India Syndicate 2.0

Various Congress spokespeople over the last few weeks have been hammering into our brains that the austerity drive is a symbolic gesture and that we should not count the actual monetary value of the savings:

Congress party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi felt that the larger picture was being missed totally. “Yes, it is about symbolism, it is about sending a message. It is about reminding people about Gandhi, the simplicity movement, the charkha.,” Singhvi said.

“It is not about counting Business class minus Economy class equals net savings seven thousand. It’s trying to propagate a way of life during times of drought. It is as simple as that,” Singhvi added.

Just how much of a symbolism it really is, is driven home by the Maharashtra government’s plans to spend Rs 350 Crores (no, not a typo) on a statue of Shivaji. What will that the statue do ? Duh, what do statues do ? Statues mock the “aam admi” about how miniscule he is in the government’s scheme of things and how he should get on with the symbolism and stop counting.

When I first heard of the amount of money being spent on the statue (of course, it is not just the money, it is the idea that the government has a free rein on every single rupee that it looted from us in the name of taxes), I was curious about two things: 1) how could you spend so much on just a statue ? and 2) how can a spokesperson justify it ?

1) If you are the government, you can spend any amount of money on anything. After all, as Rajiv Gandhi said, only 1% of funds allocated for any purpose reach the “aam admi”. The rest 99% lines the pockets of the politicians. So, there.

2)  Here is how you justify:

Jitendra Awhad argued that drought and the statue issues were not related.

“We will be taking every step to fight suicide by farmers, drought and malnutrition deaths. This is another part of the political system. But there is something which is called as culture. We would like to culturally impose and identify ourselves with Shivaji Maharaj. You called Shivaji as Maratha warrior but I think he was the best example of secular Maharashtra. He identified himself against the cultural hegemony of that era. So all this is uncalled for. All this is not going to pressurise state exchequer at the cost of common man, at the cost of farmers and at the cost of drought. There will be a separate account for the statue but for us the first priority is the common man of Maharashtra,” said Awhad.

“He is not a dead hero. He is alive in the minds of people who love Maharashtra,” added Awhad.

There again with the “culture”. There is something called culture and it says that to take away money from salaried people who are helpless in that respect and to use it for own political purposes is not just OK, but the right thing to do.

Vishal Dadlani has put up a petition against the statue. The petition will be turned into a PIL against the statue once it gets the critical mass of signatures. You know what to do…