright. They appear to take it as if it’s
nothing out of the ordinary. The rulers are going about the rape of the land and the people just lay back and supinely accept
it.
We
are talking figuratively about rape but Dr Singh’s misgovernance has
descended into literal rape. Not just rape, gang rape. Not just gang
rape, it has finally hit (one hopes) the rock bottom into murderous gang
rape.
The 23-year old woman who was gang raped in a New Delhi bus died in a hospital in Singapore.
* * *
Act 4:
They first stole a chicken.
The
Congress government under Jawaharlal Nehru was involved in corruption.
The news papers reported it. Nehru responded saying that the reporters
were being silly since corruption is a global phenomenon and there’s
nothing to get all excited about.
Then they stole a goat.
Nehru’s daughter nationalized many sectors of the economy, thus making public office attractive to the most criminally corrupt. The people of India did not disapprove.
They in fact voter her back to power.
The stage was set for horse thieves.
* * *
Act 5:
Some
people started waking up to the reality. They realized that somehow the
system was not working. They heard the call from a chosen few and
gathered to register their protest. The
government followed the time-worn strategy of attack being the best
form of defense. They sent in their baton-wielding cops and the crowds —
leaders too — beat a hasty retreat.
The
lesson the appointed prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s government
learned was that it does not take a whole lot to put the people in their
place — the place of course being that the people in the government are the rulers and the people are serfs.
For
around a century, a few hundred million Indians were the serfs of a few
thousand British. Now it is different. India is under self-rule.
An
Italian, Antonia Maino aka Sonia Gandhi, and her bunch of sycophants
led by Digvijaya Singh are ruling about a thousand million Indians.
Well,
perhaps it is not all that different. Though Maino’s father was a
fascist. That could make the British Raj 2.0 a little more vicious than
the British Raj of pre-1947.
* * *
Act 6:
It tickles me no end when I hear talk about India being a free country and a democracy with universal adult franchise. Every adult has the vote and therefore is in some sense responsible for the kind of government. In my opinion, India is a kakistocracy — government by the most corrupt and the least principled. Indians freely elect these people. And among the elected are criminals who have been charged (and many convicted) of rape and murder.
The
guys who gang raped the unfortunate woman on the bus in New Delhi a few
days ago share at least some of the characteristics of the law makers
of India: their criminality. A significant numbers of Indians vote for
these kinds of criminals.
* * *
Act 7:
I hear that the despicably dishonest appointed prime minister Dr
Manmohan Singh’s government moved to shut down protests in New Delhi by
closing down a few metro train stations. Perhaps the people will back
down and go home.
If
they don’t back down, I suppose the unfathomably dishonest cretin, the
appointed prime minister Dr Singh will probably escalate the situation
till we see tanks on the streets of New Delhi.
The sister has been abducted.
And if I were a betting man, I would place the bet that the people are not going to do anything about it.Come next elections they will vote for Antonia Maino
aka Sonia Gandhi and her henchmen.
* * *
Act 8:
Antonia
Maino aka Sonia Gandhi and her gang of vile henchmen are unprincipled
criminals. But they are not stupid. Their moves are calculated to push
the boundaries and they know precisely what
they can get away with. They know precisely how much they can steal and
yet be elected. They know precisely how many backs they can break with
their police lathi-charge and still the people will not lynch them.
Indians have an amazing capacity for tolerating injustice.
It was an American, born a slave but who understood the dynamics of
slavery, who put it best over a century ago. Frederick Douglass (1818 – 1895), the renowned American abolitionist wrote, “Find
out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact
amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them . . . The
limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they
oppress.”
The
rulers are not unintelligent. They would not be where they are if they
were not the most accomplished criminals. They make the laws, don’t you
know. They dictate the
terms.
They
control the press. The press provides the cover for them and they in
turn protect those in the press that do their bidding. The Ghoses, the Sardesais, the Dutts —
these are not unimportant players in this sordid play. They are
complicit in the figurative rape of India and are handsomely rewarded
for their prostitution.
* * *
The Final Act
No doubt for a few days the twitterati will be screaming bloody murder. A few thousand will go on candlelight vigils.In
a few weeks, another distraction will occupy the talking heads on TV.
Cricket will take over the collective psyche. And of course the sordid
stories of Bollywood shakers will move the public to other
concerns.
Talking of journalists, I am reminded of what the legendary American radio broadcaster Edward R Murrow (1908 – 1965) said:
“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.”
Yes, India does have a government of wolves because India is a nation of sheep. The tyrants like Dr Singh know well precisely how much oppression the Indian public is willing to endure.
The rape of the land and the people — literally and figuratively — will continue.
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