The liberal retardism that they think we suffer from

I could not go to Jantar Mantar to be a part of the crowd that had gathered to support Anna Hazare in his stand against corruption because I was not in Delhi. Many of us who could not be present there had different reasons but Harsh Mander has come out with the most mind-boggling of all the reasons.

In todays Hindustan Times he writes that he didn’t go there because he was disturbed by the presence of  pictures of Bharat Mata on the stage and in the hands of the supporters which he thinks naturally points to the presence of RSS and the likes.

Secondly he was perturbed by the presence of godman like Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri RaviShankar during the whole movement. And then he goes on to say, as if he has got the bulls eye, that his presence of the saffron element in the whole movement was confirmed  after Anna Hazare praised Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi declaring him a model chief minister.

Harsh Mandher is a very well known face of the civil society of India. A man who represents or claims to represent the down trodden. He is regarded as someone who has enough knowledge and intellect to become a member of a government appointed body (NAC) that works on  providing policy and legislative inputs to Government with special focus on social policy and the rights of the disadvantaged groups.

Perse Mandher or for that matter any one who is a member of NAC  is expected to be impartial, unbiased and more liberal in the truest sense and its correct to assume that he possess the ability to look at a picture not through a narrow outlook but with a broader understanding.

But his recent writing doesn’t denote that or any of these qualities. 

It fails my logical aptitude that how can a Picture of Bharat Mata denote right wing Hinduism. 


A picture of ‘Bharat mata’ taken in the most generic sense is used to convey the message of being 'Indian' rather than Saffron politics.I have seen pictures of Bharat Mata kept in Dhabas and autos that are owned by people practicing Islam. So if I go by Mandher’s logic  then they too are a part of right wing fundamentalism.

Bharat Mata or Mother India is used as a national personification of India, as a mother goddess and is depicted as a woman clad in an orange or saffron sari holding a flag, and sometimes accompanied by a lion. The image of Bharat Mata being used to invoke patriotism dates back to the times of the Indian independence movement of the late 19th century. In 1936, a Bharat Mata temple was built in Benaras which was inaugurated by Mohandas Gandhi. And he said that the temple would serve as a cosmopolitan platform for people of all religions, castes, and creeds including Harijans and go a great way in promoting religious unity, peace, and love in the country.

Gandhi, regarded by many as the most secular of all Indians couldn't find any fundamentalism in the picture of Mother India but Harsh Mandher did.

Why did this happen? Did the picture of India changed its meaning with time? Yes. For the illuminated liberals it did. As years passed they shifted their focus to the color 'saffron'. For them the mere presence of saffron color became a tell-tale sign of Right wing fundamentalism. 

But in reality its Harsh Mander’s own ‘fundamentalist’ approach that he suffers from that makes him view the picture depicting India as a symbol of Hindu right wing politics.

He represents a class that has only two parameter to judge anything and that is either Hindu fundamentalism or Indian. They earn their bread and butter by propagating this very distinction.

Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravishankar have followers that cut across religions. And it would be absurd to say that of all people Sri Sri Ravishankar is a Hindu fakir who preaches Hinduism.  Both of them have Hindu as well as Muslim followers. And I haven't heard any one saying that they are a Pro-RSS preachers.

Its important to remember that Baba Ramdev has been  crying out loud against Corruption which has caused much heartburn to the establishment that has made Mandher a member of NAC. So his tirade against these godman is well founded.

By branding these two ‘godmen’ a messenger of Hindu fundamentalism Mandher has once again in the space of few lines shown his narrow and skewed understanding of the civil society that he feels that he represents.

Mandher is visibly very delighted as he writes that how his doubts that the whole movement is a platform to spread saffron politics are proved true when Hazare praises Narendra Modi.

Mandher needs to be reminded that Hazare also  took the name of Nitish Kumar in the same breath when he praised Modi. But of-course these civil society crusaders have a very opportunistic memory so I cannot blame him for remembering Modi while erasing out Nitish Kumar.

Whether its Mandher or Malika Sarabhai, members of the intellectual retards have used this praise of Modi by Hazare to paint Anna Hazare as someone who in a way has supported the riots that happened post Godhra.

But it doesn't need an Oxford educated brain that Hazare was referring to Modi’s and Nitish Kumar’s governance and good development efforts when he took their name.

Mandher and the other members of the ‘enlightened Indians’ needs to understand that what they write and what they speak is not for the blind and the deaf. Maybe there are people out their who are as intellectually retarded as them and who will go gaga over their liberal thoughts but then they also needs to be reminded that the rest of the people do not suffer from the same  liberal-retardism.

For all of us.