I've just found out that the Japanese banned meat- at least that of 4 footed animals- for almost a thousand years. Thanks to Buddhism, they concentrated on slicing each other up with Samurai swords rather than chomping down on steaks with a fork and knife. Then, as part of their post-Meiji westernization- which pretty much put the kybosh on their deeply spiritual cultivation of internecine bloodshed- they sought to popularize meat in a bid to improve the national physique.
I don't know whether Dr. Swamy eats meat- his unrelenting pugnacity suggests otherwise- but I do know he doesn't drink.
This I consider a national tragedy.
This was a very bright, very precocious, lad growing up in the arid atmosphere of post- Independence New Delhi's politico-bureaucratic wasteland, for whom drink was incumbent as a religious duty- like that of Balram, picking up his wine pot and his plough and walking away from the Kurukshetra conflict- except our hero never got that far into Hinduism, preferring a Harvard already utterly alien to true
Purushartha, let alone
Artha Shastra.
Had Swamy spent his adolescence getting into drunken punch-ups with all and sundry, his natural combativeness might have mellowed, permitting his undoubted talents to have had a less damaging impact on Indian politics. In saying this, I judge him on no evidence other than that he himself supplies on the
Janata Party website.
Reading his articles, a picture emerges of a very bright, very brave, but fundamentally confused man who devoted his life to a style of politics that was but the sowing of a confusion worse confounded.
In vernacular Spiritual traditions, Narada Muni, the Sage Narada, is divinely gifted- in that he receives the vision of the Lord in youth- but this blessing is also a blight for he is doomed to remain without that vision for the remainder of his mortal span. This double aspect of Narada- precociously blessed to be but retrogressively blighted- is, perhaps, the source of the notion that Narada spreads mischief wherever he goes- as must any talent that too early and too consummately flowers- for, transcending its roots, it has no further function save as Eris's fruit.
This is not to say that Dr.Swamy was himself like unto that apple of discord for which the Hellenic Goddesses jealously contested- though to read his articles, Swamy, deems himself so- all yearn for him and disclose their true desire to him alone. Indira needs him as a sort of tutor to her kids, Kamaraj wants him for the Tamils, JP needs him as a way out of the dead-end of Sarvodaya and a return to politics, Morarji needs him as a counterweight to the drunkard Vajpayee, Charan Singh wants him because he wants to become a Brahmin, or at least get his book on the Harvard Econ Reading list, Chandrashekhar needs him because he wants to become Prime Minister and only Swamy can bring that to pass, Rajiv needs him because he needs to be defended against his cousin Arun and ... and...actually, it turns out, Rajiv needs Swamy to defend his memory against
everybody, including that K.G.B agent, Sonia, and that L.T.T.E agent. Priyanka, and ...urm...everybody and everything because you see Rajiv wan't using Swamy- No! Perish the thought! In fact, nobody ever used Swamy. Not Deng Xiao Ping when he invited Swamy for a meeting in 1981- don't you know Deng only wanted to hear Swamy's beautiful Chinese phonetics (child's play to him because he'd learned how to say 'Aiyaiyo!' from his dear old Mum) & this had nothing to with China's recent drubbing at the hands of the Vietnamese, or their need for a Trade Deal and World Bank money and so on- no, it was to hear Swamy's-
Aiyayo! so beautiful no?- Mandarin that Deng communed with him. But, you can be sure, Swamy was quick to squeeze Deng into the concession of a great strategic advantage to India- yes! permission for a couple of hundred Hindu pilgrims to make the trek to Mansorovar in Tibet! Don't you see, this was the greatest triumph of all! Every one knows Chinese are ruthlessly suppressing Buddhists, but see! this clever Brahmin has scored off against those silly Shramans like that Dalai Lama chap!
This wouldn't matter if Swamy had used his
guanxi to make money promoting trade and industry and so on. But, Swamy tells us, he isn't into money. That's all very well, but those guys from the P.R.C,
they are big-time.
The way the Chinese and the Indians start getting along is through
guanxi- everybody making money- that factory owned by the P.L.A, this bogus Defense Housing Colony on our side- that's when you have an 'all weather' relationship- look at the
guanxi integration of Musharraf's Pakistan and the P.L.A- the kidnap of some Chinese hookers triggers an Army raid on the Lal Masjid! (why? Its a
guanxi network that runs from Generals to Triads to the local massage parlor or drug trafficking long distance truck driver) I know, the true story might be quite different- but the fact that the Chinese nationality of the hookers was played up as an explanation for Army action tells its own story.
I'm not saying opening up the Mansarovar
teerth was a bad thing. In fact, religious tourism is something both countries can really work together on- precisely because of the quick profits from prostitution and fucking over those 'immoral' tribals in order to rape the environment and so on.
The fact is, China isn't in the business of giving India any thymotic breaks and will retaliate swiftly against pi-jaw- but corrupt
guanxi relationships are a different matter.
But Swamy couldn't be the point of contact because (I believe) he is clean.
More is the pity. Ties between Nations arise in the same manner as Karmic ties- not by duty done and integrity maintained- but by lust and greed and intoxication and delusion.
But precisely because Swamy never got over his infatuation with the great pi-jaw peddlers Gandhi, J.P and so on- he never understood Artha Shastra- actual Political Economy. Nor, to my mind, did he understand what the Paramacharya was trying to open his eyes to.
What to do? Indians are like that only.
The irony is that, later on, China invited the next Kanchi Sankaracharya- an honor they denied even the Pope!- and the reaction was- See! Swamy has truly served Hinduism! You may say, he 'used' the Chinese- but, the fact is, he just so damn intellectually superior, it's like a law of Nature!
True, some ignorant fellows in South Block whine that it was a propaganda coup for the Chinese- they were showing how tolerant they are of all Religions- and, as for that invite to the Shankaracharya, that was the final straw which precipitated the crisis which put the fellow in jail- but, actually, that was all karma you know. Nothing to do with the Chinese being able to run circles around 'clever-clever' Brahmins like Nehru and Swamy- not at all. Why would you even suggest it? Oh, I see. You didn't get a PhD from Harvard at the age is 22. Well, you're just stupid aren't you? Shut up and go watch a Jayalalitha film.
It's still not too late for Swamy. Someone send him a bottle of black label and tell him its Ganga jal or cow's urine or whatever. Once he's had a few, mention to him that if Manmohan really didn't act
malafide because, as an Economist, he didn't know from Law- then how is Raja guilty? The guy don't know from Econ, mechanism design- evolutionary game theory and Ken Binmore and such- which Manmohan
does know about.
But Swamy's P.I.L and tactical slanders are nothing but 'champerty and maintenance' (okay, I know shite from Law), the arch-intriguer is intriguing again on the behalf of parties even more worthless than those he has previously, so futilely, served.
Fuck is wrong with him?
What's your verdict?
Nutjob or Narad Muni?