Wishful thinking…day dreaming? Well…

I love the idea of a united Opposition against the bigoted BJP! I had also warmly welcomed the idea before the 2019 elections, but we know what happened to that, sigh. It may die a natural death this time too, unless a strict higher power ensures that personal ambitions of party leaders are stamped out with hob-nailed boots.

God himself would refuse this onerous task for fear that he/she will look like a total loser, and who would worship him/her then? So, much as I am wary of campaign strategist Prashant Kishor’s endgame, I hope he gets on board. I would gladly donate tranquilliser guns and whips to his office to ensure that ambitious leaders behave themselves. If he pulls it off, India wins, no matter who the new prime minister may be.

It’s crystal clear that after the TMC’s stunning victory against the BJP in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s prime ministerial ambitions have been stoked again—I can see the flames from across the nation. I take her protestations of being “Just a humble political worker” with a large pinch of Himalayan rock salt, a fiery bhut jolokia chilli, and a slug of nail polish remover on the rocks—yeah, it’s that hard to swallow.

She’s already showing her cards: more Queen of Spades (to hit her alliance partners on their heads with if they dare covet the post she covets) than Queen of Hearts. The hype and hoopla is beginning, her party members speak of her in terms of sickening reverence, and it’s only a matter of time before her party spokies do a Sambit Patra and carry Mamata dolls to news channels.

However, like I said before, even if she trumps her alliance partners, anyone is better than the current prime minister. Once the BJP is crushed and behind bars for crimes against humanity, democracy, and acts of corruption, the wounded nation can begin to heal.

I wish that the servile media would unite as well—that would be the biggest game changer! The threat of stopping their biggest source of revenue, government ads, would fall flat if all of them called out the BJP for the horrors it inflicts on the nation—where would the BJP publish full page ads lying about the glory of its dreadful leaders if it punished every media house?

And how terrifying would its standard IT/ED raids on dissenting media houses be if it happened to all of them—each would write sympathetically about the others and point out the BJP’s nastiness instead.

Sadly, I know that this will never happen, because India’s media owners are the most selfish human beings ever. Hours after the Pegasus story broke, we had one of that lot tweeting about her “illuminating” meeting with the prime minister.

Now, if she had cornered him into a shameful confession that he had ordered the military-grade spyware and enjoyed watching people bathe, that would have been illuminating! All she was probably referring to was his sparkly skin-glow foundation, probably called Chamak Challo, and made by Lala RumDaze.

India’s mainstream media has discredited itself so shamefully, that it’s no wonder that the international media consortium that investigated the Pegasus scandal did not invite any of them to be their partner. They chose The Wire, a small but hard-hitting independent media outfit instead.

To make matters worse, there’s that crony capitalist lot who own media houses too and ensure that they get government policies to suit their monopoly games. They are the ones who go all out to destroy the nation. I once heard Billionairebhai coyly tell cameras that “India comes first” and it’s such a pity that I happened to be watching TV barefoot that day!

While wishful thinking is a delightful pastime, we have to occasionally pay attention to the here and now. The Gujarat model that taught us that morning walks can be fatal, and that judges should never attend weddings in Nagpur, has kicked in again. A judge was killed in a “deliberate accident” a few days ago, and while I’m hugely relieved that the Supreme Court demanded action, it makes me wonder why the top court wasn’t remotely interested in the mysterious death of Judge Loya. Aren’t all Indian citizens equal in the eyes of the law, or is that wishful thinking too?