Vande mataram

In the end the Vande mataram centenary turned out to be like the Y2K issue - much ado about nothing. Our politicians behaved in their usual divisive, fractious manner, turning every question into a Hindu-Muslim issue, spouting asinine garbage and playing to their respective galleries as the ordinary Bharatiya on the street watched helplessly! Last week a news channel had waylaid many of our 'rulers' - MPs and ministers outside Parliament and had asked them simple questions like who wrote 'Jana gana mana', what was Gandhi's full name, etc. Over 90% of them hadn't a clue! Yet these self-same ignoramuses waxed eloquent on both sides of the Vande mataram controversy. Hardly any of them can even quote two lines of either 'Jana gana mana' or 'Vande mataram'. As to understanding what the poems mean, perish the thought.

When will public debate in Bharat ever rise above gutter level? When will informed and reasoned arguments take the place of illogical insults, name-calling, distortion of historical facts? Watch the so-called debates on television - they are nothing but slanging matches with each political lout trying to outshout the others. Parrot the party line and impress the 'High Command', do not preserve even the basic decencies of debate, do not allow anyone else to have his say, and duck all uncomfortable questions by burying them under a barrelful of verbal diarrhoea! Is anyone really interested in finding solutions, in reaching the truth? You must be joking, mate!

And what about the media? Is it any better? That rant can wait for another post.