Page 82 - EducationWorld October 2020

Postscript

Wasteful ageism to dethrone the ‘4 Khans’ — Salman, Aamir, Shahrukh,
and Saif Ali — box office male stars of the Bollywood
fantasies factory.
VEN THE OCCASIONAL FOLLOWER OF THE With the weight of emerging evidence indicating that
US presidency election campaign — the electorate Rajput, a troubled and insecure young (33) individual
Eof the world’s most powerful democracy will vote who often used soft drugs, had made his own quietus,
on November 3, less than a month from now — can’t Goswami has widened the ambit of the investigation to
help noticing the extent to which unapologetic ageism the alleged drugs addiction of Bollywood celebrities i.e,
has crept into political jousting. According to President the 4 Khans and popular actress Deepika Padukone who
Donald Trump (74), his Democratic party rival Joe has often embraced Left-liberal causes.
Biden (78) is too aged to be able to shoulder the cares Backing whistle-blower and blatantly pro-hindutva
of presidential office and his campaigning is enabled by actress Kangana Ranaut who alleges that 99 percent of
performance enhancing drugs. top Bollywood stars are drug users, the RSS/BJP chorus
However in the scrappy first head-to-head
presidential debate which Biden won hands down, the orchestrated by the self-righteous Goswami is hell-bent
on religious cleansing of Bollywood, whose stars are
latter proved that he not only is totally compos mentis, demi-gods of the country’s largely illiterate population.
he is an intelligent, well-informed, experienced and
Besides, the national focus on the Narcotics Control
compassionate political leader, the mirror opposite of Bureau investigating the country’s most revered movie
Trump. If the American electorate re-elects Trump, it will
be clear proof that those whom the Gods wish to destroy, stars serves the useful purpose of distracting public
attention from government mismanagement of the
they first make mad.
Given the slavish tendency of influencers in Indian economy, the sweeping Covid-19 pandemic, the India-
society to follow American trends, it’s unsurprising that China border standoff and other embarrassing issues.
ageism — described as “stereotyping, prejudice, and Indeed an ingenious tangled web woven to deceive.
discrimination against people on the basis of their age” —
the higher judiciary, experienced Supreme Court justices Self-inflicted misery
is also rife in Indian society. Despite chronic vacancies in
are compulsorily retired at 65, and high court judges at
62. Most of them continue their careers in arbitration or N ANNUAL FEATURE OF MUMBAI (pop.
as heads of tribunals with perfect ease. Why shouldn’t 18 million) — the country’s commercial and
they continue to serve the public interest? Ditto army Afinancial capital — is the heavy damage caused
generals and seasoned civil servants. Why shouldn’t they to the city and its productive citizens by the monsoon
continue to serve the public when 80 is the new 60? rains year after year. This year, according to the Indian
In this connection it’s worthy of note that judges of Meteorological Department, between June 1 and
the US Supreme Court continue in harness until death September 24, Mumbai received 3,679.8 mm rain, just
or proven incapacity. It’s quite obvious the real rationale short of its highest ever seasonal rainfall of 3,759.7 mm
of pushing perfectly capable oldies out of office is to in 1958, causing damage to livelihoods, property and by
artificially create employment within a low growth way of business disruption estimated at Rs.51,000 crore.
economy in which an aged political class (there’s no However the heaviest rainfall of 1958 is testimony
retirement age for politicians) is unwilling to relinquish that the annual deluge is not a latter-day phenomenon.
control and command of all economic activity. It’s a According to informed environmentalists the quantum
wonder why the passive public tolerates aged politicians of rain the megalopolis receives annually has remained
blundering on forever while capable professionals are put unchanged for the past 80 years. Moreover prolonged
out to pasture prematurely. delay in building a motorway to the mainland, a mere
10 km as the crow flies — a project first proposed in the
Ingenious tangled web 1970s — because the metro’s powerful politician-builder
lobby conspired to keep property prices sky-high, has
added to the chaotic congestion of the commercial
T’S A MEASURE OF THE DEGREE TO WHICH capital.
religious communalism and identity poison is To a substantial degree maximum city’s citizenry
Ispreading within Indian society under rule of the BJP/ has brought this misery upon itself. Since 2012 it has
NDA government, that the Supreme Court mandated continuously elected the Shiv Sena — an organisation
CBI investigation into the alleged suicide/murder of with a notorious record of routine extortion, intimidation
rising Bollywood star Sushant Singh Rajput on June 14 and skulduggery — to run the city’s municipal
has morphed into a covert anti-Muslim and anti-liberals government. Under Sena rule the politician-builder
witch-hunt in Bollywood, the world’s largest feature lobby went on a haphazard building spree while stalling
films factory. Led by prime-time English television news construction of the Mumbai-Nhava Sheva motorway to
proconsul, Arnab Goswami who has attained national the mainland, work on which finally began early this
fame for conducting a nightly witch-hunt on the Republic year. The plain truth is that the city’s indifferent middle
TV news channel which slavishly toes the BJP line, the class doesn’t vote in municipal elections, let alone run for
Rajput investigation has gradually mutated into a covert office. Therefore Mumbai’s multiple miseries, including
campaign to end the perceived domination of Bollywood highest rents worldwide and copious flooding every year
by liberals and the Muslim community, and in particular is self-inflicted misery.

82 EDUCATIONWORLD OCTOBER 2020