Is Rajan just a disease or a symptom of a much wider disease?
First, let me apologise for using this rather strong term to describe a man, for all his defects, is intelligent, erudite, and accomplished. With my limited English, I could not find anything better. There is no personal insult meant. I am merely questioning his politics which I am entitled to as a citizen.
Let us take each of the two options one by one and see where they fall. I leave it to you to be the judge!
First, let us consider if he is just a “disease” and not something worse.
His recent statements (and ones not so recent as well) have bordered on the bizarre and ludicrous. I would not bore you with the details since there are excellent articles that deal with that topic – such as the recent one by Karuna Gopal and Abhishek Banerji. I have also written about his assault on PLI and manufacturing which were dangerous. Other renowned academics have confirmed I was on the right track by saying India needs manufacturing jobs.
His open endorsement of Rahul Gandhi and not-so-successful attempts to quote the Shehzade with multiple coats of intellectual paint that seems to wash off quickly are bad enough. And then he supports the likes of P. Chidambaram and his son who face serious allegations of corruption. As if all that were not enough, he did one better than Jairam Ramesh by trying to provide an anti-Modi spin on the huge cash haul at the premises of a Congress MP.
I am trying hard to differentiate between him and Mani Shankar Aiyar but so far have been unsuccessful. At least Mani Shankar is no hypocrite and no one outside of the Palazzo servant quarters takes him seriously. And he seems to be not stopping there. Pragya Mishra is his next target to overtake! What next? Beat Supriya Shrinate?
Only Rajan himself can explain the reasons and motives, I can only speculate. My guess is, that he is desperate to become India’s next PM if not FM – and all his recent politically loaded “economic” statements seem to show his frustration that the goal is slipping out of reach at least until 2029. One charitable excuse is that he has been granting “interviews” to so many known dynastic doormats that finding new anti-Modi things to say is so hard. He ends up saying patently nonsensical things.
While anyone can have ambitions and go for it, to see an academic at these levels is a sad sight indeed. He has reduced himself to a meme, caricature, and joke. That is why I used the term “disease”.
Let us turn to my other option – he is just a symptom of a much wider disease. Here the evidence is very strong too.
Wokeism, as we all know well, is a disease. The West at least the English-speaking parts, seems to suffer from it without a cure in sight. And Rajan is just one of the many symptoms of this disease.
We have seen the nasty plagiarism allegations against Harvard President Claudine Gay that don’t seem to die down. Even WaPo and NYT were forced to call for her to quit! That’s like Pyongyang Times saying maybe Kim should go. Academia in the US has been completely overrun by leftist fringe and wokes and they are imposing their fascist tyranny of the minority, to quote Vivek Ramaswamy) in unprecedented ways. Universities are now full-fledged grooming centres for fringe left, no longer centres of excellence. Companies are even thinking of cutting back on hiring from such swamps. Real academics and faculty are too scared even to speak – for fear of losing their jobs, careers and worse.
What has Rajan got to do with it?
Well, the point is, given the substantial control fascist left woke Gestapo and the deep state exercise over academia, their ability to make or mar careers, cancel anyone that crosses them or reward the loyal with lucrative gigs and positions, many Indian academics (along with American or others) crawl when asked to bow. Why not board the gravy train instead of being run over by it or left on the platform? That too given your talents and skills, you are not likely to discover a cure for cancer or the next Lithium battery. When the best you can manage is another article on gender intersection or some such nonsense in pseudo-science?
That was a hint! Two things you must know about this gang of academics that have been more woke than Pelosi or AOC.
One is almost without exception they are from the pseudo-science faculties – not real science. Yes, we are talking sociology, politics “science”, economics etc. You can’t be a Marxist physicist or Communist Endocrinologist, but you can very well be a radical leftist political “science” professor. Most are.
The second and more relevant to India is, that practically all of them are from the upper classes of Indian society. You can do an informal caste census as Rahul Gandhi demands (even in meetings with journalists!). Next time you come across some West-based Desi academic spouting anti-Modi or anti-Hindu hate, wear their agnosticism or rationalism on their sleeves or brown-nosing themselves at dacoit dynastic rears, just check the caste. You will agree.
Just as Claudine Gay types exploited the DEI and other such affirmative action moves to land lucrative jobs when their track record would not have justified it by any logical means, these Indian academics have cornered their gigs and positions by exploiting the “let’s get more POC and not be so WASPy” trend among US/UK colleges and universities that started sometime in the 80s. Before that, you had to be exceptionally brilliant even to step in and break the glass barrier.
With the opening of the floodgates, a lot of mediocre talent has swept in. They would not have stood the slightest chance in the 60s or even 70s. Having secured them, now they need to hold their positions, climb the ladder and keep the gravy train going. The best and easiest way, of course, is to sing the woke tunes and not miss a beat. If Maoist comrade Kavita Krishnan can declare her pronouns, why can’t some US-based desi academic spout woke nonsense?
All that is fine, but what’s the link to India?
The connection to Indian and Indian politics is that woke left obedience to Islamist jihadist ideologies and priorities is absolute and non-negotiable. That makes Modi and BJP public enemy No.1. Given substantial funding of these varsities by Qatar etc, this makes eminent financial sense too. India’s Stalinist left has convinced their woke pals in the USA (and West) that bringing the dynasty back to power with remote control firmly in their hands is important. Therefore, the global woke left ecosystem has now become key facilitators and force multipliers in the Stalinist anti-Hindu pogrom of the Indian left.
I mentioned the topic of caste. That brings us to an additional point that will explain the virulent woke hysteria, sickening dynastic sycophancy, anti-Hinduism cleverly dressed up as anti-Hindutva (that trick almost worked with Jews/Zionism but see below) by the likes of Shruti Kapila, Ananya Vajpayee, Salil Tripathi, Rajan, Basu, Priyamvada Gopal and the likes. There are dozens if not hundreds more. As I mentioned earlier, many are likely beneficiaries of West’s attempts to be more inclusive.
But the genuine Indian subaltern groups have now woken up to a very simple fact – most of the lucrative gigs that followed from such “let us be nice to black, brown, yellow and other POC” have been cornered by the upper caste Indian elites. They are now demanding a share of the pie. And the pie is shrinking. If Trump returns, it will get worse.
Again, what is the best way to keep riding the gravy train? Be “woker than the wokes”, attack India, BJP, and Hindus non-stop, follow the deep state party line on Ukraine, Putin, Gaza or whatever, and sing the praise of Rahul Gandhi because that is what the Indian left demands. If not, they will start talking about “privileged birth” and cast evil eyes on your nice cushy gig.
They are essentially taking out an insurance policy – one where there is not only no premiums to be paid, but it is more dollars in your bank account. Add Soros, Ford and Omidyar types to the mix, you see the point even more clearly.
Do you follow why I say symptom of a much wider disease? Rajans may come or go one day but the disease remains.
Now, what is the cure?
The Jewish lobby has already found their most potent cure – just cut off the funds. It is producing results. A lot of the leftist academics have started crawling, walking back on naked antisemitism, and issuing holy statements drafted by costly PR agencies. Some, like Gay, are holding out, backed as they are by powerful forces including likes of Obama.
Unfortunately, this cure is not available to Hindus simply because we don’t have anywhere near that financial clout. We are lambs for the slaughter.
We need to find other medicines. But first we must know the disease. And stay clear eyed. Or in other words, be woke.
