Holy cow mindset

For a country where the wit of Birbal and Tenali Raman is legendary and comedy films are sureshot hits, Indians, especially our political class, seem to have a poor sense of humour. The recent controversy over minister of state for foreign affairs Shashi Tharoor’s remarks on the ‘race for austerity’ was a classic case. All hell broke loose when Tharoor, who uses Twitter regularly, “tweeted” and expressed solidarity with the “holy cows” to travel “cattle class” on a flight. His own Congress party rebuked him for demeaning the “common man” who travels economy class. As for the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, this was a good chance to get talking. Commenting on the issue, a BJP spokesman solemnly said on TV that equating the “cattle class” with the “holy cow” was equally offensive to Indian tradition. A friend, unable to restrain his laughter, called me up and told me about the BJP spokesman’s comment. In any other country, the spokesman would have been ridiculed for this reaction, he said. The term, holy cow, originated during British rule, inspired by the respect shown to cattle, mainly cows, whom no one in India removed even if it blocked a busy road, to denote a person or behaviour that was so respected that any criticism of it or jokes was unthinkable. It was finally left to prime minister Manmohan Singh to diffuse the situation by terming Tharoor’s statement as a “joke.” However, the issue highlighted two big questions. First, for all the concern about the common people, has the Congress or any party addressed the “cattle class” conditions in which most Indians travel daily, be it buses or trains? Second, the debate exposed the generational divide in Indian politics between tech savvy political leaders and those still clinging to ideas that are fast losing utility. Do politicians — in government and the Opposition — ever identify with the common people while living in palatial bungalows?