OFF THE CUFF

THE SWORD OF DEMOCRACY

In a couple of days, India will have a new Parliament: in the old lingo, a new Temple of Democracy.

On this occasion, I pray for the regeneration of India, our democratic culture, and our moral fibre as a people.

Only, I wish this tremendous occasion in our history weren't marred by fissures and divisiveness.

Here's a thought uppermost in my mind, as I look forward to the great event-

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In order to symbolize the TRANSFER OF POWER from the British to the Indian hands, a Chola symbol was used. The pontiff (the priest has to be there, you see), of Thiruvavaduthurai Aadeenam presented the 'Sengol' (a golden sword) to Nehru.

From a spiritual point of view, the significant thing to note is that the SWORD, the symbol of power, becomes the symbol of FREEDOM.

Power and freedom become one.

The historical fact is that the sword is the enemy of freedom. It was the sword -its British variant of the gun- that enslaved India. Prior to that the Mughal sword had conquered India.

Power enslaves. Love liberates.

It is not an accident that politically the most despised thing in India is LOVE. In contrast, HATE has gone up in pride and prestige.

The pity is that human imagination cannot liberate itself from its bondage to the sword. Man's faith is not in God, but in the sword.

You can imagine religion without God, but you cannot imagine religion without the sword. It was to mark this unchanging truth that the priest handed over the sword to Nehru.

Now you can understand why, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus issued the spiritual Command, 'Put down the sword'. You would expect the One who came to set humanity free to do that, won't you?

From now onwards, the Sengol will adorn the Lok Sabha, as its most visible, obtrusive symbol.

India has changed a lot since Nehru's receiving the Sengol from Mountbatten. But in this one respect nothing has changed. Freedom remains identified with the sword. If anything, that correspondence is more explicit and emphatic.

The sword survives Old India into New India.

The opposition parties are naive and stupid in expecting anyone other than Modi to inaugurate the New Parliament of India. The proprieties that they talk about don't apply here. As a matter of fact, it would be terribly inappropriate for Srimati Murmu, the Hon'ble President of India, to inaugurate the Parliament building. Modi, and Modi alone, is the Architect of the New India, rising in front of our eyes. He is also its High Priest.

He has the sole right to inaugurate if we are to be factual and faithful to reality.

The Opposition Parties realize this. That is why they choose to sulk and stay away.

The Sengol in its present avatar symbolizes the liberation of India from the rule of parties other than the BJP. [Congress-mukt Bharat was its curtain-raiser.] It marks the culmination, expected to be completed through the general election of 2024, of what ils envisaged as the Second Liberation of India.

Now power has to pass on from the hands of the pretenders to its rightful heir.

What is envisaged is an epochal shift. India, as we have known her these many years, is giving way to its new avatar.