Kerala planted more trees this green day than had been planned. No harm. The more the merrier, the greener, and the shadier. No pun intended.
Kerala’s farm mandarins—not orange, but red, and both puns intended—had planned statewide tree-planting events on environment day, June 5. With due respect and more propriety, they had asked Governor Rajendra Arlekar to preside over the inaugural in the Raj Bhavan, where farm minister P. Prasad, a passionate green thumb from the CPI, would join.
A word about the gov. An old disciplined swayamsevak from Goa, Arlekar had come to be liked by Kerala’s ruling reds. They had found him a far cry from the neo-converts to saffron, such as his talkative predecessor or the restless soul governing over their Dravidian cousins in Tamilagom. So much so, they had come to ignore his minor saffron flirtations such as getting ultra-rightists to lecture in the Raj Bhavan, so long as those were the governor’s events and not the government’s.
But when the farm babus looked at the arrangements for the green day in the Raj Bhavan, they were shocked to see a Bharat Mata picture on the dais with flowers and lamps. The event, they were told, would start with a puja to the picture.
Illustration: Deni Lal
The mantri’s mandarins saw red. How could a state event start with a puja to a saffron deity, even if she was claimed to be Bharat Mata? Worse, she was holding not the national tricolour, but the RSS jhanda, and probably its agenda. But the governor would hear none of their objections. Have it my saffron way, or get off the green way, said he.
In the end, the state had three events—the governor’s saffron one at the Raj Bhavan, the government’s green event elsewhere, and the protesting CPI’s red plantings across the state. Good! As we say in Malayalam, “Sampathu kaalathu thai pathu vechaal, aapathu kaalathu kaa pathu thinnaam.” Nothing intimidating! It’s only a wise rhyme meaning—‘plant ten buds in good times, get ten fruits in bad times’. In plain English, ‘save for the rainy day’.
But who listens to such advice these days when economists talk like credit card-sellers? They tell us to save less and spend more so that India will grow! Really? We thought that’s sure way to go broke. Money, we thought, doesn’t grow on trees—even on the ones planted on green day.
Let’s leave savings and talk saplings and politics. The communists have a point, and, for a change, the Congressmen agree. They say, Arlekar, much like most RSS men, is confusing the image of Bharat Mata with the spirit of Bharat Mata, or missing the woods of patriotism for the trees of nationalism. The commies, too, have high regard for Bharat Mata and, as Prasad said, “We have children dressing up as Bharat Mata at government events.” To prove the point, the CPI’s protest events had party chief Binoy Viswam, a mild-mannered gent, crying himself hoarse with ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ slogans.
Thankfully, none of them thought of giving a red flag to Bharat Mata. That would have been like waving the red rag before a bull.
Critics say the image of Bharat Mata, as the RSS has come to portray her, is a 20th century icon, born of the fiery rebel spirit spawned in Bengal after its 1905 partition. She is a creation of spirited modern artistry, her original saffron saadhvi avatar painted by Abanindranath Tagore in 1905. The real spirit of motherland or matrubhumi, say the reds and others, is a sublime one. Not iconographic like Lady Britannia portrayed with two lions, or a bare-breasted Miss Liberty leading the people of revolutionary France.
prasannan@theweek.in