No bridge to reason

It could only happen in India that mythology, not public interest, holds up development. The sorry spectacle that the Sethusamudram issue has become highlights this in a way that nothing else has done in the last 60 years. Never before has something as incomprehensible as this issue obstructed something that will hugely benefit the country, namely, the shortening of the sea-passage around the southern tip of India. This involves dredging the channel between India and Sri Lanka to deepen the draft so that heavy ships can pass through instead of going around Sri Lanka. But the obscurantists "" and let there be no doubt about it, that is what they are "" say that this will destroy the mythical Adam's Bridge, which is supposed to have been built by Lord Ram's army for him to cross over into Lanka (as it was known then) so that he could rescue Sita. That the issue was raked up by a desperate BJP looking for something to mobilise public opinion was bad enough. But now an incompetent government has gone and filed a petition in court that there is no "historical evidence that Ram ever existed".

As sheer folly goes, this is hard to beat. Even if the statement is literally true, there are other considerations involved. These have to do with faith, emotions, and public perception. The last matters for a political party that is already seen as being partial to the minorities. Even modern Hindus are asking: would the UPA have argued, that too in a court, that there is no "historical evidence" that Mohammad or Christ existed? Little wonder then that what began as a search for scapegoats in the lower bureaucracy has now become a cause for sniper fire within the Congress party. Jairam Ramesh, the minister of state for commerce, has said that the minister for culture, Ambika Soni, should resign. She has replied that she will if asked to. Thus what started as a silliness that could have been sorted out with some patience has now become a full-blown political farce. Overall, while the world laughs at India, Indians are laughing at the government.

The BJP and its loudspeakers are trying to posit the issue in terms of secularism and, minorityism. This was only to be expected. Desperation and a bankruptcy of ideas for political revival force them to behave in this foolish fashion. It is also to be expected that the government, in near-panic over what its own foolishness may do to the Hindu vote, should indulge in all manner of ridiculous somersaults. Nor is it out of character of the Left to speak through both sides of its mouth. It has criticised the government and praised it, too. The criticism is for handing over an emotive issue to the BJP; the praise for giving in to it and withdrawing the affidavit! Clearly, hypocrisy over such issues is not the sole preserve of the non-Left parties.

This episode also reinforces that old and highly insightful observation that India lives in several centuries. Indeed, one might add to that even modern Indians live in a state of near-permanent inter-temporal schizophrenia between old faiths and modern reason, 21st century rationality and pre-historic unreason. Such people are both clever and stupid at the same time. Arguably, this is true of many people all over the world, notably the Americans. In contrast, the Europeans and the East Asians are altogether more robust in such matters. The question therefore inevitably arises: how long will it be before our political parties stop resorting to these atavistic emotions? If the experience of the US is anything to go by, probably never. Democracy has its plus points but the appeal to reason is evidently not one of them.