When I was watching “We the People” on NDTV conducted by Barka Dut*, at the tail end of the program there came some flashing news about a great fire accident that took place at Mumbai in a cultural program organized for the ‘Make in India’ week. Barka had to quickly close her program as they needed to cover the fire accident. She requested Sri Ashish Nandy to give his comment about the sedition charges levelled against him. He started with a condescending and sarcastic comment about the fire accident by saying something like “This is the make in India”, relating that accident with our ability to make things.
I have great respect for Nandy and he is one of my favourite authors, though I don’t agree with him completely. But the way he condescended our nation, particularly relating our ability to produce quality products with an accident is very condemnable. It is one thing to make a joke about ourselves by pointing out the lack of quality in our products, but comparing it with an accident which could have happened anywhere is not going to go well with his scholarship.
Salman Rushdie, in his novel Satanic Verses, does this through a character. When a character in the story tries unlocking a door after losing its key, another character uses a safety-pin to unlock it and comments, “Made in India.” In such a story one can laugh for such a clever joke that we hear about our products. But what Nandi has done is irritating because he compared it to an accident.
Of course we know well that he is anti-BJP and particularly anti-Modi and we have to respect his view. But by passing a condescending comment because of his aversion for Modi and BJP and relating it with an accident, he downgraded his own status as a scholar and thinker.
Db.
15-2-16.
*at JNU [Jawaharlal Nehru University] 14-2-2016, 8-8.50 pm