Where have gone our sense and sensibilities?

‘Swachh Bharat’ has become a resounding success with Indians. Everyone has not only heard of it but also seems to be implementing it. Look at India now during this ‘resurgent’ Modi-Shah era. Two habits of Indians have always been the dislike of outsiders. These are innate to our culture: ‘Thookna and Moothna’. Sounds a bit jarring. Right? But it also allows some room for our baser instincts and original ‘Mother Tongue’ and hence the use of these words. Please bear with it.

These two have nothing to do with the ‘fat’ that one has anyway. The first one we have been experiencing from times immemorial to the glee of all. Much before the Communists we have taken a fascination for the colour ‘Red’ and we have been painting our towns ‘red’ with gay abandon. Our streets, our offices and residential staircases, lifts, hand wash facilities, flushing commodes, loos and train toilets and bus stands are all sparkling with this colour code. Every corner is almost ‘cornered’.

The ‘jet spray’ sometimes dabs our heads and clothes too if we are passing by buses. The second and most famous die-hard habit is that of strengthening the Indian soil with urea wherever and whenever we please like. We know that the soil requires all kinds of nutrients including this one. And hence, we see the public loos left untouched mostly while its surroundings have tell-tale signs of flowing signs of tributaries of human endeavours. Perhaps, we are tired of it all.

Hence, after the Swachh Bharat call, we have devised ways to handle our nature calls better. ‘Nothing on our ‘Swachh land’ seems to be the motto and there we see our dear fellow Indians peeing on fellow passengers in flights more often nowadays. It is simple and does not defy any comprehension you see. Imagine relieving yourself at a height of 35,000 ft where the outside temperature is minus 50 or so! How wonderful it must be doing so? Isn’t it?

Somewhere down the line, a BJP MLA’s follower in Madhya Pradesh was also high on power and so decided to take a leak on a tribal youth because he sought to keep the mother Earth clean and neat. Poor guy, what better options did he have? The surest way of making water without wetting the soil is to do so at someone. The rest is history, of course. (OMG. This could even be a media ploy. Because no one in the right senses, more so in case of those drunk with power, would do it. The government should probe this, and the NIA should take up this investigation as this is a conspiracy to belittle India internationally. Who knows? There could be a Pakistani or a Chinese angle to it. It could even be a PFI plan. Well, this too could be the argument and why not?

What a swagger this ‘Dabangg’ had when the cops pleaded with him to accompany them to the police station! As a bulldozer was lying idle in the State, the Chief Minister sent it to demolish the illegal one-third portion of his house. The MP government was firm that bulldozers would act only against ‘encroachments’ and not on Opposition’s demand. So be it. Who cares either way? This 5,000-year-old culture could do no wrong. The ruling class is class apart!