There are times when rhymed words, for no reason, cling to each other and echo, haunting us in a frightening manner. It’s an eerie feeling, not easy to get rid of. Childish, our cynical friends tell us. “Don’t be so sensitive. These things happen. We are a country of 1.35 billion people. Look around, what is happening elsewhere in the world.” But the rhyming words reverberate and it isn’t easy to sleep.
First the cheetah. Flown in a special plane to be released with great fanfare in a national park in Madhya Pradesh by a person no less than the Prime Minister. He was giving a birthday gift to his compatriots, we were told. Newspapers and TV channels wouldn’t tire of regaling us with the special arrangements that have been made to ensure the survival of the fastest creature on earth.
Only Jairam Ramesh, the former environment minister, as is his wont, played spoilsport by letting the proverbial cat out of the bag by making public plans to bring back cheetah to India, which had been initiated before PM Modi assumed office. That pinprick failed to deflate the colourful balloon flying high in the sky, distracting one and all from persisting miseries of everyday life. It may be mentioned in passing that of all the big cats, the poor cheetah is the most helpless. It is often deprived of its food by the hyenas harassing it. All the protection worded to this exotic, delicate animal may not succeed and, in the meantime, poor humans will continue to be parried upon by vicious predators—rich and powerful.
Then the Gita. The honourable minister of IT and Telecommunication suddenly went into raptures, blurring the line between the spiritual and the material, when waxing eloquent about the 5G spectrum. He likened the spectrum to the atman (soul) that is formless and immortal. He quoted the famous verse from Bhagwat Gita—Na jayyate, mriyate va (neither is it born nor does it die.) It was not easy to follow the drift, but one could register the blurred picture he was trying to paint. Spectrum is infinite. One should be forgiven for asking the stupid question if the resource is infinite than why the need to restrict its allocation and arrange auctions? It would require a great Vedantin to unravel the mysteries of cosmos—the relationship between atman-parmatman, pierce the veil of maya—web of illusion woven by ignorance. How one wishes that clarifications of policy were kept to the realm of the rational ungarnished by pearls of spiritual wisdom.
And, lastly Ankita Bhandari, the 19-year-old girl whose life was snuffed out allegedly by a former minister’s son in Uttarakhand. She had scored 88 percent in class XII and wanted to study more. Family circumstances forced her to give up the dream. She worked as an aanganwadi worker and in an NGO before taking up a job as a receptionist in a ‘resort’ near Rishikesh run by the accused. The police claim that the accused—the former minister’s son—and his accomplices have confessed their crime. It’s a major dent in the image of the BJP government in the state. The scandal has exposed the racket of how these ‘resorts’ are a cover to indulge in flesh trade.
Ankita, we are told, had resisted being pushed into prostitution—euphemistically described as providing special services to guests. In a desperate attempt to control the damage, the resort was bulldozed. Curiously, it was set on fire by enraged villagers after it was razed to the ground. Some tongues are wagging that this swift action was not justice, but a bumbling destruction of evidence at the scene of crime. No consolation to the bereaved parents. Another disturbing disappearance of another girl from the same resort a few months ago has surfaced, for which investigation is on.
Cheetah may have protection matching the Z-plus security cover provided to VVIPs, but young girls belonging to poor families remain vulnerable to prowling wolves—politicians' progeny or their henchmen. Slogans like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao ring hollow. Shlokas from the Gita provide scant consolation. The soul is immortal. It dies not. It only leaves the old body to enter another like discarding old clothes to don new. Fire burns it not, etc. The bloated body of a vivacious girl can’t bewitch away. The law will take its course. The confession may be retracted. Witnesses turn hostile. Bail may be granted on one ground or the other. The accused may suddenly develop acute health problems. The veil of maya is not the only web that the rich and powerful routinely weave to deceive us.
What remains with us are three rhyming words—cheetah, Gita and Ankita. Clinging to each other unreasonably and resonating in an eerie manner, haunting us to make sleep impossible for at least
a few days.
Pushpesh Pant
Former professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
pushpeshpant@gmail.com