Game of Thrones - Maharashteros

Brace yourselves, a new govt. is coming to Maharashteros…and even though a stable predictable election might have been good for the state, but thanks to swollen egos, a hunger for power, family rivalry and ruthless politics, the road to it was very entertaining, almost as good as a story.

While a comparison of the situation to the Game of Thrones is just inevitable, it just goes to show the greatness of the books and the show and ultimately author George R R Martin, who managed to make a fantastical story involving Dragons, Ice-zombies etc. so damn realistic enough to be compared to real-time politics. Now many articles have been or will be written comparing the political parties involved to the different houses of Game of Thrones. But in my personal opinion, it’s when you start comparing some characters and their behaviour to our netas that the parallels seem to be closer than one would have imagined. The stories might not intertwine or follow the same script but by the old gods and the new, these leaders almost perfectly resemble some of the characters and their behaviour- (Mild spoilers ahead, in case you haven’t seen ALL the seasons/read all the books, and in case you haven’t seen or read anything GoT, what the fuck have you been doing?!)-


Raj Thackeray = Stannis Baratheon

Sample this-An estranged member of a renowned ruling family who is ambitious and powerful in his own right, revolts against his brother, claims himself the rightful heir to the throne, starts following some really extreme weird ideologies, becomes powerful enough to become a formidable force for his enemies to start worrying, becomes over-ambitious attacks and is defeated and has almost completely lost his army. He is very stubborn and refuses to ally with anyone. It seems like even though he could make a good leader, just always lets his ego get the better of him.

Raj Thackeray is in a similar situation Stannis Baratheon (the elder brother of Robert Baratheon) was at the end of Season 2 after the battle of Blackwater. He was utterly destroyed and at the brink of falling into irrelevance. However, Stannis managed to get back on his feet by the end of season 4 and looked into a completely different direction for his path to the iron throne. He has the extremely weirdly hot Melisandre- an evil powerful woman with her own intentions and a priestess of the mysterious Lord of Light –who seems to be helping him. Plus, it also helps that his dedicated and righteous right hand man- Davos Seaworth manages to convince the Iron Bank of Braavos to bankroll his revival. Stannis himself now seems to be aware of what he is doing and is more dedicated and even more determined.

Now, let me admit that am a big fan of Raj and his decisive no bull shit attitude and also his clarity of thought on many issues. Plus, add to the fact that he is undoubtedly the best and the most mesmerizing orator in Maharashtra and arguably India, means he can pretty much achieve whatever he wants to. He has the wits of Tyrion Lannister (Don’t worry, not even one person in this list is the true equivalent of the awesome Imp…that distinction would belong to me if I had entered politics :P) and popularity which Stannis can never hope to have. He showed a lot of promise in 2009 and no new party had such a big impact of politics ever as the MNS did back then. However, what I don’t like about him, is that although he has learnt oratorical and presentation skills from his Late Great Uncle, he seems to have not learnt how to keep his ego aside. He must learn to tone down his ego and also the sectarian politics a little bit, if he really wants to capture hearts. He doesn’t need to be another clone of the Shiv Sena. He can be something far bigger and better if he chooses to be. Either that, or the sun will finally set on him and the MNS. Remember, the Night is dark and full of terrors…

Uddhav Thackeray= Rob Stark

Yes Yes, I know if Raj belongs to the Baratheon clan then how can Uddhav be of a different clan. But as I said, this list is about how leaders suit the characters, not the storyline. And in terms of characters, Rob Stark suits Uddhav the best.

A son who finds himself in the thick of things after the death of his great father, he gradually but surely steps up to the occasion and actually even when nobody expects him to, starts doing really well. He succeeds at most battles when nobody is giving him a chance. However, Uddhav might do well to watch the episode where the ever so wise Tywin Lannister says how Rob Stark never lost a battle but in the end was defeated.

Uddhav has admittedly done well, although no one expects him to scale the heights the great Balasaheb did, he has achieved a good number of seats in Loksabha and the state elections- Evoking his father’s memory as and when was needed and using his inherent organizational and administrative skills. But just like Rob Stark, many doubt whether, even though being a good guy in general, whether he is capable of actually ruling over the people. I for one, don’t believe he has the certain street-smart cunning that a good leader needs to have. A good leader also needs to be ruthless and willing to take hard decisions at times. Mere courage is not everything, you need a sharp, tactical mind too.  He appears to have become a bit complacent just like Rob had and although he is in a good position right now, let’s hope he doesn’t make the same mistakes Rob did.

But I think until and unless the Congress/NCP are planning to have some kind of a suspicious wedding he doesn’t have anything to worry about.

The Gandhi/Nehru Clan= The Lannisters

Ha ha..this should be the least surprising entry on the list. A rich powerful family of douchebags who would do anything and I mean anything to stay in power. They have had some good leaders in the past but being rich and powerful are the only two things that interest them (also incest, but let’s not go there). Well if you think I lied when I said that I am not going to compare parties to houses, you have got to excuse me here, because this one is just so easily done. Here take a look-

Cersei Lannister definitely = Sonia Gandhi- a cold, calculating, intelligent mother and de facto queen at times, who would do anything for all her children and most of all, can see absolutely nothing wrong with her son- Joffrrey. A spoiled brat and easily the most hated and vile character in GoT. Although I must admit Rahul isn’t even remotely capable of being this evil. That honour of a shamelessly evil, bloodsucking, talentless heir to a throne goes to Ajit Pawar. Rahul’s intelligence is more on par with Hodor-

 but he is definitely as annoying and as much spoiled by his mother's love as Joffrey. In his mind, he thinks that he is the rightful heir to the throne, while all we see is -

Anyways, but thankfully the Gandhi Clans influence is on the wane now unlike the Lannisters so far. But we have got to see, because also unlike the stories- a Gandhi always makes you pay their debts.

Narendra Modi/BJP= Daenerys Targeryan-

As opposed to the above, I admit this is the least similar comparison and not just because Emilia Clarke is infinitely way hotter than Modi -

Mother of Dragons indeed...she doesn't need fire breath to burn through you

But also because Daenerys is part of a once powerful Targeryan family which controlled all of the empire for centuries but was completely shattered when Robert Baratheon usurped the throne. Then again, let me explain. Here are the similarities- a leader gradually rises out of nowhere belonging to a power which till recently everybody had written off as not even a threat. The leader through his decisive organizational skills and natural charm manages to not only create ripples but also conquer large chunks of territory, sometimes by merely walking into one. He is heralded as a saviour of sorts by the mass majority of people tired of petty politics. Also, Amit Shah just like one of Dany’s dragons, is someone Modi unleashes when in need. His marketing spreads like fire and who has a skin tougher than dragons when it comes to negotiations.

 Even though you won’t ever hear Modi, blatantly saying something like “They can either live in my new world or die in their old one” But that is what is aggressive and dominating though game-changing politics seem to be saying.

Although Daenerys hasn’t quite invaded Westeros yet, Modi invaded Maharashteros and was largely successful, yet not completely, as I think the young Dany will surely discover later in the story, you can be ever so powerful but you can’t control everything by threat and mere strong intention.

Real power comes from being behind the scenes sometimes. It takes a special amount of evil cunning and a willingness to go against anything and anyone…to bend every possible principle as and when it’s good to do so. And as we have recently discovered in Game of Thrones, that there was only one guy who was willing to go to any lengths to be in power-

Sharad Pawar = Lord Baelish (Littlefinger)

Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some, are given a chance to climb. They refuse, they cling to the realm or the gods or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is….

The only difference between Baelish and Pawar is that Baelish is a fictional character and hence a bit more dramatic, who would actually go on to say something like this, but read it again and tell me that you don’t believe that deep down in some corner of the dark murky organ that pumps that delirious lust for power in his body that Pawar has for a heart, he really believes  in the above mentioned lines.

Just like Baelish, Pawar will switch alliances before you can spell alliances properly, he will charm, deceive, cajole or fight and do it all without once batting an eyelid. He is the one man who has discovered that a Kingmaker is more powerful than the King. That real power comes not from showing it but by making things happen at all costs. Also like Baelish, he shamelessly uses all things that are convenient to cementing his position. He will declare himself, a farmer when supporting farmers, an industrialist when supporting industries, a patron of arts and sports when it suits him, a Hindu when it suits him, a proud Maharashtrian when it’s appropriate, a supporter of secularism and crusader against sectarianism when it isn’t. Also, don’t forget the caste-ism. The kind of open hatred he reserves for Brahmins while himself belonging to an upper caste, owning so much land that one could solve any malnourishment problems in Maharashtra by selling it and marrying his daughter off to one, is just some marvelous hypocrisy at work. He also likes pretending to champion the cause of minority empowerment without actually doing anything constructive for it. Everybody knows how corrupt he is but nobody can do anything about it. Time and again, he manages to get away with so many things that would have others sinking quicker than in quicksand.

This is because unlike Baelish, Pawar does have some redeeming qualities. In some ways, if I had to compare him to another TV character, he shows a few traits of Walter White (Breaking Bad), in terms of how a genius can slowly go crazy for power. Pawar has done some good things for Maharashteros, he has brought some development to his pet regions, and is a proud Maharashtrian none-the-less. He is still the sole Marathi Manoos after his mentor - the great Yashwantrao Chavan- who seemed capable of being the Prime Minister some day. But in my opinion, power has got him, corrupted him to such an extent that now he can't see anything beyond cementing his power locally. 
He seems to have so many things going on behind the scenes that even Chanakya would look at Pawar and say-'Dude, that's just way too much'. It's not even about money for him now, there is only so much you can accumulate before you start getting bored. Nothing matters for him now, no family, no honor, no titles, nothing. Its almost like a game for him now. A Game of...

Dictators, Morons and Cry-babies

“You know why this is the worst prison in the world….Hope…Over the years, many have tried to escape but failed miserably…you see without hope there cannot be true despair..”

-          Bane

In case you haven’t seen the movie, (I am holding myself from damning you to hell), but still just in case you haven’t seen the movie, the scene refers to a prison where Bane was himself incarcerated for majority of his life (perhaps even born there) and where he has now imprisoned Bruce Wayne to break the latter’s spirit. The prison is an underground dark pit…but it’s peculiar point is a hole about the size of a well right in its centre…which gives light and well…hope for escape. One can see the light…the sky…there are crevices in the wall from which one can dream of climbing through…but it’s a life threatening climb that looks just easy enough to do…but of course isn’t. That’s the worst thing isn’t it…if one has resigned himself to Destiny…if one has given up all hope, he is free…free from the burden of effort…of trying…of struggle. But as long as there is something that keeps feeding you a hint of an opportunity, it will continue to tease you by that mere possibility…by trying to gasp that little chance of escape to a better life.

In a movie so blatantly laden with themes of democracy, citizen’s revolution and personality cults, many would not equate this famous prison scene from The Dark Knight Rises to be an ideal description of democracy…but this scene almost quite sums up my philosophical views on the Indian democracy. I said philosophical because even though political ideology involves philosophical influences to a large extent, politics has always had an engaging affair with practicality that philosophy sometimes steers clear of.

As I have always made clear, my views of Indian politics, have veered from true democracy to socialism to autocracy and anarchy, (yes, anarchy even before the Joker and V for Vendetta made it super cool). Now, before you start accusing me of just not being firm on my beliefs…well what the fuck is the point if your beliefs don’t evolve over the years…each and every great thinker, leader, politician etc. has gone through a phase to settle on framing their own ideas…to stick to one set of ideas all your life is an insult to human evolution.  However, that’s not to say that you can change your principles as and when it suits you….(only politicians get to do that) but what I believe is that your core principles do remain the same and though you might commit to different ideas in public…there are core ideas which you believe are true no matter what and they will influence your life after a certain age. According to the Indian govt. (and most governments world over), an individual supposedly achieves that at age 18. As though a switch is magically switched on and people suddenly start knowing who is better at framing their tax policy at the same age when the only two things that matter (at least to guys) are…..

Although, philosophical ramblings apart, I do agree that we have to set a barrier to allow people to participate in democracy, but as I have made clear in my previous article….since when did age become the only determining factor…what about literacy and education (not the same thing)…so currently my views have evolved on Meritocracy. And I believe, I will settle at that…it involves all my core ideas…equal opportunity…Intelligence…distribution of power and ensuring morons aren’t in-charge.

Speaking of morons, as to how our democracy resembles Bane’s prison…well, it offers people a false hope…a chance for change…by permitting anybody to participate in its governing process. However by allowing seamless participation it’s allowed all kinds of assholes to enter into positions of power by the only merit of being born in the right family and/or using their caste/money to be popular amongst a section of people, which has seriously eroded our standards of governance. Although, popularity is seldom a mark of efficiency and in politics, one man’s hero will always be the other man’s villain…after probably the first generation of politicians who were also freedom fighters of some sort… no other politician has enjoyed uniform acceptability in India. And those in power will always remain in power, they will never let the poor truly develop or never let the backward caste ever rise of the backwardness…they will sprout all kinds of pseudo-ideologies and stir up names of great leaders as and when needed to merely achieve the goal of being in power. Corruption will give birth to corruption. Casteism will give birth to casteism. But for the sole reason that we are a ‘democracy’ and still have a relatively fair election process that the people are not down in the streets going all ‘french revolution’ over their ass.

 

I bet the french have some unnecessarily long but romantic sounding word for this too...

This is how down in the dumps our system currently is…although I have written about electoral reforms and etc. before (which you can read here) I won’t go too deep into what the problems are.

But as Balasaheb Thackeray has once said, “Democracy in India is a guise under which the corrupt hide their sins”. And he couldn’t be more right.

However, coming to terms with practicality, since we all are stuck in Bane’s prison…we have to grab whatever chance…no matter how difficult or life-threatening it is…to lift ourselves into a better society. This is the thing about democracy again…Bane’s prison provides at least a chance…even if one in a million…an autocracy (like China) or a confused theocratic ‘democracy’ (yes am talking about the religiously extremist piece of shit failed state-Pakistan) does not. So time to take the chance…but like Bruce Wayne learns to do in the movie, he has to go without a safety rope…without a cushion of falling safely to go through. Fear of death…fear of failing is what drives him to make that epic final jump successfully.

What drove me to come back to this blog after a year…well, elections!... to be specific…and also finally doing 4 rounds in a period of 3 months to get my name enlisted in the voter’s list. OK before you go on, I came to Pune from Aurangabad right about age 19 and since, middle-class people have it harder than Bangladeshi illegal immigrants to get themselves registered, I couldn’t get it done until 7 years later. Not that I tried really hard before…it’s just that I was 19 and I had better things to worry about... 

Anyways, since the country is in a mood for change…I decided that this is the right time to get registered. Even though the only original reason I wanted to get registered was to merely exercise my right to give a middle finger to the system i.e. select the None Of The Above option (NOTA)…but there seems to be some hope on the streets.

Yes of course am talking about Modi and BJP, not that am a really big fan of him nor really a big fan of the BJP. But even as a 10 year old, I couldn’t bring it in my mind to support congress. And forget my own personal preferences, no matter how kattar a Congress supporter you are…let’s face it…they have done a real shit job in the past 10 years…all the scandals and populist schemes apart, the worst being having an impotent, uncharismatic PM who cant even move facial muscles rather than an entire country. 

Not that BJP is the epitome of good governance or something…but hey let’s have a change at least for the heck of it. At least have some new scam-sters in place. Who knows they might get two-three things done in a better way than others. At least they seem to have some idea of where they are going. Unlike you know who

Besides, for those pseudo-liberals who think they are being so different and cool by pointing out that Modi hasn’t really done all the things he has said well…even if he has done two things like completing the Kutch irrigation canal and improving the city of Ahmedabad…that still is two more things than Congress did. Also, for the sake of practicality…if you are criticizing anything…a) you should be the one actually doing something about it or b) you should have a better option/comparison to offer. I agree things aren’t ideal etc etc…well here is a secret…I ideally want to have a three some with Malaika Arora and Monica Belluci…ideal yes…practical…fucking no…get the point?

As Rahul Gandhi’s rape on national television in that infamous interview by Arnab has proved, he is definitely NOT an option. 

And even before you mention AAP, Kejriwal may have ran away again. They call Modi a dictator, well Kejriwal is a cry-baby in comparison. Not efficient enough to be dictator, not calm enough to have at least a little childish charm like our little Prince.  Sure you can be a CM and sit on dharna…just the same way you can be a CEO and go on strike against your employees. But the fact is you CAN do it if you want to…just that if they weren’t listening to you in the first place no way as hell they are gonna listen to you now. Kejriwal is actually more of an embodiment of Bane’s ideas to torture Gotham…poison the people with hope and then take it all away suddenly. 

But anyways, lest this sound like another Modi advertisement…(really annoyed with all of those btw), I don’t really adore him as the perfect leader either (I reserve that title only for myself). His speeches are awful, he has been trying to create a one man personality cult around himself rather than project the ideas of the party. But that’s about it. He at least appears as though he could do something. Personally (and I think I speak for most people’s sentiments) I hate Congress more than I like Modi. No wonder people who haven’t earlier been on-board with the whole Sangh Parivar parties are now at least wondering about giving them another chance. They didn’t really do that bad during Vajpayee’s time if you ask me. But then to each his own, personally I would choose an efficient dictator over a cry baby or a bumbling moron anytime.

Moral of the story is…you HAVE to choose someone…even if its NOTA. Don’t lose out on the opportunity to make a difference. Please do vote for any goddamn party you want. But do exercise your right. Even if imperfect, currently it is the only option we have. Go ahead…Take a Leap of Faith.

And as South Park once said “Democracy sometimes means having to choose between a douche and a turd..” Your Choice.