Democracy is wherein a large number of people choose a small number of people to rule a state according to what they think is best for the masses. Dictatorship is wherein a small belligerent number intimidates a large number of people to act in the interests of the thugs. The former is based on principles while the latter is based on principals. Misuse of the first enables the second.
Last week, both Venkaiah Naidu and Manohar Parikkar stuck to their principles by blitzing MNS leader Raj Thackeray’s arm-twisting of Bollywood producer Karan Johar to pay up Rs 5 crore to the Army Welfare Fund or else face a beating. The two Union ministers would not have spoken so strongly and unequivocally without the approval of the Prime Minister.
Toffee with Thackeray has made the deal sweeter for the eponymous Koffee with Karan star. The irony of MNS’s muscle politics is that in this case, it benefits Johar, known for making wimpy weepy family dramas. Bollywood is known for minting money from Pakistan, with films that show the evil side of its military establishment, the ISI, and its sundry agents among the Indian mafiosi. As a result, some of the productions, such as Border, are banned across the border. The unintended result of Thackeray’s strong arm tactics is that Johar will go laughing all the way to the bank. The controversy is guaranteed to drive even armchair sloths not really interested in fattening the producer’s pockets to check out Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, starring Pakistani actor Fawad Khan. Thackeray’s purpose is also self-defeating since it would also help Fawad to earn even bigger wages. Nothing helps boost the marketability of a performer than controversy. Fifty-sixty per cent of Pakiwood’s revenues comes from Bollywood and the rest from the neighbouring country’s flourishing black market.
Parikkar had made it clear that the Indian armed forces do not need funds by “catching someone by the neck”. At a time the Army and the paramilitary have ratcheted up the aggression against Pakistani forces, carrying out surgical strikes and returning cross-border shelling with a firepower not demonstrated before, the MNS tactic of blackmailing Johar is demeaning to our men in uniform. In 2015 alone, over 150 soldiers were killed in India’s War on Terror. The Army doesn’t need Thackeray to raise money for its warriors or martyrs. Nor does it require the services of Devendra Fadnavis, a chief minister belonging to a national party, and the ruling one, too, to broker extortion. His misplaced nationalist zeal only brings disgrace to the BJP, which won its biggest mandate ever, riding on the popularity of Narendra Modi. Its galling when Thackeray, who leads a party which lost all the seats it contested in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, parades as a fiduciary of the Army. Though it ended in him eating humble pie in the Karan Johar cafe, the MNS is now targetting Farhan Akhtar to cough up Rs 5 crore for Raees.
To equate Hindutva with Pakistan is to devalue the ethos of the most ancient practising religion on earth to the street level. Hinduism has survived and triumphed over hundreds of invasions as well as British evangelism. It doesn’t need blackmail to endure and flourish.
ravi@newindianexpress.com