Those rogues on TV are us

Having spent most of my time watching the reality show in Parliament during the trust vote on Tuesday, I must admit one thing: I am not shocked.

Most of the experts who came on TV proclaiming how parliamentary democracy had touched new lows with the brandishing of cash bundles in front of the speaker’s chair are wide off the mark. Most Indians I know had a laugh, and got on with their lives. I will go further and say that rogue MPs are nothing more than grosser versions of what we ourselves have become as a society. They are us.

Psychologists will confirm this: when you put too much feeling into abhorring or hating someone or something, it is more likely to be a reflection of our state of mind than anything else.

So when one humbug after another went about bashing the BJP’s communalism - however much it needed bashing - they were actually battling with their own communal natures. When the BJP castigates Manmohan Singh for the nuke deal, it is basically upset that it didn’t do the deal itself. When Prakash Karat berates the UPA for selling its soul to the US, he is basically saying a mea culpa for selling his soul to the Soviets and the Chinese during the Cold War.

So, when we as a people condemn our MPs for unbridled avarice, it is an expression of our own guilt complex. We fear that we may do the same thing in a similar situation. And real life bears this out. From bribing traffic cops to paying speed money for expediting ration cards, we do illegal things as though it’s of no consequence. We use the back door even when the front door is open.

Anyone can buy a copy of DNA from the stands for Rs 2, but I get calls asking for a free copy which will take Rs20 to courier.

When it comes to our own kith and kin, we don’t think anything is a crime. From childhood, children are encouraged to game the system, whether it is cramming for marks at examinations, or obtaining seats in institutions of prestige. They are asked to be “smart,” and win at any cost.

The one thing we dread is becoming a “loser,” a “bechara” a la Manmohan Singh (though he managed to pull one victory off on Tuesday, perhaps because someone else did the dirty work of working up the numbers). I have seen mothers fight with school teachers over why their kids have been given one mark less, never about values taught at school. Why then should we blame our MPs if they don’t show any sense of decency or grace in public life?

Our faults as a people emerge from two basic belief systems — our sense  of family, and our sense of moral relativity. We believe that we can go to any lengths to do good things for our families. A crime done in the name of family or caste is not considered a crime at all.

Thus a Mayawati can  accumulate disproportionate assets and claim that she is being maligned because she is a Dalit — and no one will say anything.

Our sense of moral relativism — who are we to judge anybody? — has led us to a piquant situation where we are unwilling to call anybody to account for even gross misdemeanours. The first reaction of parents when they hear their son or daughter may be involved in a crime is stout defence. “Our son  is a good boy. He couldn’t have done this.” If the proof is incontrovertible, then circumstances will be blamed. “He has been going through a lot of tension lately.”

At the workplace, major errors are forgiven if you merely state that a close relative is sick and you were tending to him/her.

The number of politicians who  have ever been convicted for crimes like murder can be counted on the  fingers of one hand. And even they are forgiven everything when we need them for a trust vote. We are an all-forgiving people.
Email: r_jagannathan@dnaindia.net