Feku versus Pappu war: Which side are you?

I am no great Rahul fan. And consciously I could never endorse Narendra Modi’s policies. Yet the ongoing debate on the Feku versus Pappu hash tags on social media has left me amused. I want to join the debate with some of the arguments like if there was indeed a choice between a Feku and a Pappu and they happen to be the only available options, who would be then considered best for my nation and which side will I be.

First the Pappu…. My husband’s pet name is Pappu. In India almost every mohalla will have someone named Pappu or else identified as Pappu. Pappu is a pet name for an innocent, sweet child who was not into any crafty business.  Pappu is a dumb kid, would be ignorant of things, can be fooled easily but he is harmless. He might not have great achievements in life but he could be reliable, consistent and devoted.

Indeed it has been true that in India people make fun of the Pappus only because they were naïve and could not make their way up by any means.

If Rahul Gandhi symbolizes the Pappus of India, he could be the one representing many young Indians who have consistently worked all their lives and got nothing much in return. So when Rahul made friends with painter Girish in a train journey to Mumbai couple of years back I can understand his willingness to befriend another Pappu of the country.

I am particularly impressed when this emerging Pappu the leader, talks about India being a bee hive. I as a young student during early school days have written essays on the bee hive and how does it depict a great world in itself. The queen bee is the mother bee, identified for laying eggs and giving birth to the progeny even as the workers take care for rearing and advancing the community. The drones that happen to be the male bees die just after fertilizing the mother bee. And the rest of the community labors hard to collect the honey for the younger community to grow and prosper. What an amazing story of life and inclusive growth.

I identify with the hundreds of the worker community who would strive and toil for development growth and life of their own world. And most of we Indians have lived like them, happen to be them. So when the Pappu who is hoping to lead the ‘Pappuland’ talks about the beehive India his dream land, I see myself in it, my role in it.

Not that I would ever want to work and strive just like another worker bee but that where is the option. It is my world and it is the way I have lived all through.

Pappu talked of me, like me. Naïve with may be no great magic wand to undo things and only hopes of a refreshed new beehive. When he says that he is not a politician and wants to work as an ordinary worker, somehow I get a feeling that he is no queen bee but the ordinary worker bee just leading the swarm of bees towards finding honey. Or even if he was the queen bee, he could do little to change the bee hive. The hive grows big with collective effort and not just by one queen bee syndrome.

Now the Feku. I have known the Feku for some years now. He talks business, I am told. With his magic wand he took away the great Tata’s Nano project from West Bengal the sick, outdated, dying state to ‘Vibrant Gujrat’. Look at the ‘Gujrat Model’ people say. Roads are great, ports have potential, people are entrepreneurs and the air has vibrancy and enthusiasm. All big investors are moving there, investing….developing.

Feku advises people of moving ahead and not looking back to the gory past. People are prosperous, happy and positive. Feku talks of ‘Gujrat ki Asmita’ and any criticism to his era of golden rule is seen as a blow to the self respect of six crore people of Gujrati self respect.

Feku gives examples of the ‘Gujrat model’ of prosperity where everyone is an entrepreneur and a business woman innovated pizza with her add on desi recipe some two decades ago beacuse of the magic of Gujrat of today. How people have moved to Gujrat leaving other places for business and livelihood! I am amused..awestruck and wonder about the dream land and dream world.  

Actually the word Feku means ‘The Exaggerator’. As kids we would listen to ‘Feku’ frien ds and tell them ‘to give away more so that we could wrap around’. (fakiye fakiye hum lapette hain). I was just wondering how our ‘Feku’ friend can give away stories with such efficacy to make the concept of dreamland look so real. 

At least he does whatever he says, says one. Don’t you know what changes he has brought in these years of his tenure in Gujrat. ‘You can’t just keep living in the past of 2002’. “He has really changed Gujrat”. Have’nt you heard the stories of development?

I have…..I have heard so many stories of prosperity, development, vibrancy, investment, enthusiasm and advancement. I have heard of the ‘Gujrat model’ and have heard tales of self proclaimed ‘Vikas Purush’, and his so called ‘hard decisions’. Oh...I have heard tales of development as to how big investors patted the government and how investors find scope of development in the developed state.

Oh I keep hearing ….I kept hearing the tales from the Feku and keep wondering if these were fairy tales. Which government has been criticized vociferously by any investor ever? Were they not bestowing accolades, when the new government came to power out staging the communist rule in Bengal after thirty five years? Investors have to look up to the government for infrastructural support and politics free governance for smooth functioning of business. And they would do the same whether in Bengal or in Gujrat.

I know Feku keeps telling that people had voted him for three consecutive term. But people had done that to so many governments before and are doing that to so many governments now.  People had voted the communists in Bengal for seven consecutive terms before voting them out. The Congress had ruled the country for five terms before the emergency. But how does just ruling consecutive terms in a state make anyone eligible to rule the country. The question is do people know that the Feku wanted to make voting mandatory in his state through a bill or else prosecute people if they did not. Underlining, if there was a scope of also prosecuting people if they did not vote the Feku or ever dared question his concept of dreamland.

Feku’s regime is known to be mastering the art of fake encounters. I wonder if that was the origin of the name ‘ Feku’.  Or were they the tales from the Fekuland that went to the making of the ‘Feku’. Nowhere in India has ever seen senior police officers of the rank of DGP facing prosecution for fake encounters. How can this be attributed as the signs of prosperity?

Let’s not forget the Nano car showcased as greatest achievement of Feku regime was because the people of Singur did not give their farmland in exchange for cars. Let’s us also not forget that Feku wants people to forget that 2002 ever happened in his kingdom but never reaffirms that it will never be repeated. He has never expressed apology for failing to save his own people who also contribute to the six crore gujrati asmita. 

Feku talks of giving reservations to women political participation at grassroots panchayats forgetting the fact that the one bill that is still pending in his state has been implemented in many other states of this country and is a successful model. Feku forgets that women are not mere mothers, wives or daughters but equal citizens of the country. Women’s reservation in politics is actually inclusive politics and mere proposals do not make an achievement story.

Feku talks of the five crore Gujrati’s self respect and how he enjoys their support. Is it true that even sixty percent of the total vote of Gujrat were actually in his favour. Feku is on Facebook, on twitter but does he actually know how many people have access to Facebook or Twitter in his own state. Does he have a count as to how many people still are in refugee camps in his state? Does he have a figure as to how many people have been prosecuted and convicted for human rights violation in his prosperous state? Does he also have a figure that how many people in his own state did not go out during the day of elections and where do they live or which community they come from? 

Feku does not include me in his vision. I don’t figure in his success story. I am not included in the self respect account of the six crore Gujratis.

Where do then I figure in his tales? If the success story of six crore (mere hearsay) people showcase the life of one twenty one crore, it is a real fake assessment. 

I will not be for Feku as his estimation to attend to 1.27 billion Indians only through what he has done for much less than even the six crore people of his state is nothing less than just an over statement.