Karl Marx called it commodity fetishism—treating people as if they are commodities to be bought and sold. Indian democracy has now shamelessly gone one step lower. People are not people; they are voters to be bought and sold. There is no misery bad enough, no tragedy great enough which a political leader cannot turn to his or her advantage. Every pain has a price but the price of the pain can only be decided by a political auction in the election bazaar. There is no market failure in politics. All can be had for purchase if you have enough money.

The money, of course, comes in the form of bundles of notes with Mahatma Gandhi’s smiling face. That makes it alright since we pretend the Mahatma is blessing things done in his name. In Ahmedabad, people die of drinking illicit liquor. Prohibition is of course a guarantee that alcohol will be freely available but that the poorer people will get unhealthy hooch while the elite can smuggle Johnny Walker for their consumption. But death does not matter because the Gujarat government can pay compensation. Prohibition will not be removed since as everyone knows political parties live off illicit money given by the pliers of illicit trade. Thus it was in the Bombay state when I was a teenager in the Fifties and Morarji Desai was Chief Minister.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has added insult to injury by saying that the state has prohibition because the BJP is a Gandhian party. But he is determined to hang the culprits. For a devout RSS man like Modi to claim Gandhi for himself is what the Jews call chutzpah. But then in true RSS style, he wants to announce the punishment before trial and on what he no doubt thinks his Gandhian beliefs death penalty is his answer. I take it that the death will occur non-violently. Will he insist they go on a fast unto death or will they merely be made to drink the hooch which killed the others?

... contd.