MNCs and their passively active political experts

India is a democracy and people are entitled to harbour their own political opinions. Even the corporate slaves who are too lazy to wake up in the morning and get their index fingers drenched in the black ink of suffrage are free to proclaim who they think could lead their beloved country up the path of long lost glory or drag it into the abyss of perpetual third-worldliness.

One might think that the MNC offices, the glass high rises which seem so lofty as to be free from the miseries which plague the rest of the lower storey India are free from political bias, that a generally higher rate of literacy has made their inhabitants immune to the logic-defying promises of the ever spurning breed of politicians, but that is far from the truth. People who clamber down these glass cages in the evening for a small smoke break (affectionately called the sutta break — so that it seems like it’s good for their health, like a power nap or an exercise break) harbour hefty arguments in their guts which they release with occasional puffs of flavoured smoke.

Kejriwal is plotting his own doom trying to cuddle up to Shiela Dixit, an analyst might muse, people, will soon teach him a lesson. But the counter believer is not far away and the scent of politics blended cigarette smoke brings him closer. No, he would say, that is a masterstroke. But masterstrokes are reserved for Amit Shah, believes an elderly bald guy who might be observing politics since the time of Lord Mountbatten. He is the same person whose eyes twinkle when he gets an opportunity to publicize Modi, just like when he pitches an LIC policy to his colleagues to get some welcome money in commissions. In such disparate political arena, some arguments flare too much and spill into work. So when a yearly performance review goes sour it is logical for the victim to complain that he had the guts to stand up to the tyrant boss and his evil axis of Akhilesh and Mayawati.

Just as leaders form an important part of the discussion so do political decisions and events. When Pakistan was bombed by Mirages, it seemed like half the people discussing the event were on the planes flying sorties while the other half were on the ground getting their innocent heads pelted by laser-guided bombs. There were arguments and counter-arguments and vows of never having a sutta-break with certain anti-national or vice versa gullibly foolish people again. As and when more news tumbled in, the discussions were refined and sometimes the parties changed their places liberally accepting that they had been misguided.

In this entire muddle, there are also people who care not a bit about what happens in their country; they are more concerned about the price of Netflix subscription or the new season of an American fantasy series. They are, however, often caught between the crossfire. Like the innocent villagers on the India Pakistan border, they have nothing to do with either party but are sure to lose a couple of their sheep, the shed of their battered house and a brother, sister or cousin. These politically dormant people suffer at work as suddenly the only things being discussed in office are things they have no clue about. Thus feeling left out they cannot focus on work and it’s still a month for the next season of Game of Thrones to air. They are suddenly faced with the epiphany that they are doing nothing with their life.

It’s natural for people to have a strong opinion about something which has a deep bearing on their and their children’s future. This political activism, however, does not translate into anything more meaningful than the debates. Hardly any of the searing debaters are ever found waiting in a queue ready press a button on the voting machine. All the investment of previous months translates into nothing. People prefer to sleep on the day of voting, they find it more refreshing (and important for their future). Why does that happen?

It’s simple, indulging in the discussion on politics is nothing more than an effort to keep their minds off work, not unlike the sutta break or the Game of Thrones series, a way to keep their minds indulged on other lesser things while ignoring the more basic stresses of promotion, trouble with wife, under-performing child, mortgaged house, problems which have the potential to make them truly miserable. In discussing politics, a hazy and uncertain future, they escape a certain and lingering reality. It’s easier after all to bash/pin-all-hopes-on Modi/Mayawati/Mamta believing that somehow only they are responsible for the future.

People might grumble about such dichotomy of the working class. But then aren’t politicians meant to make people’s lives better, cure them of their ills. Does it really matter then if they act as a temporary painkiller instead of an enduring antibiotic?

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