Revenge Of The Common Man

I am the ‘common man’ the carton character conceived by RK Lakshman who is present everywhere silently observing the events in the country with a tinge of humour. Unlike the common man who appears in the cartoon, I deploy words like a sword not to kill but to make a telling commentary on the situation at hand.

Sanjaya, if you know the mythology of the Mahabharata War that had taken place around 3000 BC, started the tradition of commentary, which has become very popular especially in sports events. As a common man, I am his descendant and I am here to describe a different war that is taking place in the ancient land that has been attempting to become modern yet rooted in the tradition and ancient values. The land that is at war with itself. Rather there are several wars going on simultaneous between different actors. Sanjaya as you know described the war to the Kind Dhritarashtra who was blind by birth. I am here to describe the war to the millions of blind men and women who were not blinded by birth but by faith.

You might have learnt that the Mahabharata war was fought between the good and the evil in simple terms, while the Pandavas were an epitome of virtues and the Gauravas was that of evil. Unlike that this war I am talking about is much more complex.

Let us take a look at the various actors involved as far as one can see. On one side are the liberals; secularists; leftists, khan market gangsters; LGBTQ activists, scribes, Adivasi activists, retired judges and bureaucrats, minorities of various kinds and so on.

On the other side are the state itself, Hindutva-vadis, Manuvadis, lynchers, cow lovers, haters of beef eaters, high caste preachers, language chauvinists, minority haters, demolishers of institutions, bhakts and so on. Like in the final to come off the Indian Pagal League, 2020 the two teams are arraigned against each other. As a common man, I too play multiple roles of a commentator; selector, victim, and general viewer.

The concept of the Hindutva-vadis goes like this: that our country should subscribe to Hindi, Hindu and Hindutva; doesn’t matter the diversity; does not matter which God you follow; doesn’t matter which language you speak, but this dictum has to be followed.

This is the new India’s idea of unity in diversity.

The war, in general, has been going for some decades now. The communal one split up the nation at the time of her independence. Caste war has been going on also. But the war has taken an urgency since May 2019 when one side got strengthened in the elections in a big way.

But this is a war of a different kind, not necessarily the one fought with the military. Right from the social media to the physical plane this war is fought. Some proponent of this war use, their smartphone as their weapon and deploy the strategy what is called as ‘trolling.’ This to a certain extent eschews physical violence but it is deadly at the mental plane.

On the physical plane the war takes the form of rape, especially, if one is a Dalit; lynching if you are a beef eater; arson and looting against minorities of a certain type. A certain kind of war is waged against common scribes if you were to write against the government policy. It is called booking you under sedition law. No question asked. Justice gets blinded each time it happens.

Our mighty leader, an avatar, locked down the entire country with a four-hour notice. He declared a Mahabharata like the war against the COVID virus. It is the common man (migrants) who walked distances to their home as the cities had no place for them. Now they are getting back to the cities as their villages have no employment for them. The avatar had announced it would be a short war of 21 days but it is still going on. The common man is paying the price for such a war.

If a state government were to stand up against the centre another kind of war is unleashed using the offices of the Governor. Of course, one needs to mention withholding finances due to the state government is another weapon used blatantly. And the common man is the one to suffer.

Even science is not spared. A Minster announces that a chip made from cow dung protects the user from cell phone radiation. A group of hundred-odd scientists wrote to the PM to direct the minister to provide proof of the laboratory trials carried out as proof of his announcement. Not to leave out the fact that many Hindutva brigade members suggested that cow urine prevents COVID infection. But the COVID virus didn’t spare them, unfortunately, and these members scampered to modern hospitals for treatment. But for the common man, he has only the government hospitals to go to.

While all the agencies of internal security and intelligence get used up in targeting activists, civil liberty lawyers, the centre found itself gaping when the neighbour sneaked into the border and occupied land. Then it was up to the army to issue a denial and deny the denial they had issued in the first place and so on.

There goes the Manuwadis steeped in the classical test. They stoop down by issuing rape threats especially against women, should they raise their voices against anything. If a woman gets raped these Manus would say that she invited it or the parents didn’t bring her up properly.

The relentless war on various fronts has nevertheless torn apart the society and polity. The divide and rule are carried out by the state against its very own common men and women. It is my lot of commoners who pay the price.

Now the common men and women are fighting a war of independence against the very government they had elected. What an irony, as you might say.

Missing in action in the dark (Krishna as he is described in Sanskrit) lord. Perhaps he too is hurting as majority wants to usher the Ram Rajya and he finds a no place, just like the common man.

Once in five years we common men and women get to choose who would rule us. This system is called democracy, a mockery of our own life. Anyways, we decided to take matters in Bihar and booted out the incumbent government. May the change usher in uncommon times for the common man.