Zamir Ahmad
It happens all the time. And happens to all of us.That eerie feeling of having experienced an entirely new situation previously. Psychologists call it D?j? vu, meaning ‘already seen’. D?j? vu makes one to believe that as though an event has already happened or has happened in the near past. A compelling sense of eeriness is a usual accompaniment.
Except for the eeriness part of it, D?j? vu is common place in our land. Especially when it comes to the actors of political theatre here. Sample this: The finance minister declares in the house of commons that his government has been handed over a moth eaten economy. Next day the former deputy chief minister and a one-time finance minister issues a rebuttal. Another day the now finance minister comes with ‘Facts and Figures’ to prove that the state economy grew only in NC regimes and the previous government had made a mess of it. So far so good. Go back in time for a few years. You will see the same act being enacted in the assembly. Except that the roles have reversed!!! D?j? vu?
Analyse this: The chief minister is absent from the house for 12 consecutive days. The opposition asks for an explanation from the ‘Angry young man’. Pat comes the reply, he has issues of much more importance at hand. Like? Nobody knows what the chief minister is working at when all his cabinet colleagues and legislators are attending the assembly session. Playing Solo? Or watching Polo? Or roaming on a bike incognito? Well the last conjecture may be unlikely but doesn’t it remind us of the ‘two-wheeler’ escapades of another then young (still young) chief minister of ours. D?j? vu, you bet on it!
On a larger scape, an another drama unfolded last week. Of Jaswant Singh and his book. They say even the book stores in Kashmir have put an “All Sold” mark outside their shops. Well, Well I am not saying this is Deja Vu. But don’t we remember another very senior leader of the saffron party saying the same things a few years before. Yes, he was not expelled from the party. How could he have been, he was the prime ministerial candidate then? Amidst the mayhem one could hear the ‘Quaid-e-Azam’ shouting at his earlier Indian biographer, Rafiq Zakaria, “Man! Who divided India?” One could even see Allama Iqbal smilingly say as if to no one ‘ Pasbaan mil gaye Kaabey ko sanam khaney se’
And if you don’t know Urdu to understand this couplet, you need not worry. Newspaper reports claim that you could still be considered for a post of Naib Tehsildar even if you did not know the Alif Bey Jeem of Urdu and even if knowledge of Urdu was compulsory for this kind of a job. No that is not going to happen now. That has happened already. Ask the aspirants from Kashmir who did not find a place in the list and the aspirants from Jammu who did. Now this is not D?j? vu.
