Some Bollywood stars live in virtual reality

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Some Bollywood stars live in virtual reality

Friday, 27 January 2023 | Sumeet bhasin

Some Bollywood stars live in virtual reality

Utterances and actions of the Aam Aadmi Party clearly reveal that they are living Bollywood

Bollywood has entertained the people for decades. Films have fired the dreams of audiences. They have also made the people laugh and cry. But in the age of virtual reality when the lines are fast getting blurred, Bollywood has sneaked into the daily lives.

The election for Delhi mayor could not be held. The circumstances under which the mayor poll was not held have been seen by all with dismay. It’s disheartening to see that the MCD House, in which once political luminaries sat, has now become a place for hosting theatrics.

Utterances and actions of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) clearly reveal that they are living Bollywood. They see a film star in Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Stages are set, and scripts are written for him to enact the roles, which the party cleverly crafts, to fool the people in the national capital.

Students of political science may take time to research and find out a list of films of Bollywood and stars, which have been embraced by the AAP and its akas in Delhi. By the evening of Monday, the AAP camp was shivering with reports that a number of councillors in their ranks were opposed to the choice of mayor, who was chosen by a few at the top of the leadership of the party without consultations with others.

Within the MCD House, during the swearing in of the members ahead of the mayoral poll, the managers of the AAP were working their phones in desperation to reach out to the missing party councillors. It had become all clear that if the election was held for the post of mayor, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would have easily won the coveted post. So, the mayor election had to be sabotaged, and it was done as part of a script perfectly staged by the AAP leaders, essaying their roles with finesse, which may give a run for money to the theatre actors.    

In fact, the public utterances and also within the Constitutional body such as the Delhi Assembly of the chief minister are baffling to the extent that they look unreal, as if the cine screen has been transported into the real life. The insinuations made against the office of the Delhi Lieutenant Governor and the languages used by Kejriwal may fail to find a parallel in Indian political history. To say that he is an anarchist and is presiding over anarchy in the national capital will be too mild a criticism, for there is something deeper and more sinister, which is seeping into the polity of the country.

We are in the midst of the pandemic and several ailments are infectious. Even the political virus of anarchism thriving in the laboratory of AAP in Delhi is threatening to infect others. Looking at Congress and the utterances of the party’s former president Rahul Gandhi, one gains an impression that Bollywood has indeed infected the very core of the Opposition parties. Rahul Gandhi is truly living in the dreamland in the company of fantasy kings of his party.

Rahul Gandhi’s policy prescriptions are borrowed from the holy book of freebies of Kejriwal. Rahul Gandhi is in a hurry to beat Kejriwal in his game of freebies. The rush for the restoration of the ‘Old Pension Scheme’, which has invited the ire of the former deputy vice chairman of the erstwhile Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia is a classic case of Congress taking the Bollywood route on its inglorious path.

In Tamil Nadu and Telangana, their respective Chief Ministers are espousing utter disregard to the Constitutional norms. MK Stalin and K Chandrashekhar Rao are resorting to extreme theatrics against the Constitutional positions in their clear attempts to play to the galleries. The films made in Hyderabad and Chennai borrow scripts from the dream land, driving high doses of fantasy intoxication. They seem to have also infected the conduct of their respective Chief Ministers. Slugfests in Tamil Nadu and Telangana against the Constitutional arrangements do not augur well for the healthy democracy and also the spirit of cooperative federalism.

The judiciary too is in some way not immune to the Bollywood virus. The vicious attempt to protect hegemony over the collegium system without offering cogent reasoning is failing Indian conscience, which is based on rationality. There was a selective leakage from the top court to reveal the details of the exchanges with the government over appointment of judges, yet the Supreme Court wants to stay away from the public scrutiny. Such pick and choose in the way the top court deals with the people is indeed weird.

Also, there is an explicit celebration of rigidity on the parts of the judiciary and a section of the judicial luminaries. Time changes and newer challenges emerge in the country and the society. How could a society be fixated to what had been thought as the best possible framework decades ago? The intransigence against flexible outlook and resistance to adjust to the emerging challenges of the nation is also borrowed from the theatrical attitude.

Judges appoint judges and they will not take accountability for the millions of cases pending in courts are strange for a 21st Century India, which is in a leadership role in technology adoption. The judiciary goes on vacation, while the country works 365 days a year. Such irony cannot be fathomed. Also, the judiciary’s aversion to people’s mandate is totally unexplainable.

At a time when the country is celebrating the Republic Day and patriotism is high among the people, it will augur well for the judiciary to be subject to the timely reforms, which cannot be delayed any further. Timely access to justice is a right of the people. The litigants cannot wait for ages for resolution of cases. The status quo will amount to failing the Constitution. The judiciary should be subject to reasons, and stop taking refuge in what had been decided decades ago.

The Constitution has laid down the working framework for the various organs of the State. If various constituents in their bid to play to the gallery resort to trample upon the Constitutional arrangements, posterity will suffer a huge blow. They will fail to see the template on which they will build the country for the future generation.

In the eagerness to gain quick glory, the actors of today may leave behind sour taste for the future generation. It has to be known to the core of the heart that today’s actors have to discharge their duties in undiluted commitment to the best interest of the country and the people. Virtual reality should, as a technology, work in the interests of the people. The speed to fame inspired by Bollywood in public life may take the actors in the political and other arena to the fast path of destruction. The actors who are camouflaging must be exposed by people. If there is a need, let there be changes in Constitution to stem the rot.

(The author is a political analyst)

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