of Laajwanti, Gadkari and Vivekananda

Jupinderjit Singh


On my usual stroll in the small lawn of my house, I did my favourite refreshing and de-stressing exercise. It was to softly touch "Laajwanti".

Before you start dreaming about "Lajwanti" and or doubt my credentials, I must tell you almost all of us have indulged in this favourite pass time now or then.

"Laajwanti" or "Touch-me-not" as the small shy, coy herb, whose leaves shrink, as if folding within itself, when someone touches it.

The bashful, hypersensitive herb is still a mystery for scientists. Search on the Net has revealed no one was still able to clearly tell why and how it happens. It is definitely a very much alive variety of the plant world. No matter how you touch, it will react the same. You can caress. You can fondle. You can treat it rough. The reaction will remain the same.

As I got up finished with my daily morning harassing of the herb, I moved on to my next "unavoidable" activity- reading newspapers. There it was in bold headings and top of the page- Gadkari- the BJP president, beleaugured by corruption charges, in a soup over his remarks comparing the IQ- Intellegence Quotient of Swami Vivekananda and infamous Don-Dawood Ibrahim.

Gadkari reportedly said ( or wanted to say) that the IQ of two completely different persons- for example- Swami Vivekananda and Dawood Ibrahim - may be same but it is how they use it that mattered. He reportedly said Swami ji is hailed for positive use while Dawood is hated as he caused so many deaths and crime in India, including spreading drugs and terrorism.

There are calls for apologies or his resignation. I wasn't surprised. India, of late, live in and through statements made by oen person or the other. One full day is spent on making, analysing a statement and criticising it. And next on the reaction to the previous day's reaction.

Outside, Laajwanti was slowly opening its leaves again. It will be fresh and ready for its known reaction again. The so called experts from among the public too may be reading the newspapers and training their guns- some in offence, others in defence.

I care two hoots for Gadkari and his tribe. I have no love lost for the Dawood's. For me , they all are criminals. Their sole motive is to loot us. One comes with a gun, the other dressed in white. The second is most dangerous. It cheats us. It plays a fraud. It plays with our trust and feelings. To Hell with them.

Laajwanti was in full bloom now. My mind wandered to so many controversies in recent past which were based merely on statements by politicians or political leaders. There are so many "touch-me-nots" in our society. We cant say anything about them. And still we all are "touch-me-nots". We react fast and in expected manner. We dont go into the depth of words. We dont allow free discussion.

We can's say certain things about any religion even when we know the rubbish ingredients of those. A vice-chancellor of a University was sacked merely on his statement on women writers revealing graphic details about their sex life. Gadkari may be biting his lips. But havn't we been hearing the comparisons between Ram and Ravana- Pandavas and Kauravas or between a good king and a bad king. Can anyone doubt that Ravana's IQ was any way less than Ram. The way he introduced the concept of checking a person's pulse to know his health and his "gold city", he may have a better IQ, but the main thrust was how he used it. Was it for construction or destruction?

So many reams of paper, so much time on the tube has been wasted on the debate between Vivekananda and Dawood. It woudl ahve been better to debate over a policy or some actual action on the ground.

Statements are like bubbles in the air. There is no point fighting on those. They are as temporary as the bubbles.

Laajwanti may not have a brain to differentiate the kind of touch it was expereincing. Humans have. But again it boils down to how the brain is used.

ponder.

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