Don't turn Kanhaiya's rise into an instant sex affair
We have moments of catharsis in politics like we have two-minute noodles or instant sex. The impulse to have it more often never goes away. The more one has it, the more the urge. But there is little satisfaction at the end of it. We are having a cathartic moment now. And the young JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) president, Kanhaiya Kumar, is the agent of political catharsis.
A year ago, we had had a cathartic moment in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal. Less than a year before that, Narendra Modi had our vast, vocal middle classes drooling over him. It was also an occasion for catharsis. In less than two years, we Indians needed two moments of political catharsis to relieve our stress, to get over our fears.
Modi and Kejriwal were dished out to us like instant noodles. They were relished and now they no longer taste great. Kanhaiya Kumar is the flavor of the moment.
Only a suppressed and fearful nation looks for saviours. What's it that made us lose our equilibrium in two years that we jumped from Modi to Kejriwal to Kanhaiya? Why is Kanhaiya being projected as a new national savior?
Is it the fleeting relevance of Modi and Kejriwal? Is it the people's pent-up emotions as a result of their failures?
After his stirring speech at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Kanhaiya has been billed as a new national hero. His speech has been described as the beginning of a new revolution.
Listen to the buzzing voices. Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP, said: "Kanhaiya seems to represent the idealism and passion long felt to be absent in the political class. In explicit contrast to the practised and cynical politicians running the nation, he offers an authentic voice of the people." Two hours after his release, in an hour-long speech, Kanhaiya became a "nationwide political star".
For Barkha Dutt of the NDTV, he has created a new generation's anthem of "azadi". Kanhaiya speech represents "azaadi" from "unpalatable McCarthyism and political highhandedness", she says.
Former BBC correspondent Andrew Whitehead writes Kanhaiya's oratory has brought to mind the great young radical orators of a previous era: Angela Davis, Tariq Ali, Daniel Cohn-Bendit - the hero of the 1968 student movement and many more.
Talking of Kanhaiya's role in bringing "freedom" they have put Kanhaiya and his speech on a pedestal almost on a par with Nehru's "Tryst with Destiny" speech and Jayaprakash Narayan's "Total Revolution" speech.
Nehru's "Tryst with Destiny" speech need not be repeated. It's a milestone in the world's history. But more we hear the better.
"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance."
That was Nehru.
JP's (Jayaprakash Narayan) speech delivered at the Patna Gandhi Maidan on June 5, 1974 is worth recalling for the benefit of many.
"This is a revolution, friends! We are not here merely to see the Vidhan Sabha dissolved. That is only one milestone on our journey. But we have a long way to go... After 27 years of freedom, people of this country are wracked by hunger, rising prices, corruption... oppressed by every kind of injustice... it is 'total revolution' we want, nothing less," said JP.
There were no private television networks to broadcast JP's speech live. There were at least half-a-million people packed like sardines at the Gandhi Maidan to hear Narayan.
Nehru still enjoys iconic status. He had delivered that speech after decades of having suffered repression and jail terms under the British.
During the freedom struggle, JP had suffered physical tortures at the hands of the British. His "total revolution" call led to the imposition of the Emergency. JP was put in jail for 19 months. He was released after the elections were called. The Congress was routed. But JP didn't live long as his kidneys were destroyed during his incarceration.
Unlike Nehru, who has become a rallying point for those opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, JP no longer figures in the imagination of the people, press and the politicians. Though his one-time followers such as Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Rashtriya Janta Dal's (RJD) Lalu Prasad Yadav and scores of others dominate the power structure today, JP has faded from the national memory.
Kanhaiya spent 23 days in jail on trumped-up charges of sedition. He delivered a fantastic speech that was trending on social media in India and abroad. He has huge potential to be a great leader. Many parties are courting him. Still give him some time. Remember Nehru gave us freedom. JP brought us the second freedom. Let Kanhaiya earn his spurs. And then he can deliver a "third freedom" to an "enslaved nation".
Social media, and indeed, mainstream media in the thrall of the digital age, creates a surreal, make-belief world. Enslavement, McCarthyism and freedom are part of fleeting moments on the national scene that bring about changes in no time.
But that's not revolution. Revolutions come with untold pain, untold sacrifices and it leaves immeasurable scars. Revolutions are not two-minute noodle affairs.
A two-minute Kanhaiya revolution will leave the taste of instant noodles in the mouth.