Dismaying standards

Fasting and feasting seem two different things at the outset. One fasts now-a-days to score a brownie point and to trump over his rival. When one does outwit and outfox the other, the feasting follows.

Both have become hallmarks of celebration for these guys of late. Look at the way the Congress leaders fasted the other day for five hours after a heavy breakfast. If that is fasting, then all of us in the world do it every day. After one's breakfast, the next meal follows only after five or six hours or so.

If one were to claim that he or she was fasting in protest till the next mouthful, it would be perfectly agreeable going by the latest standards of our politicians. Ain't it?

But then when someone who has the power to stop an injustice or an illegality too prefers to undertake a fast what should the nation say?

Narendra Modiji is an honourable man. He is quite sensitive, too. So, when he got offended at the way the parliament was allowed to be stalled he also got angry. How could the MPs from the South of Vindhyas stall the Budget session? After all, the government got the Finance Bill passed in a jiffy.

Cauvery is not a national problem. If Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have a problem with it, let them fight it out. What has the Centre got to do with it?

If Andhra Pradesh has a problem with its non-SCS status, let it face it. Why should the Centre accord the same to the State with hardly five crore people and 25 Lok Sabha seats? Let the Telugus sort it out themselves and decide on who should be elected to compromise their interests at the National Capital in the next elections.

Why would the Centre deal with it? If the Southern States like Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Kerala and Tamil Nadu feel that they are being exploited by the North financially, it is their psychological problem. What would poor Narendra Modi do and why blame him?

If, in Kathua and Unnao, minorities and Dalit girls are raped and brutalised or killed, there is obviously a problem with those communities, certainly not with the governments of the day. If liberals are silenced, how could one accuse the BJP-led Centre of inaction?

Satyagraha has two aspects to it. One way of doing it is by undertaking a fast and the other, is by taking a vow to remain silent. Modiji has already put Satyagraha into practice by not speaking on any of the issues raised by an awakening India. What is wrong if he prefers to undertake a fast to protest the atrocities heaped on him by the Opposition?

By the by, Mahatma Gandhi had undertaken fasting 17 times during freedom struggle and the longest one was for 21 days in Delhi for Hindu-Muslim unity. Someone would always fallaciously argue that the BJP and the protesting Tamil Nadu MPs were in perfect sync. Someone else could also say the fasting is more penitential. Fine. It could be Modi's mondegreeni too for his fast. Shhh!