Foolish Indians

[Guest guest]

 How many fools are there in India? This type of questions Akbar used to ask

Birbal. As expected, Birbal would give an answer that completely satisfied the

Emperor. He would have given an intelligent answer to this question too. It is

undoubtedly difficult to estimate the number of fools. However, a person named

Markanday Katju has figured out this riddle with remarkable ease and astonishing

exactitude. 

 

Mr Katju is a retired Supreme Court judge. Now he is the chairperson of the

Press Council of India. He says 90 % of the Indians are fools. It is an

extraordinary observation. However, this would shock only a fool because Katju

is inclined to make severe remarks. A few months back he had his audience

dangerously excited when he said there is no freedom for the press in Bihar.

This got him a vociferous response from a section of the audience, but he stood

his ground. In fact, he responded with an angry outburst at the protestors. It

is strange for a judge to have such a fiery temperament.

A fool is someone who is not sensible and lacks good judgment. A fool is what a

wise person is not. It is not clear how Katju arrived at a concrete figure of

90% in describing the level of foolishness in India. It is further unclear what

his definition of a fool is. I will start with myself: Am I one among the

majority? I have no hesitation in admitting that I have proclivity for

foolishness sometimes. Apparently, it is an act of foolishness, but it is

something else that compels a man to act that way. Therefore, foolishness is

secondary to the motive. What is logical to one person is foolish to others. I

wonder how Katju categorizes himself. Alternatively, how others categorize him?

Katju often reserves harsh words for the system in our country. Hence, we should

see his statement in the context of the structure and functioning of the system.

In actuality, what we see as foolishness is not what Katju wants us to believe.

Mamata driven crazy by an innocuous cartoon seems foolishness, but it is not so.

Her actions reflect paranoia, petulance and pettiness. Mayawati spending

millions on her massive mansions is not a fool, but greedy in a pathological

sense. Kalamadi’s misdeeds as the president of the IOA were the result of

extreme cunning and not due to foolishness. The recent ruckus in the parliament

over a cartoon showing Ambedkar is foolishness at first instance, but only shows

the worship of false Gods. Manmohan’s disturbing silence makes him look like a

fool, but, in reality, it is severe cognitive inertia.  

A few persons are certainly there who have probably influenced Katju’s

thinking on the prevalence of foolishness in India. Referenced against the Katju

Scale of foolishness, Laloo remains the clear winner. SM Krishna chose the most

suitable venue to display his foolishness: he read out the speech (reportedly

written in Portuguese) of another delegate in the UN Assembly.  Then, only a

real fool is capable of saying at a press conference that dog shit on a bed (it

happened at the Commonwealth Games village) is no cause for concern because

Indians have different standards of hygiene.

Ninety percent of any group is an overwhelming majority. That fools constitute

90% of the total population is a startling discovery. Mr Katju would have done

well to give us guidelines to identify a fool because wrongly labeling anyone a

fool would be unpardonable foolishness.

Bharat