- Valson Thampu
Shashi Tharoor began his political stint in India, if you remember, with a fortuitous tremor. His off-the-cuff Tweet in September of 2009, sneering to ‘travel “cattle class in solidarity with all our holy cows” provoked an immediate and immoderate backlash. Tharoor snapped, if I remember aright, in response to the controversy his three-months stay in a five-star hotel in Delhi stirred up at a time when the government of which he was a minister had pledged itself to austerity measures.
Jayanti Natarajan, at that time a feisty Congress spokesperson -who, subsequently sought and found greener pastures in BJP- admitted the phrase as “unacceptable,” but sought to paper over the offence, attributing Tharoor’s idiomatic faux pas to his ignorance of ‘local sensitivities, as he was new to politics’.
I published an article in the Hindu titled Humour As Heresy (https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/Humour-and-heresy/article16882816.ece) in order to bail him out, feeling obliged to do so in my capacity as the principal of his Alma Mater. I did so for a specific reason. Expressions, like the one that caused the offence, were blasé in the Stephanian lingo. A Stephanian was supposed to have an attitude; and that attitude had to be, in the days that Shashi and others like him, were students of St. Stephens, irreverently elitist. A flair for irreverence is the hors d’oeuvre of elitism. In a sense, the plight of Shashi Tharoor is an interesting case study on the dynamics of elitism in public life in general, and in politics in particular.
Shashi Tharoor’s political journey is a case study on the dynamics of elitism, where loyalty is not to a party but to a class. His growing discomfort within the Congress and a proportional pull towards the BJP can be seen as the consequence of a party losing its elitist flair.
So, a word about elitism. An elite prides himself on his presumed superiority to the web of humanity surrounding him. Further, he feels obliged to highlight all possible markers of distinction in relation to the plebeians. (Tharoor’s mesmerising mastery of English served him well in this respect, especially in Kerala.) The elite also feels naturally and necessarily entitled to special entitlements just for being elite. An elite is obliged to be ill-at-home among the commonfolk, whose adulation is welcome, but not their proximity or familiarity. An elite feels one with elites everywhere. Elitism transcends all barriers by the high premium it puts on power, prestige and privilege. Also, the elite feel resentful when they are treated on par with others.
The discomfort that Tharoor has been feeling of late within the Congress is due to the fact that political elitism has evaporated from that party. The Congress High Command ‘parivar’ has a small ‘p’, whereas the BJP ‘Parivar,’ has a capital ‘P’! It makes you feel small, no? How does a self-conscious elite deal with the loss of the elitist flair of the party to which he happens, alas, to belong? Well, he becomes resentful. He feels that the party is doing him an injustice. Soon enough he begins to feel that the party doesn’t deserve him any longer. It is erroneous to see Tharoor’s suffocation within the Congress as issuing only from his having been denied ‘due recognition’. The point is that every recognition within the party has lost its value for Tharoor. Even if he is made the president of the party, in place of Kharge, he would still feel disenchanted, though, perhaps, in a more circumspect way.
Among the rank and file, there will be thousands who’d stay stoutly faithful to a party for old-time’s-sake. Not so, an elite; especially one who is a lateral entry. The idea of sacrificing one’s interest for the sake of party, whose fortunes are waning, is alien to the ethos of the elite. The loyalty of an elite will not be to a party, but to the elite as a class, wherever they may be found. So, it makes eminent sense that to the extent the Congress loses political elitism, and BJP gains it, the pull towards the latter increases proportionately.
The transformation of St. Stephen’s College from a ‘mission’ to an ‘elitist’ institution highlights a critical question for Christian education today: Are we equipping individuals for predatory self-seeking, or for public-spirited citizenship that upholds constitutional values and social justice?
Unsurprisingly, Tharoor felt palpable satisfaction in being called upon to lead one of the delegations to explain Operation Sindhoor overseas. It is even less surprising that he accepted the invitation in a manner that was calculated to rifle his partymen; as if to say, “Look, all of you down there, how high I’m flying!”
Having so situated himself, Tharoor faces the pressing need to perk up his worth in the newly acquired niche. It can be done only at the expense of his ‘own’ party. So, now when Tharoor takes a bird’s eye view of the Congress, only one thing looms large: the infamous Emergency! That this is timed to sync with BJP’s going to town with the 50th anniversary of the event is not exactly coincidental. From here on, Tharoor can thrive only by serving as a Trojan Horse within the Congress. This is unlikely to bug his conscience overmuch.
I note the above with a tinge of guilt as a fellow Stephanian. Almost for half a century I agonised over the self-contradiction that St. Stephen’s College had become. Founded by Cambridge missionaries, and significantly christened ‘St Stephen’s Mission College’, the college underwent a total deformation. The word ‘mission’ was omitted from the name of the College. Today, every Stephanian will recoil if they are reminded of the original name of the institution. The word ‘mission’ is anathema to them. Mission has yielded to elitism. During my tenure as principal, I fought a bleeding battle to open the heart of the institution to social justice. It was denounced by all concerned as an attempt to ruin the academic excellence of the college. I could disprove that myth. During my tenure, the college became the best among all colleges in India for all the courses taught there for the very first time in its history. From experience I make bold to avow that practising social justice can revitalise the very soul of an institution, provided it is undertaken as a spiritual mission on which one is willing to stake one’s life.
The time has come for us to ask what Christian mission in education needs to be today. Should we arm and equip individuals to relate to the national context in predatory self-seeking? Or, should we equip young men and women to be public-spirited citizens who respect the core values of the Constitution and stand up for basic values and ideals?
Let us no longer boast that 80% of the ruling elite of India have gone through the portals of Christian educational institutions. Let us, rather, confess our failure in humanising them via education. Remember what Ignatius Loyola said? True education takes people closer to God. Practising education of that order is perhaps the best mode of patriotism we can practise at the present time.
