Keki Daruwalla
At the moment it is hard to point out victors or the vanquished in our land. The virus has beaten us all. There has never been a worse time for the country. Kurukshetra and its 18-day war, and the three battles of Panipat, and centuries later to our retreat in 1962 would be no match to what has been witnessed in the oxygen-devoid hospitals in our country. Our mahamari in history put together could hardly match the current ravages, virus plus electoral meetings, put on by Delhi, and the destruction of the Central Vista to follow.
But willy-nilly electoral battles are fought on the ground. Hence I was quite disappointed to find analysts like the once Prasar Bharati chairman shifting the scene to some mythical war in the skies — Durga Ma versus Jai Sri Ram. For too long has Hindu iconography dominated Indian thought, and even, by extension, Indian politics. Forget your legends, demons, demon slayers, Mahishasur Mardini. Get back to real struggles on the ground, and fight for the have-nots, the rice-less poor. That’s what Mamata Banerjee did — stay on the land, campaign, withstand the bullying. All bullying gets an element of untruth mixed in it, often unknowingly. Expose it. Watch the air armadas descend from Delhi, surfeit with well-fed denizens from the Hindi heartland, Gujarat, watch the Bishts from Pauri Garhwal — lately transferred to Gorakhpur — sport their ochre and grimace at this lone woman. Incidentally, is the Delhi party paying for all the air traffic they are taking part in? The money needs to come from party coffers, not government treasuries. (For the BJP, that would mean NRIs.)