Call Mr Kailash, for a change

This time of course there has been no dearth of similar articles and programmes in our own media given the ironic tag line under which this election is being fought. Yet, watching the BBC report somehow brought home the pointlessness of it all. Everybody knows, or at least suspects, that much of India is not shining yet nobody seems to care. Is it enough then to merely bemoan the callousness of thriving, urban India or time to question why it is so callous? And what can be done about it?

Take Mr Kailash for instance. I picture him as a stocky man. Thirtyish, with a moustache and a cellphone dangling from his waistband. A fast talker who zips around the city on his 160 Bajaj Pulsur. Ask him about the destitute farmer in Andhra and he is likely to scratch his head in puzzlement and then hand you his card, saying, “I also do insurance.” And then he will be gone because Mr Kailash does not have time. He is a man on the make. He sees opportunity around every corner and he knows if he does not move fast, somebody else will grab it. For there are thousands of Mr Kailashs buzzing around on their two wheelers, cellphones glued to their ears, striking while the iron is hot.

This is their time. There is so much to do. So many goals to reach. So much to achieve. So much to learn. And so much to buy. Somewhere at the back of their minds, there may be a recognition of the fact that there are people dying somewhere in the country. They have seen their parents struggle through hard times and know that their life of choices has come through decades of struggle. They have heard their grandparents talk of how things were back then. But they don’t want to hear it any more. Sad things hold them back. And they have to move ahead. Relentlessly.

They like the BJP because it does not remind them of the dreary past. They like it because it knows how to project the good and blank out the bad. They don’t want to see the bad because bad things are a waste of time. They don’t like to feel bad because in their view feeling bad gets you nowhere. They like things that make them feel good about themselves and their country. They like that “Kalam chap” because he talks of progress and of India’s achievements. They like him because he shows them an India that is technologically strong, energetic and ingenuous. Like themselves. They do not like people who constantly tell them negative things. Negative things pull them down. They want to be positive because positivism will keep them charged.

Mr Kailash is not a bad guy. Just an ordinary one. And if his heart does not always seem to be in the right place, it does not mean he doesn’t have one. It just has to be reached. In a way that hasn’t been done so far. And the only way to do it is to play by his rules, accept his limitations. So what if, instead of targeting his conscience, critics of India Shining targeted his potential instead — the extraordinary amount of verve and enthusiasm that he displays in his job on the road, behind the counter, at the call center? If he is unwilling to see anything negative, then turn the negative into a positive. Call illiteracy an opportunity not a blight. Call poverty a challenge not a shame. Call universal health a goal, not a pipe dream. Call clean water an aspiration, shelter a target, so on and so forth.

It might not work. But it’s well worth a try.