Just as there are pluviometers (rain gauges) to measure daily rainfall in the country, imagine if there were – god forbid – gaaliometers to measure the levels of foul language uttered daily.
These gaaliometers would have surely spiked on the evening of July 2 when Prime Minister Modi, in a thinly veiled reference to Rahul Gandhi, told a strange anecdote about a child who comes home crying loudly and tells his mother that he was beaten up in school while neglecting to tell her that he was beaten because he had given the other students “maa ki gaali”.
For the prime minister of India to have shared an anecdote in parliament that involved a child who abuses other children’s mothers was as distasteful as it was shocking.
Anecdotes, jokes and sound bites shared by powerful people have a way of staying in the minds of the millions. One wonders what effect a phrase like “maa ki gaali” would have had on millions on children and teenagers who heard it coming from the mouth of a prime minister, no less. Imagine the dilemma of parents, teachers and elders having to explain to inquisitive children exactly what a “maa ki gaali” is and why the prime minister felt compelled to talk about it.
Modi’s over two-hour long speech, delivered against the backdrop of the opposition shouting “Manipur ko nyay do (justice to Manipur)!” and “Shame! Shame!” nonstop, will probably go down in history as one of the nastiest ever to be delivered in the Indian parliament.
Clearly smarting from Rahul Gandhi’s all-out attack on the government the day before, Modi trained his guns on the Leader of the Opposition and compared him to a child who does badly in his exam but goes around proudly telling everyone that he has scored 99 till someone reminds the child that he has not scored 99 out of 100 but out of 543. He then went on to accuse Rahul Gandhi of having set a “world record in failure” and having ‘balak buddhi’ – essentially, being childish.
Modi’s metaphors and “jokes” were problematic at many levels.
Besides demeaning and disparaging the Leader of the Opposition, Modi also managed to mock childhood itself by talking about ‘balak buddhi’ in a derogatory manner. Veteran journalist and YouTuber Ravish Kumar has pointed out that the children in Modi’s anecdotes were all whiny cowards who lied to cover up their poor performance. It made him wonder what Modi actually thinks about children and all the things that constitute childhood.
(One might also be forgiven for wondering if this isn’t perhaps a classic case of psychological projection, the mental process by which people attribute to others what is in their own minds.)
But what is so bad about having ‘balak buddhi’? Modi meant it is an insult of course, but he is probably not aware of a Zen Buddhist concept called Shoshin, more commonly known as ‘beginners mind, (or ‘balak buddhi’, if you will) which refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying, even at an advanced level, just as a beginner would.
The practice of shoshin acts as a counter to the hubris and closed-mindedness often associated with thinking of oneself as an expert (or in Modi’s case, a non-biological vishwaguru).
Rahul Gandhi is a good example of ‘beginners’ mind’. It is easy to mistake his natural spontaneity and simple speaking style for immaturity, especially when compared to Modi’s grim demeanour and calculated speech, which can be just as easily mistaken for wisdom and experience.
In fact, in the New Testament, Jesus (whose poster Rahul Gandhi also held up in parliament along with Ram, Guru Nanak and others) tells his disciples, “Unless you become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)
And in the Old Testament, the grand old Book of Job states, “Age should speak, and advanced years should teach wisdom…but old men are not necessarily wise and the elderly do not always have understanding.” (Job 32: 7-9)
Although Gandhi has been a parliamentarian for two decades now, the Bharat Jodo Yatras were a good example of ‘beginners’ mind’. At a time when the government had near-complete control of the mainstream media, Gandhi decided to do something fresh and unexpected. He walked across the country, listened to tens of thousands along the way and shared a message of love, unity and peace, something that much of the commentariat and media mocked as being … well… childish.
But the fact of the matter is that hundreds of thousands came out to see him, shake his hand, hug him and pour out their hearts to him as he first walked south to north and then travelled east to west. And the yatras paid off electorally for the Congress in many of the areas Gandhi passed through.
By calling Rahul Gandhi a failure, Modi has given the message to millions of young people that failure is a bad thing. It is the last thing that so many young people who end their lives because of bad grades need to hear. Modi has not understood that failure is an event, not a person, and that no one is really a failure who gets up and tries again. The fact of the matter is that by the sheer dint of his grit, determination, and concern for Constitutional values, Gandhi has gone from being a much reviled ‘pappu’ to becoming Leader of the Opposition.
If anything, Rahul Gandhi’s political journey is a good example to young people of someone who had every reason to give up and quit, but didn’t, despite the most crushing and public failures.
Modi also did not pass up the opportunity to mock Gandhi’s famous hug and subsequent wink in parliament five years ago, but in so doing, he came across more like a mean and surly old man envious of a younger rival than anything else.
Narendra Modi would do well to realise that the words that come out of his mouth shed more light on his own character than they do about those he heaps calumny on. As is being witnessed in parliament, his vitriol and oratory are no longer diverting attention from his government’s massive failures over the past ten years.
Rohit Kumar is an educator, author, and independent journalist, and can be reached at letsempathize@gmail.com.
This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.
