Meghnad Desai on why he isn't useless

Lord Meghnad Desai writes-

The most intriguing question of modern Indian history of the last 75 years is why did Indira Gandhi call an election in March 1977?

This is not an intriguing question at all. The answer is obvious. Indira was her Party's biggest vote catcher. Her son's coterie wasn't popular. Whether she won or lost the election was irrelevant because Indira, quite rightly, believed the Opposition was utterly useless. So, whether she returned as Prime Minister or returned as Congress's only hope of recapturing power, it was only she who would win= even if her party lost.  This would increase her power and, paradoxically, also turn her party into an officially dynastic vehicle. But it would be a Hindu, not Moghul, type of dynastic party. Sonny boy wouldn't be able to bump of his parent to take the throne. He'd have to be a 'samskari' good little boy till Mummy finally popped her clogs or got assassinated by a genuine enemy rather than as a result of a plot by Sanjay's chums. 

She did not have to. The Opposition was in jail. While some underground activity was going on, Indira Gandhi was in complete control of the government, the Army and the judiciary. Her son and chosen successor Sanjay was telling her to not bother about an election. The president was in her pocket. She was constitutionally within her power to rule for as long as she liked.

But she thought her won power relative to Sanjay's gang would increase because she would either win the election or else become her son's only chance to get back power. As a matter of fact, Sanjay and Maneka did play a role in Indira's return to power. However, for Sanjay, it was a chastening experience. He understood that you have to be nice to people as you rise to the top because you will meet the same people once you begin your descent. If you shoved your boot in their face when ascending, they would do the same when you were descending.

But she called an election. Her secret services told her she would win. They were wrong. Of the many stories about her decision was one which said she could not stand the international criticism which was appearing in New Statesman.

This was just a story. Indira did not care about the New Statesman. Few, even in England did. 

Foreign leaders such as Labour Party leader Michael Foot sentimentally backed her, but there was unease abroad.

Her own husband had called her a Fascist for dismissing the Communist administration in Kerala. The foreign press had attacked Nehru's annexation of Goa. Indira had the lowest possible opinion of 'useful idiots' in the Press.

Indira Gandhi wanted to ensure that she could prove to the British that she was democratically popular.

She didn't give a flying fuck about the Brits. What she wanted was more power within India and winning an election was the way to bring that about.

That the people should not care about the politicians in jail as they were just troublemakers. She was Mother India.

'Mother India' was the title of Katherine Mayo's book. Indira was not such a fool as to want to be seen as the Mother of hundreds of millions of half starved Indians. 

What moved her is a fundamental fact about Indian politics, whichever party is in power. The fact is that India and its politicians exist in a goldfish bowl where they are acutely aware of the Western gaze.

This is sheer nonsense. Indian politicians only care about the Indian press- even expat Indian journals. Thus, the Indian High Commission in London spent a lot of time subsidizing the Gujerati and Punjabi and one Bengali owned English newsletter. The Press Counsellor would, from time to time, dine with British journalists but their job was to discourage interest. I recall my Dad meeting a British writer who wanted to do a biography of Indira Gandhi. Since his previous book was on Catherine the Great, Dad did his best to paint Indira as a deeply boring person- not a man-eating despot- and so, thankfully, the book was never written.

Indian politicians cared so little about the Western Press that Morarji Desai regaled Dan Rather with tales of his own urine drinking. He knew that if the Americans laughed at him then the Indian press would rally to his support. Indian politicians gain if they are presented as monsters by the West. The Indian expat's nationalist instincts kick in. Modi has benefited financially by Western hostility. Wealthy NRI's switched support to his party. This phenomenon is not confined to India. Erdogan gained support from the large Turkish community in Germany when the German press painted him in diabolical colors.

The best example of a politician antagonizing the foreign press is Krishna Menon. He parleyed Western hostility into a seat in the Cabinet before his own stupidity and incompetence brought him down.

The press of Asian countries or Latin American countries does not matter. In a way nor does German or Italian press. It is foreign English-language press and, to some extent, BBC Radio and TV. Politicians are sensitive souls. Whatever nonchalance they pretend to, a disapproval from a foreign Western source hurts.

Very true! Modiji weeps every time the Guardian publishes an article by Pankaj Mishra. He drunk dials Desai and babbles brokenly to him in Gujarati.

Historically, Indians have never looked Eastwards.

Which is why there are no words of Sanskrit origin in Malay or Vietnamese or Khmer. There are no Buddhists in China or Korea or Japan because Indians never looked Eastward. 

They do not think they are Asians.

But many Asian countries draw inspiration from Indian religion and culture.

Sir William Jones discovered in the late Eighteenth century (while he was the judge for East India Company’s Law Courts) that Sanskrit had affinity with Greek and Latin and called them an Indo-European family of languages.

So what? In ancient India, there were some savants who believed all languages to be related. 

It worked like magic and ever since Indians have thought of themselves as European.

Fuck off! Desai may think of himself as having a complexion of peaches and cream. But nobody else does. 

Indian leaders went Westwards to study — Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel, B R Ambedkar, or even to preach as Vivekananda did.

They did so at a time when everybody went Westward to study coz the West was way ahead in Science and Technology.

Rabindranath Tagore is the sole leader who went as readily to Japan and China as to the West.

Ras Behari Bose settled in Japan a year before Tagore, en route to America, stopped there.

A recent example of this sensitivity to Western opinion came when the British Labour Party passed a resolution on Kashmir.

This pissed off Indian origin British people who complained vociferously. We now make an equation between anti-semitism and anti-Indian sentiment. Suella Braverman and Priti Patel are our heroes. My local Labor Council leader goes out of his way to tell people with Hindu names that he has sacked an anti-semite on his staff. People like Desai, on the other hand, are wholly useless.

It was critical of the Modi government. It could hardly be surprising, but the reaction in India was furious.

There was no reaction in India. Nobody gives a fart about the British Labor party.

How dare the Labour Party criticise the Indian government? But then the Kashmir issue has been discussed in most years at the party’s annual conference. The Labour Party has many members of the South Asian diaspora as its members. When I was active at the conference, I recall there were always resolutions sent by local parties to the conference. They were sent by parties with members who had migrated from Mirpur (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir), Pakistan, India taking diametrically opposite stands. These resolutions would be composited into one common resolution which would be debated by the conference. Nothing much happened to these resolutions, whether passed or not.

When these cretin decided to go after the Jews, on the other hand, the Party got a kicking. Hindus now ally with Jews and increasingly vote Tory or Lib Dem. Labour is welcome to cuddle with the crazies.

All these years no one has paid any attention to Labour Party resolutions. The reaction reflects much more Indian sensitivity than any practical consequence of the resolution. Why are people so sensitive?

They are not sensitive at all. Perhaps some people are telling Desai that he is a useless and senile fellow. It seems he is a thin skinned fellow. So he writes this silly article pretending that Indians are hypersensitive because they all believe they are actually Europeans and use toilet paper to wipe their bums, not water as God intended.