This post is authored by my Twitter friend valhalla_ in response to the media-created “porngate” in the Gujarat assembly.
"An intellectual is a person who’s found one thing that’s more interesting than sex." ~ Aldous Huxley
Everybody is not a Narendra Modi who treads the life of a warrior monk. Most politicians are normal people who have joined politics to get rich quick or wield power, and they have normal sexual instincts just as everybody else. Had they no power they would have fantasized about a sexy Vidya Balan just like the guy next door. Now, because of their political position, they can actually realize all their lecherous dreams (read: Amar Singh, Mulayam Singh, Kamal Nath etc). This is the truth, and the Indian masses know that our so called leaders have rather colorful lives; yet we hanker after this image of chastity and poverty that our leaders should have. Its a vicious circle of the hypocritical expectations of society and the corresponding hypocritical behaviour of our politicians.
When you’re born and brought up in India sex, sexuality and porn more so, are taboo words. Inevitably curiosity gets the better of most adolescents, and most of us did satisfy our curiosity by reading, viewing whatever sexual information we could clandestinely. We were sure that our parents, teachers, neighbours and society at large would look down upon us if we were caught even thinking anything sexual. The unfortunate adolescent who does get caught gets a rundown by everyone from the grocer, to the watchman, to the nosy old aunty next door and of course his own saintly parents.
But then one grows up, matures, experiences life, and our heavily indoctrinated views on the morality of sex and all things sexual undergoes a very natural change. But it seems the Indian Politician is still stuck in the adolescent stage. Whether it is an old ND Tiwari or a young (well now that’s debatable I know) Rahul Gandhi, they all seem to be stuck in this time warp. To catch an MP watching porn seems to be the biggest deal to the opposition. If you analyze this a wee bit, it stems from the belief that a politician has to adhere to this prefixed image of an ideal family man with high morals. The Karnataka MP accused in the first porngate scandal bought every newspaper in his constituency to protect his image. Rahul Gandhi is forty plus, and it’s really ok if he has a Columbian/Venezuelan…now I think it’s an Afghanistani girlfriend. But the Congress party will go to any length to hide this fact to maintain his ‘image’. The Gujarat MLA accused of watching porn empathetically wailed that he ‘never’ watched porn. Practically nobody believes him. But why use the word ‘never?’
When one is in public life, one has to maintain an image, and adhere to societal norms. But then that’s what differentiates the real leaders, the great men from the usual political rabble. A Rahul Gandhi has the whole Congress party trying to build and maintain his image according to what should be, and not what is. Whispers are rampant about his Afghanistani girlfriend (in my eyes that’s perfectly alright, he has the right to date who ever he fancies), but the image his coterie of advisors are building is that of a selfless worker dedicated to the nation who has no place for these personal life shenanigans. The Congress should look back to their own great leaders MK Gandhi and Nehru and their lives.
Do todays politicians think they honor Gandhi by wearing Khadi? Do they honor Nehru by wearing a Nehru cap? It is an insult to the memory of these great men who were so individualistic, so firm and steadfast in their beliefs. If you want to honor them, be man enough to follow what you truly believe in. How can a people-pleaser or someone who is so unsure of his owns morals that he needs the party agenda to adhere to, be my leader?
For Gandhi, sex was an obstacle to the kind of puritan life he aspired to live. Yet there was no hypocrisy there because he freely wrote about his experimentation. And Nehru the dapper widower, finding love again in the arms of a married woman, the Viceroy’s wife not less! For him it was something very normal, very natural. There was nothing murky, clandestine about his relationship with Edwina. Neither of these great men cared about their so called ‘image’ so as to modify their lives according to what would be more acceptable.
The control of the sexual urge is perhaps the most difficult form of spiritual/disciplinary practice. It is advised for highly evolved souls. Can every man in whom the animal instinct is dominant, succeed in subduing it? Can every man be a Swami Vivekananda? Well, according to the great Swami himself, the answer is yes. But for every Narendra Modi who single mindedly tries, there are a million Shankar Chaudhry’s and Jetha Bharwads who single mindedly concentrate on farcical image building. Only if they would concentrate on character building instead! Reminds me of Margaret Thatchers brilliant quote
“Watch your thoughts for they become words. Watch your words for they become actions. Watch your actions for they become…habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character. And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny! What we think we become.”