Aditya Sinha: Indigestion in today's Mahabharata

Once there were two demon brothers Ilvala and Vatapi Unlike their namesakes in the Mahabharata these two became prime minister and party president of a vast and diverse country we all know and love The brothers being demons were not nice as you could tell from their names Ilvala sounds suspiciously like illwill and Vatapi means he who consumes life which is why it kind of sounds like WhatsAppThe two demons after taking over country and party developed an act Vatapi pretended to be a ram Ilvala killed and cooked him preparing a delicioussmelling Wazwan Wazwan of course is a multicourse meal of Kashmiri Muslims the very people these demons want to consume till the Kashmir Valley is empty of the living This wazwan is known as neonationalismJNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar addresses fellow students at the New Delhi campus upon his release on bail on Thursday If you watch his speech on YouTube itrsquos not just playful and folksy but also reveals clarity of thought PicPTIParalleling the Mahabharata a victim is enticed by the aroma of neonationalism and is invited by Ilvala to sit and eat his fill Once the plate cleared Ilvala summons his brother with Vatapi atragacha and Vatapi comes tearing out of the victims tummy killing the hapless but greedy soul In the Mahabharata it was sage Agastya who saw through the demons ruse he went along and once he finished his wazwan he rubbed his tummy and said Vatapi Jeernobhava thereby digesting the demon Ilavala tried in vain to summon his brother but all he heard was a burpA recent victim of this neonationalism feast is the Opposition party A former journalist who is now the IPL chairman mdash the quintessential journalist who is not a watchdog of democracy but bedfellow of the elite mdash recently proposed demilitarising the Siachen Glacier during winters This proposal may have originated with the late Rajiv Gandhi It comes after the recent death in an avalanche of Lance Naik Hanamanthappa and nine others Siachen is an inhospitable place at any time of the year filling the military hospital at Leh with cases of frostbite and pulmonary and cerebral oedemaThis proposal though humane is illthought out The IPL chief forgets that it is focussed on the jawan but not on the true reason that India sits atop the Siachen glacier mdash for tactical and strategic advantage This proposal would only work if there was a treaty on Siachen which looks as distant as an agreement on Kashmir and hypocritically the Congress rubbishes any initiative of Modi with regard to PakistanThe Congressman was simply gorging on neonationalism mdash after all in the current climate deliberately whipped up by the demons mdash in which militarism is an end in itself mdash everyone must go a step further to prove their patriotism The Congress is blindly walking into a trap losing sight of the fact that the military is a tool of national power and not for scoring political points Anytime soon Vatapi is going to tear apart the Congresss tummyAnother guest at the neonationalism feast is the Delhi High Court judge whose bail order in the sedition case against Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar reads like the aftermath of the IlvalaVatapi act The court was to adjudicate sedition but instead Justice Pratibha Rani made a political speech about antinationalism mdash which is not a crime mdash and infections and also about soldiers keeping vigil on the border Her bail order reminds you of what happens when you overeat You vomit She overate Vatapis neonationalism and militarism The day is not far off when demons rupture the judiciarys midsection ripping this pillar of democracy to shredsKanhaiya Kumar is no sage Agastya he propounds an ideology that failed with the Soviet model in 1991 also his comrades record of governance leaves us no reason for optimism Yet Ilvala and Vatapi tried to shove neonationalism down his throat by having him beaten and taunted at Delhis lower courts by some lowlevel lawyers and then jailing him for 20 days Kanhaiya emerged psychologically energised If you watch his speech on YouTube its not just playful and folksy but also reveals clarity of thought It is no doubt the best way to combat the demon brothers attempt to polarise voters between nationals read Hindus and antinationals read MuslimsldquoMahaburbakrdquo Kanhaiya dismissed IlvalaVatapis strategems The demon brothers cant digest the fact that he digested them completely Students have historically come to societys rescue and today its no different We still have three years of stateendorsed rowdyism to put up with but its comforting to know that our youth are up to the challengeLess heartening however is that even students have to resort to the caveat of stating their support of the military Silly thats always existed even if unstated It proves that even if we never again see IlavalaVatapi after 2019 they have irrevocably changed the fabric of our public life making it bitter not betterJournalist and writer Aditya Sinha is the coauthor of Kashmir The Vajpayee Years He tweets autumnshadeSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom