Proud to be “apolitical”?

There’s saying that, “in politics there are no enemies, just opponents”, i.e. its the ideas that need to be opposed, not the person. Or, “play the ball, not the player”.

I am not a ‘politician’ but as somebody who grew up breathing the Kerala air of 1980s and ‘90s, I did have a very strong sense of “political awareness” from very early on in my life. Now, “political awareness” is not about voting for X party or being an activist in Y party or being a fanboy/girl of Z party’s Supreme Leader. IMHO, “political awareness” is about “being conscious”.

Being conscious about the fact that the thing called “society” that we live in is directly and indirectly linked to politics. Conscious of the fact that there is no element of the society that is detached from politics — I challenge you to show me even one example, if you care to.

Think this is arm-chair bullshit? OK, here’s a starter for ten:

Take the college that you studied in.

How did that college exist in that place, 10km from your home?

Why not in another town, 500km from your home?

In that college, why was the annual tuition fee set at Rs. 50,000? Why not Rs. 100,000?

How did you get an admission there? Based on your score in a standard admission test? Why was it this way, instead of just admitting the children of whoever the Principal plays badminton with?

What decided all these factors that clearly played a determining factor in whether you received a college education or not, which in turn played an undeniable role in how your adult life played out?

Was it Astrology? Or was it.. Politics?

(If you’re tempted to quip “Economics”, then I’d advise you to Google “Political Economy” first.)

What decides your tax-rate? The price of fuel, food?

The rate of interest on your bike / car / home mortgage?

The state of roads on which you commute to work?

What? There’s a traffic block? What decides whether adequate traffic-wardens / cops are deployed / not-deployed on that route?

The trains are running on time? Online ticketing facilities have become better? OK, so was that because of divine intervention or because the Rail Minister wants to get re-elected?

I could go on and on. The point is, every facet of your life, the good and the bad, the things that have improved and those that have degraded, the things that were newly created and those that were destroyed, are either directly or indirectly determined by politics. You can argue about capitalism vs. free-market liberalism vs. socialism vs. <insert ideology> as much as you want: but the “master control switch” remains “Politics” — that is where everything flows from.

Going back to my opening line: “In politics there are no enemies, just opponents”

Well, I disagree, I do have one class of people with whom I have sheer enmity. And no I’m not talking about BJP fanboys. As a matter of fact my friends and family circles have enough of them and I acknowledge their political views though I do not agree with any of it. Here I play the ball, not the player.

Then there are vast swathes of our educated urban middle class who proudly declare that they are “apolitical” or “politically neutral” as if it is a virtue and as if it is even possible.

Would you park your car in neutral, without engaging handbrakes, even if the surface appears visibly flat? Why not?

In a game of football, if you stop tackling / chasing the ball (i.e. be neutral), will the other team stop playing or will they grab the opportunity to thrash you 20–0?

When you call yourself “apolitical” or “neutral” you think you are staying above the fray as if it isn’t your problem, as if, disconnecting yourself from politics somehow makes you pristine and ‘professional’. But in reality (to use the parked car analogy), you are just making yourself susceptible to either gravity or wind or whoever might chose to lean on your parked car, i.e. you are just being fucking sheep who can be herded by anyone who wants to do that — irrespective of what their motives are.

A classic reason peddled by the apolitical class for not voting / not bothering to be politically aware, is: “All parties are the same, dude”.

That, is the most atrocious dumbing down of logic that that you can ever think of. Its like saying, “raw-rice, steamed-rice, pulao, biriyani and rotten rice are the same”, just because its all, well, “rice”.

Would you like a serving of rotten rice for dinner then? Its “rice”, isn’t it? Its all the same, aye?

People have critical faculties for specifically this purpose — to look at the 5 “forms” of rice presented above and to make an objective assessment that the 1st one needs work, the 2nd one is good enough, 4th one is a treat and the 5th one is a crime. The ONE assessment that anyone with half-decent thinking ability MUST NOT make is that of “all 5 are rice and therefore all are the same”.

And yet, educated intelligent people choose to arrive at exactly this reason for being apolitical: “All parties are the same, dude”.

And then what? When the corporation councillor whose election that you chose NOT to participate in, fucks up your evening commute, you get on Twitter and outrage about the traffic, even tagging the prime minister for a good measure.

Yeah right. In a country with a THREE level local administration (Village->Block->District Panchayats) AND a state government above that AND a Central government above that, you want the PM to do what exactly? Come and direct traffic at Silk Board Junction? You might as well tag the Secretary General of The United Nations in your outraged tweets because that is at best just 1% more stupid than tagging a PM for an inner-city transport issue.

I have absolutely infinite enmity for this class of “proud to be apolitical” fellows. I’d set my dogs on that lot, if I had any dogs.

The Greek statesman Pericles said this in BC 490, about the citizens of Athens:

“Here each individual is interested not only in his own affairs but in the affairs of the state as well: even those who are mostly occupied with their own business are extremely well-informed on general politics. This is a peculiarity of ours: we do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all.”