Beyond Faces

“What is Rahul Gandhi’s religion?” “Narendra Modi really used to sell tea?” These and other such questions largely dominate both social media and television news channels. People debate such questions for hours. How will the answers of these questions help India progress? If it turns out that Narendra Modi really used to sell tea before he began his political career, will it help in India’s current GDP growth?

Giving unnecessary importance to these non-issues, however, could prove to be harmful in the long run. This tendency does two things. One, debating non-issues results in us ignoring real issues of importance which deserve debate. If we debate the latter, we can hold our politicians accountable. Two, by responding to non-issues, we might be furthering, unknowingly, somebody’s agenda of diverting public attention and taking its political benefits.

Let us take a recent example of how India’s public debate gives issues a miss. Last week, violence erupted in Kolkata during BJP president Amit Shah’s roadshow. In that, 19th century social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s statue was vandalised. While all of us were busy in finding out who vandalised the statue, Iran’s foreign minister Javed Zarif visited India on an official tour amid growing U.S-Iran tensions and U.S asking all the countries, including India, to stop buying oil from Iran. While vandalising of Vidyasagar’s statue is unfortunate, the larger question is how to get rid of this culture of violence during elections. We neither talked about that, nor did we pay much attention to Iran foreign minister’s visit. India buys 10% of its total oil from Iran. How to deal with Iran amid growing U.S pressure, keeping India’s interests on the top priority, is going to be a big question the next government will have to deal with. This is just one example. There are many more.

Starting May 26th, on every alternate Sunday, I will be calling attention to an issue which I think is important, and must be talked about. I am not here to bash up anybody or to support anybody. I feel that issues should be in focus rather than personalities. We are not supposed to love or hate any leader blindly in a democracy. That kills its spirit. What is expected in a democracy is expressing yourself fearlessly and listening to others with an open mind. I will share my view on a given issue, you are welcome to share yours. I am okay even if you disagree with me. The aim is to shift the debate from personalities to issues.