Enemies of pleasure

The puritan, wrote Thomas B Macaulay, hated bear baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators. There are not many puritans in India in the literal sense of the word—that is, a significant grouping of English-speaking Protestants in the 16th and 17th-century. But the puritanical spirit is ubiquitous in our political class. Our netas are aghast that people are having fun. Make no mistake about it: they are not scandalized because a minister has been found involved in financial irregularities—Shashi Tharoor is not the first minister to have faced such accusations and, unfortunately, would not be the last one; they are outraged that something so glitzy and glamorous has become so popular. Rockstar status of cricketers, jazzy cheerleaders, dance and drama, the entire nation glued to TV sets—how could the people be allowed to have so much pleasure? So, senior Congress leader and Overseas Indians Minister Vayalar Ravi feels that the Indian Premier League is “glorified gambling.” Communist Party of India (CPI) MP Gurudas Dasgupta made is clear that the Tharoor episode was just tangential. “The minister’s resignation is not the issue. The issue is the IPL... (The) issue is laundering of money. All this is happening under the nose of the Government of India… Cricket is being maligned in the country. Wrong message is given to the budding cricketers to join the Twenty20 and earn crores.”
Then there was also the Yadav triumvirate—Lalu Prasad (RJD), Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP) and Sharad Yadav (JD-U). They want the Government to disband the IPL which has become a “betting and gambling ring.” Sharad Yadav alleged that IPL was “vulgar” and a “den of vices, black money and loot.” Notice how vague allegations—at least at the time when such remarks were made in Parliament—have been blindly accepted as gospel truth. Also notice the sermonizing by the leaders who do not have even an iota of regard for democracy, Parliamentary decorum, and decency—as evident from their words and deeds over the Women’s Reservation Bill. Yet another point to be noticed is the broad consensus across the political and ideological spectrum; everybody is railing against a sporting event that is lapped up by the people. Do the politicians fear that the IPL phenomenon would undermine their own popularity? Well, IPL cannot hurt the prospects of politicians. So, are our political masters angry just because the people love IPL? This seems to be more likely, because there is a strong moralizing streak in our netas; they prefer carefully laid-out prescriptions and proscriptions. Quite evidently, the IPL entertainment flouts doesn’t give a damn to the preachy sermons of our political masters. Perhaps, this enrages them.