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Topic

Introduction

Topic of the week for discussion: 9th

to 15th

April 2012

Topic : 90 percent Indians are fools

The unpleasant truth: 90 per cent of Indians are fools...

Markandey Katju has invited a lot of controversy through his critical remarks onvarious sections of the society including the press. He is a former Supreme CourtJustice and now the Chairman of the Press Council.

This time he has gone on to make a broad sweeping critique of the Indian massesand has ventured on to call them fools. Should we get angry about this? Or dowe need to think about it and face the unpleasant truth...

Let us look at the reasons advanced by Mr. Katju :

First, when our people go to vote in elections, 90 per cent vote on the basis ofcaste or community, not the merits of the candidate.

That is why Phoolan Devi, a known dacoit-cum-murderer, was elected toParliament because she belonged to a backward caste that had a large numberof voters in that constituency.

Vote banks are on the basis of caste and community, which are manipulated byunscrupulous politicians and others.

Second, 90 per cent Indians believe in astrology, which is pure superstition and

humbug.

Even a little common sense tells us that the movements of stars and planets havenothing to do with our lives. Yet, TV channels showing astrology have high TRP

ratings.

Third, cricket has been turned into a religion by our corporatized media, andmost people lap it up like opium.

The real problems facing 80 per cent of the people are socio-economic poverty, unemployment, malnourishment, price rise, lack of healthcare,education, housing etc.

But the media sidelines or minimises these real issues, and gives the impression

that the real issues are the lives of film stars, fashion, cricket, etc. When RahulDravid retired, the media depicted it as a great misfortune for the country, andwhen Sachin Tendulkar scored his 100th century it was depicted as a greatachievement for India.

Day after day, the media kept harping on this, whereas the issues of a quarter of amillion farmers suicides and 47 per cent Indian children being malnourished

were sidelined.

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Fourth, I had criticised the media hype around Dev Anands death at a time

when 47 farmers in India were committing suicide on an average every day forthe last 15 years.

Finally, during the recent Anna Hazare agitation in Delhi, the media hyped the

event as a solution to the problem of corruption. In reality it was, as Shakespearesaid in Macbeth, ...a tale/ Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury / Signifyingnothing.

At that time, if anyone had raised any logical questions, he would have beendenounced as a gaddar or deshdrohi. The people who collected at Jantar

Mantar or the Ramlila grounds displayed a mob mentality that has beenaccurately described by Shakespeare in Julius Caesar.

There are about 55 lakh government employees (13 lakh in the Railways alone).There will be several lakhs more in other categories coming under the definition

of public servant according to the Prevention of Corruption Act. Obviously, oneperson cannot supervise and decide on presumably millions of complaints

pouring in against them. Hence, thousands of Lokpals, maybe 50,000 or more,will have to be appointed. They will have to be given salaries, offices, staff, etc.

Considering the low level of morality prevailing in India, we can be fairly certainthat most of them will become blackmailers. It will create a parallel bureaucracy,

which in one stroke will double the corruption in the country. And who willguard these Praetorian Guards? A body of Super Lokpals?

All this was not rationally analysed. Instead, the hysterical mob that gathered inJantar Mantar and Ramlila grounds in Delhi thought that corruption would be

ended by shouting Bharat Mata ki Jai and Inquilab Zindabad.

It is time Indians woke up to all this. When I called 90 per cent of them fools myintention was not to harm them, rather it was just the contrary. I want to seeIndians prosper, I want poverty and unemployment abolished, I want the standard

of living of the 80 per cent poor Indians to rise so that they get decent lives.But this is possible when their mindset changes, when their minds are rid ofcasteism, communalism and superstition, and they become scientific and modern.

The worst thing in life is poverty, and 80 per cent of our people are poor. Toabolish poverty, we need to spread the scientific outlook to every nook andcorner of our country. It is only then that India will shine. And until that happens,

the vast majority of our people will continue to be taken for a ride.