Wünschelrute

The consequences of the power cuts that affected India these last few days will, to my mind, illustrate dramatically well the problems that lie in the perception of the conflict and the means by which they are, allegedly, being taken care of.
To the song of the people, taking the occasion of the electrical disaster to claim the right for equality and dignity, on a far wider scale than electrical supply, two answers will come: political "rationality", and nuclear power.

The tragedy of a nation of a billion and more being thrown into darkness for a few days, will not give way to discussion, to conflict per se: defined by Park (1864-1944) as an open and conscious confrontation of positions. At the opposite, it will cause a closure of the spectrum, a search for answers, denying a time for questions. The outage is not even over and we see the crocodiles swimming swiftly to the prey. The Gujarat CM rises (I do not intend to write a name that I devoid of any importance as a person, and certainly do not want to enter sterile confrontations, inside the confrontation that I am dealing with, in a movement of vicious circle going inward, swallowing and drowning the dissented voices), in front of a danger for India, a danger he had foreseen for a long time, a danger that can only be avoided with more development, more no-nonsense – another word for rationality - , following a road on which Gujarat is bearing the flag, as uncontested first. The facts are all there: number 1 State for employment, growth, no power outage, up to date roads and infrastructures in most parts. In one word: Metropolis, leading India and perhaps the world in the new forms growth has to take in the young century. No need to enter in a discussion putting in perspective other indicators and other events, less flattering for M the Magnificent , that have happened in Gujarat, they are no proofs, they are clues, clues that there is something missing, something that should be at the heart of any human enterprise. This black hole, we can name it in many ways: other voices, responsibility, freedom of speech, attention to reality and not numbers, some may say democracy but let us stay sober, let us say it is a lack - I am no reference voice and certainly do not want to act the way I condemn by covering a reality with a louder voice, let the facts speak by themselves.

And what is proposed to India, what will come after the first speeches of defiance and complaints, is the deepening of the hole. The lack has to be dug and extended all around India. The amnesia will come, forced amnesia, by convenience, as if the citizens were realizing that they had used something they should had got rid of from the beginning. What was the purpose of all that anyway? Why did we bother in the first place? Why did we even give it a chance to existence? Well, first of all, because what will be jeopardized has always been at the heart of India since it is a nation. What is it if not the moderation and fear that retained the freedom fighters from so many actions, making them fear power so much, including their own? What is it if not the will that made India become one of the leaders of the non aligned countries during the Cold War? Well, this voice has been raised, and this voice has been shut quietly, softly, in the long run. Again, it is vulgar to use public figures for any argument, that is why I shall not name guilty ones, if there are some more guilty than the other, maybe there are too many, maybe they have participated in a movement that is so widely accepted right now in India that it could be dangerous – not for my person, I'm not that paranoid, but for my writing, being then disqualified as hatred, the main weapon for the one who does not want to listen: accusing your opponent of hatred – but it is to be said that this way of disqualifying reality was born right after Independence, and imported from the lands that are now seen as past slavers, now enemies, soon slaves. How can the victim become the tyrant? Look everywhere, but look East especially I shall say. This is what happens to peoples who want to shut the Song of the world after having used it, made a nation rise using its strength.

The Song of the world, the music that has always come from underneath, the movement that has been let through by stupid or repentant powers, is now about to be shut for decades in the very country where it is the most sensible, hence the country where it had never to stop and drive a power that would always be reminded of its imposture, always asking forgiveness and listen to this voice.

This song which comes from so many fields, from so many mouths, from the university and the gutter, the written words and the plain scream, this song is overtaken by speeches, louder only, not more reasonable or understandable, languages made of numbers, of science, of rationality. This song is buried in the ground of common tombs, in the waters that rise after the construction of a dam, in the museums and History books, in administrative forms and letters, in judiciary procedures, in words and words again in the press, the constant nonsensical stammering that is TV and newspapers.
The Song that sounds after this electrical nightmare, a complaint asking for relief, equality - in one word: to deal with reality - will again be buried, first trampled on by politics, then by nuclear power that is of course the only answer to this situation. Is it an answer to the Song? Not, and the Song will only be turned into a mere pretext, a pedestal for new voices to cover it.

This shut down has names and present manifestations, but what need is there to spell them out? All this will vanish in the wind, leaving bruises and eventually the room for other slavers to shut down the Song of the World in a mechanic of numbers and steel. We could hope for the day the song will become so powerful and pregnant with threats that a revolution will come. But everybody knows this only bring at first hope, then despair, burying again the singing. How can we end this cycle? This is the only question that matters to us now, even before thinking about the ways to make the Song sing, for the ones that want to shut it will never sleep. Get ready I say! Intelligence is not a competition among us, it is a fight against them.