A new low on democracy

The recent ruckus created by BJP over Jaswant Singh's book: Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence is not merely symbolic sensationalism but it's a showcase of many deeper failings that the party has chosen and tried to undermine independent thinking voices. A fine article by Siddharth Varadarajan in The Hindu, here.

The Jaswant Singh affair is first and foremost an oracle for the atrocious state of affairs in the BJP but it also forces us to ask: Can Indian democracy survive without the freedom to think and write? Can it flourish without the right to question and interrogate received wisdom? Can it be vibrant without being able to take irony, humour, irreverence and even a bit of disrespect in its stride? The individual fate of Mr. Singh need not detain us here but the manner and basis for his expulsion will further circumscribe the arena for debate and discussion within and between political parties. And if the Gujarat government’s ban on his book is allowed to prevail, it will have a chilling effect on a wide range of academic and cultural endeavours across the country.

Another excellent read, an article by Ramachandra Guha: The Absent Celebrant. Both the articles are somewhat related, I feel and I will leave it up to the readers to figure out the nuances. And I, for now, just want to mull over this:

Gandhi said he did not get time to read newspapers; in any case, he commented, "What does it matter, who talks in my favour or against me, if I myself am sound at bottom?"

So true and I wonder if that secured feeling comes that easy.

On a different note, I just begun reading India After Gandhi, after delaying it as much as I could because of my fear of subject, history. As a security blanket and to balance it out, I am trying to do a parallel read with Waiting for the Mahatma by R.K.Narayan (of Malgudi Days fame which I still thoroughly enjoy. Swaaaaaaaaaaami!!), for two reasons. One, its a fiction and two its a light reading.

Foiled mission

Remember, I bragged, few days back? So, it turns out, I could neither keep up with the target sessions nor could I improve on it. Obviously. I have been under the weather for past few days. Longest I can remember, in this lifetime (I have realized, how much I love exaggerating!). Fever, cough, more like flu and all kind of weird related stuff with it, for about 2/3 weeks, now. In my head,, at least, I feel, I am a pretty healthy person and it hurts my ego (big time, I swear) when something like this happens and for first few days I do not even acknowledge that am not quite perfect health wise.

Anyway, this is not what I came to whine about. What I wanted to crib about was that my pound beating program has taken a beating itself and what should have been 8 lbs by now is rigidly stuck at 5 lbs. I do not like scale's stuck up behavior but as long as it doesn't move right, I will be at peace. Of course, this has to do with my MIA from gymmin' scene and what's worse is that I had slowly built the perfect regime and was religiously trying to build on it and bam! Its like somebody threw buckets of water to douse the fire and now standing on the side and laughing at the foiled plan and mission of mine. Argh!!

On the brighter side, I think, I am doing better now and ready to take on the world but I will not be bragging about it, at least for the time being! I don't want to jinx it ,again. Laugh all you can but I will believe in it till I can laugh at it myself. I will not mind all your best wishes and sympathy. So pour it all you can! I am gonna gym my a** off now~

As Woolf said: Arrange whatever pieces come your way!