When Sight Is A Handicap

There is a famous story about a chap called Nunez who goes climbing in the Andes and gets stuck in an isolated village. He sees things like houses without windows, curious paths with curbs etc., but only later realises that all the villagers are blind.

Like all of us he figures in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king, right? Wrong. For he soon finds out that explaining visuals to the blind lands him in big trouble with the locals concluding that what he terms as “sight” is a sickness of the mind. 

There are different endings to this tale though I like the one where the locals remove his eyes to cure him of his insanity.

Much like Nunez Indian voters have a bunch of clues in front of us but are either drawing the wrong conclusions or indulging in wishful thinking.

With less than two weeks to go before the poll results are out, the BJP has begun to reveal more and more of its stripes. Which should worry all of us.

Calling Varanasi Kashi, proclaiming a “glorious future for the ancient city” and promising both the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and binging about Ram Rajya are disturbing to say the least.

But even more worrying is the impudence and volume of the strident attacks on anyone criticising the BJP in any form. Anybody daring to say anything anti-Modi is shouted down, often abused in raves and rants across social media platforms.

Students made to shout anti-Pak slogans, Modi vowing to rid West Bengal of “infiltrators” or Amit Shah declaring Azamgarh as the base of terrorist operations are not exactly conducive to a secular India.

Police officers in Tamil Nadu say that the bomb blast in Chennai Central is only indicative of troubles ahead as ISI has got a foothold in Sri Lanka and will pursue a “very active” role in the future. And it is still not clear whether the anti-Christian massacre in Assam is part of these troubled times.

Safely ensconced in our little islands in the sun we tend to see the glass as being half-full, comforting ourselves in the knowledge that roses are indeed growing as India marches forward. But to those who are closer to the ground it is not the smell of roses but that of the bullshit under that is all pervasive.