INDIA'S OBAMA ! WHERE ARE YOU ?
Barack Obama's victory is truly a victory of hope over experience. The question for us in India is if and when, we will produce our own Obama. This Article has been inspired and reproduced by me from a leading newspaper.
It is natural for people to point to Mayawati, in this context. Natural, but wrong, entirely. They are similar, Obama and Mayawati, in that both bear the identity of the subaltern, of the oppressed, in their respective societies. And Mayawati also has a reasonable chance of becoming India's prime minister, even if only for a truncated term. But there the similarity ends.
However, Obama's electoral victory inspires hope in a way Mayawati's rise does not. And this is because of the promise of change and redemption that Obama stands for, a promise that most Americans have bought into, as have the majority of Europeans, too, it would appear. Mayawati does not hold out any such promise. Hers is the grudged victory of realpolitik in a fractured polity. Americans have chosen Omama in an act of positive endoresement, Mayawati's rise to office rests on assorted groups negative preference for the lesser evil and opportunistic coalition building in the pursuit of power and pelf.
Mayawati has forged ties, some time or the other, with all major political parties in her part of the country. Her politics is no different from that of other parties, in that patronage is its active principle. A part of her identity as a dalit, there is little to differentiate her brand of politics from that of her opponents, all of whom pursue power to enrich themselves by looting the exchequer and preying on the public.
Obama's victory, is the victory of Americans over their own weakness, a step forward in mankind's slow march to that distant state of grace in which humans see, amongst the multitude of humans who come in different shapes, sizes and shades, sameness rather than difference. This is a source of hope.
An indian Obama, too, would stand for change, for the collective and for its oppressed segments. We do not know what name India's Obama would bear !
As we see around us, I dont find any politician even 1% closer to Obama. Yes, if Narendra Modi sheds his image of anti-muslim stance, ( the calmness which he showed during Ahmedabad bomb blasts ), he is quite close a candidate for being another Obama of India. But only time will answer it.
It is natural for people to point to Mayawati, in this context. Natural, but wrong, entirely. They are similar, Obama and Mayawati, in that both bear the identity of the subaltern, of the oppressed, in their respective societies. And Mayawati also has a reasonable chance of becoming India's prime minister, even if only for a truncated term. But there the similarity ends.
However, Obama's electoral victory inspires hope in a way Mayawati's rise does not. And this is because of the promise of change and redemption that Obama stands for, a promise that most Americans have bought into, as have the majority of Europeans, too, it would appear. Mayawati does not hold out any such promise. Hers is the grudged victory of realpolitik in a fractured polity. Americans have chosen Omama in an act of positive endoresement, Mayawati's rise to office rests on assorted groups negative preference for the lesser evil and opportunistic coalition building in the pursuit of power and pelf.
Mayawati has forged ties, some time or the other, with all major political parties in her part of the country. Her politics is no different from that of other parties, in that patronage is its active principle. A part of her identity as a dalit, there is little to differentiate her brand of politics from that of her opponents, all of whom pursue power to enrich themselves by looting the exchequer and preying on the public.
Obama's victory, is the victory of Americans over their own weakness, a step forward in mankind's slow march to that distant state of grace in which humans see, amongst the multitude of humans who come in different shapes, sizes and shades, sameness rather than difference. This is a source of hope.
An indian Obama, too, would stand for change, for the collective and for its oppressed segments. We do not know what name India's Obama would bear !
As we see around us, I dont find any politician even 1% closer to Obama. Yes, if Narendra Modi sheds his image of anti-muslim stance, ( the calmness which he showed during Ahmedabad bomb blasts ), he is quite close a candidate for being another Obama of India. But only time will answer it.
posted by vaneet kundra at
Thursday, November 06, 2008
2 Comments:
you are right. Modi could be our indian obama. i am also his fan.
Dear Deepak,
Thanks. I am going to write an article on Narendra Modi. What a dynamic man he is ? India surely needs a a " doer " like him. Not like the ruling elite" we condemn terrorist attacks. " The one liner, we are sick of hearing, and doing nothing. We want " MEN " to control the country, not impotents.
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