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Why Arrogance?

Why Arrogance?


Why Arrogance?

By Deepak Parvatiyar
- Would you hurl expletives at others in front of children, especially your own daughter? Ask Shahrukh Khan!
- Would you support someone accused of offending the modesty of a lady? Ask Siddharth Mallya!
- Would you walk out of a television show if asked some questions about your certain actions?Ask Mamata Banerjee!
- Would you get outraged by a cartoon on late BR Ambedkar when Ambedkar himself had never found anything objectionable about it when it was first published way back in 1949?Ask our MPs!
So what is common between Shahrukh Khan, Siddharth Mallya, Mamata Banerjee and our MPs?

It’s anybody’s guess. They are the people who are looked upon as our icons. Shahrukh is a great entertainer, Siddharth, a scion of an influential business family. Mamata is a crusader par excellence who demolished the Left in their own bastion single-handedly; and our Parliamentarians, our representatives.

So do we feel let down when we find Shahrukh hurling abuses in the presence of her daughter? (I could never fathom a father doing this); or, Siddharth siding with Australian cricketer Luke Pomersbach who is accused of molesting an American cheer girl in Indian Premier League; or, Mamata branding college students on the sets of a TV show as “Maoists” before walking out when asked critical questions by them about her performance; or, our Parliamentarians failing to treat a cartoon as a cartoon and objecting its publication in school text book?
All these incidents happened within this week and please add to the list, the instance of rogues beating up three judges in a case of road rage in New Delhi.
 


All these incidents happened within this week and please add to the list, the instance of rogues beating up three judges in a case of road rage in New Delhi.

These incidents can not be treated as isolated cases. Collectively they reflect our arrogance which has come to such a boil today that we don’t understand the difference between a cartoon and an invective; we attribute motive to probity; we take pride in flaunting our chauvinism; and, we unabashedly replace tenacity with pugnacity.

The frequency of such a high handed behaviour in public is alarming. This has not happened overnight, yet it is more visible now. Arrogance is described as an “act of making undue claims in an overbearing manner”. Obviously this is a sign of our shortcomings. I wonder if our growing intolerance has any link with the growing gap between our aspirations and their fulfillment.

We aspire to be an economic superpower, but we grapple with inflation, fiscal deficit and current account deficit. We aspire to be a military super power but then we are reminded of our dependence on imported arms and severe shortage of ammunition vide the leaked letter of our army chief. We aspire to be a sporting nation, but suddenly find ourselves in the midst of a Commonwealth games scam…. etc. etc.

By using the same parameters, it will be easy to understand Shahrukh’s, Siddharth’s, Mamata’s or our MPs’ behaviour.

Despite his megastar status in Bollywood, Shahrukh is not a Nicholas Cage, Johnny Depp or Ben Stiller. His frequent detentions at the US airports are a testimony to this. Siddharth’s father’s business empire is in the red and that shows on his state of mind. Mamata’s arrogance is her strategy to survive, politically. As for our MPs, their arrogance is meant to deflect contentious issues!

So what about the men on the street? They are arrogant because their role models have failed them. Isn’t this the time to ponder more on the issue?

PS: I talked to a few school kids who had the Ambedkar cartoon published in their text book. They said they know how to take humour with a pinch of salt. Its time that we learn a lesson from these kids to laugh at the trivialities of life.
deepak@creative-isha.com
(The writer is a senior journalist and filmmaker)

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