My Take On Bhaktology

One of the qualities of Bhakts which never fails to baffle me is their undying loyalty to the current regime. I would like to coin a term for this loyalty. I will call it the Bhakt Quotient. There was a time when I too had a Bhakt Quotient of 100%. This was before the year 2014. And in the past five years my Bhakt Quotient has reduced to a mere 5% and even that minuscule percentage is because there are still one or two issues on which I agree with the current regime’s ideology. So effectively I am no longer a Bhakt as I find you have to have a Bhakt quotient of at least 50% to qualify as a Bhakt.

I do get into arguments with Bhakts frequently on Facebook and Twitter and I find their Ostrich like quality of burying the head in the sand, and providing inane arguments based on Whatabouttery a bit inexplicable. Recently I had an argument with a gentleman who is a scientist and also a co-blogger. I mentioned umpteen things that have gone wrong (like lynchings and joblessness) in the last 5 years to make him understand my stand that the current regime’s tenure has been a failure.

The gentleman pointed out that these things have been happening in the past also and what were liberals like me doing at that time? He asked me why we liberals (or should I say libtards, for that seems to be the term for anyone who questions the establishment these days) did not question it when they happened in the past. I replied politely and told him that yes, these things had happened in the past and yes they were a matter of concern and people did condemn them.

But to justify the current lapses on the basis of what had happened in the past is nothing short of foolishness. I further pointed out that there have been 13 regimes in power before the current one. I asked him to name the tenure of one regime during which ministers and MPs from the government have appeared publicly on television and told fellow panellists and other citizens of India to go to Pakistan.

I pointed that this is the first time this has happened in our country. When the gentleman in question did not have any replies he again came back at me using the same old tactics of pointing out past errors. I finally gave up in disgust.

I would just like to mention that today it is the BJP which is in power (this may or may not change soon). But if some other party comes to power soon, it becomes the duty of the media and the citizens to hold the government in question, responsible for their actions whomsoever they may be.

In the FB exchange I had described above I found I was repeatedly receiving ridiculous replies based on things that had happened in the past from a scientist of all people. The reason I have written such an elaborate post is to point out that no matter who is in power we need to hold the regime accountable for their actions. This is our constitutional duty.