Are you a Liberal?

'Liberal' has become a taboo these days. And the victim other than the so-called  opposition ‘liberal’parties, sadly, is Ms.Sagarika Ghose who recently authored 'Why I am a Liberal?'. Bad timing for a handsome pay cheque! As a believer of Libertarian Socialism, it is a matter of defense to state and uphold what I believe in. Being a liberal isn't a bad idea provided you practise what you preach. For me, the idea of liberty is a state of freedom to pursue your choices without any restraint, till your freedom does not affect the freedom of others. 

The growth of these liberals may be traced as a reactionary attitude to the patriarchal norms and conservatism of the Indian society. Liberalism grew as a fashion in sync with westernization but not necessarily modernisation. Only a few liberals could manage to understand the difference between westernisation and modernisation and unfortuantely, they hardly came forth or were prevented. When the hardliners of the right wing rose to prominence, they were vehemently criticized as patriarchical, parochial and medieval thinkers. I must say that was true to a great extent. Whether it was a woman chief minister of Delhi from the right wing who proposed a ban on jeans for college girls in 1998 or the right wing's imposition of traditions and blatant rejection of everything foreign or their frequent rants on what women should wear or how they should talk and walk- were utterly distasteful to the aspiring youth of a globalised world.

Hence, the supporters of liberals are effectively the creation of the hardliner stance of the conservative right. The idea of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya gave enough momentum to push the right wing party to national prominence but was that enough to lure the millennials to their vote bank? Time has never been so ripe for the right wing to evolve from the Golwalkarian era to the modern day thinking of rationality and reason. And Mr. Modi came as a miracle man to cure the right wing from the insinuations labelled by the liberals. Mr. Modi is everything what the liberals always advocated for or falsely aspired to become. He comes from the marginalised section of the society (both caste wise and class wise), for whom the liberals are often the self-appointed spokesperson. Mr. Modi's policies brim with the ideals of socialism such that the left liberals had to pinch themselves to come to their senses. 

With his unbelievable natural reasoning, rarely found in the right wing, Mr.Modi smartly devised a rare combination of rationale and paternalism to bring about an attitudinal change in Indians. The social and political revolution brought about in Kerala in the 1950’s had a first connection through reason rather than emotion and sentiments. Through this digital revolution, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hold the masses through sentiments and Mr.Modi realised this at the apt time. He questioned and answered the validity of various out-dated traditions and notions in his own unique way. He ventured outside the caste prejudice and toxic masculinity exhibited by his parent organisation in holding a broom and sweeping the road, and like-wise asking all his colleagues of all caste and religion to do the same- the message being cleanliness whether at home or outside, need not be a caste occupation or a woman’s job. On gender empowerment issues, he defied the patriarchy (a social setup the Sangh Parivar actively advocates through their statements and activities) by questioning the grooming of boys by their families. It is hard to think of an  Indian leader who had the audacity as well as the capacity to think and ask these questions to the masses. Hence, in the 2019 election, he was actively rewarded by the millenials as well as the non-traditional voters for BJP, i.e the Dalits.   

Mr.Modi is no doubt a rare social and political innovator. When his other party men go and communicate in Hindi in non-Hindi states, Mr. Modi takes the pain as well as the courtesy to address the crowd in a few bits of their mother tongue. He is well aware of the soft power of language while some bird brains in the party talk about imposition of Hindi. However, cow politics is something he needs to handle deftly and let that not spill and spoil the earnings in other areas. After all, his greatest strength as well as merit lies in the fact that he had not taken his mandate for granted, come what may. And thus, ironically although, Mr. Modi is liberal than most of the so-called liberals, who wear a façade of liberalism and uphold patriarchy, casteism and gender bias both outside the party as well as inside. On an interesting note, after winning the recent elections, Mr.Modi invoked not Lord Sri Ram (the upholder of tradition and of course, the political mascot of Sangh Parivar) but Lord Sri Krishna (the revolutinary thinker)!