The Existential War – Election 2019

This election will be like no other. Lutyens Elite have never felt so threatened, as now.

They’ve come on to the battlefield to fight the bitter fight, deceit, treachery, claw, bite, whatever it takes to protect their islands of privilege.

In 2006 a senior much known bureaucrat from a long lineage of bureaucrats, with a few books to his credit, surrounded by a fawning audience had declared  that there was no country as wonderful as India.

The reasons he put forth had nothing to do with the country’s culture, diversity, history, art, architecture, cuisine but were chillingly cynical as was the grating laughter all round … & have remained with me all these years.

*Except for Pakistan & Bangladesh no country can match the estates & bungalows for its politicians & Government servants. My street is clean, green with pavements & electricity is uninterrupted….

*As long as labour is cheap & God willing it will remain so, we’ll have the luxury of domestic help, malis, dhobis, chauffeurs…

*Where can you call the Commissioner of Police & have him overnight turn your father in laws street into a one-way because of heavy traffic?

*Where can you request a CM of a state to halt plans for a flyover that will benefit a city but inconvenience a single row of plush homes ?

*Where can you call up a private club & sweetly threaten an excise raid to hasten your own membership process ?

*Where can you build a mansion flouting all environmental laws in a protected zone ? 

*Where can the choicest cut of banned meat (beef) reach your kitchen with a brief phone call ?  Or an endangered animals soft down shatoosh easily rest on your shoulder ?

*Where else can one secure for not so deserving children an education in Ivy League colleges & other prestigious institutions by facilitating inroads in our ‘complicated’ labyrinth system thus assuring their future & place in the pyramid of hierarchy.

What of the millions who don’t have the basics ? 

He replied ~My driver says (& that’s where I first learnt of the Driver’s Doctrine) that by & large our people in small towns & villages are happy as they are~

~Caught up in caste, faith they are grateful for the small things in life. A riot every once in awhile makes people value what they have … who looks at roads & garbage when the very roof on their head & their life could be in danger~

At a chance meeting last week I asked him what were his thoughts on the upcoming #Elections2019 ?

~The ‘steel framework’ & their old pay masters will do everything within their power to scuttle change. Keep in mind one doesn’t give up a golden goose without a fight.

~The past five years have been difficult. Another five will mean doom. The assault will be dirty, vicious & desperate. But no doubt this is the end of an era. Even the blind can see it !

~The Chaiwala will be back! No doubt he did some good things… ~

Some? I ask

~Okay, quite a few~he grudgingly conceded.

But angrily wagging a finger in my face he said ~He undid our work of 70 years ! He consolidated the Hindu vote bank~

Doesn’t it balance out with the Muslim & Christian vote bank that was cleverly crafted by the Congress over the years ?

~You can’t possibly look after a billion so we chose our segment. With the Hindu vote bank however, the man will have to deliver. It’s a humongous task & this is where we will do everything to check mate him at every step~