Obnoxious middlemen

It is an obnoxious sight – pandas waylaying for pilgrims to the Jagannath temple at Puri. Hordes of them barge into rail compartments even a couple of stations ahead, to solicit and importune, irking the very people, who give a pandit the exalted status of intermediary between them and God. Middlemen have become a part of our daily lives, not only in religion but in every activity; more so, in modern day India. The country needs to give serious thought to it since the actions of many are anti-national.

Our wise ancestors used several strategies for the well-being of society, and for maintaining peace and order. While pujas, rituals, festivals, etc., were some, to engage people with healthy preoccupations and for disciplining their daily lives, unquestioned faith in re-birth was another. The concepts of adversity of accumulation of sins, and incentive for good deeds, on rebirth, were used to dissuade people from committing crimes. Prayer, worship and pilgrimages were thus prescribed for everyone.

Temples, mostly located on hill-tops in villages, were made the focal points. Incessantly chanting the name of God and contemplating Him, people on fast would trek all the way to the temple. After circumambulation, they enter the sanctum sanctorum gonging the bell, where, chanting mantras, the priest performs the ritual of a puja; lighting camphor, he offers aarti; people pray. Then, after receiving teerth and prasaad, and resting for a while, the devotees would trek back.

For a discerning eye, it is evident that the entire ambulation is a physical exercise; the vibrations of gong of the bell shake the cobwebs in one's mind; chanting and camphor light provide focus on the God's image; the mineral water, basil leaves and camphor of the teerth serve as a dose of preventive medication; prasaad is a small quantity of food taken after an exercise. And finally, resting for a while rejuvenates after a physical exercise. The imprint of God's image lingers on for long in their minds, at least till they visit the temple again after a week. Physical and medical needs of the body are thus taken care of, while peace is restored to the mind. Furthermore, since the temple is seen from every corner of the village, the fear of God acts as a deterrent to potential criminals. There is rationale, wisdom, and concern of our ancestors for the health of people, and to regulate society on the path of righteousness.

Similarly, the intended purpose of teerth-yatra was not only physical and mental health but overall reformation, the inducements being Heaven and salvation from rebirth. Take, for example, the Seven Hills of Tirupati. Journeying by bullock carts or trekking, camping at different places on the way, cooking simple food, chanting the name of God, people would move on, forgetting the mundane irritants back at home. Once on the top of the hills, they would camp at each of the 108 teerthas – natural springs/waterfalls; bathe and drink that mineral water; absorb sunlight; all the time chanting the name of God, and visiting the temple as many times as possible. While their bodies get treated with the mineral water and sun, the mind gets purified with the chanting and visits to the temple, and nature's beauty. Finally, healthy, happy and contented, they reach homes after months, transformed into generous and helpful individuals.

The priests, who have an important role to play in these religious exercises, become indispensable to carry our culture forward. The village priest also helps in deciding auspicious times, drawing horoscopes, and in performing pujas as remedies for evil to provide solace and anticipation to the common man. Yet, it is their promotion and perpetuation of irrational rituals for selfish ends that move society in reverse gear, as is presently happening.

Even in this modern day, people anoint Hanuman with oil, and offer a garland of vadas; and pour sacks of cereals and pulses in river Yamuna, etc., that only pollute the rivers. Oil, vadas, cereals, and pulses, etc., could be given to the needy for their best use. They even resort to pujas in absentia by making necessary payments, thus defeating their very purpose. In this commercial culture, people are made to believe that a momentary glimpse of God is sufficient to wipe out their sins and provide salvation. Travelling by modern means of transport to reach the destination of pilgrimage, mobiles switched off for a few moments, the ritual is completed and one is back to his worldly contacts, pleasures, engagements and worries. Pushing the very intentions of reformation, and providing of mental peace and physical health to a back seat, it only helps in filling the coffers of the temple and the pockets of the pundits with their self-acquired superiority.

When Vedas were declared as infallible and not to be questioned, the underlying rationale was to regulate society. But, since all the chantings, which are eulogies of God, are in Sanskrit, a language alien to the common man, the priestly class assumed the role of intermediaries between people and God; as if the omniscient God knows no vernacular. Further, overawing people with the frills of religion – ochre robes, vibhuthi, tuft of hair, etc., they made them bow and touch their feet in obedience in order to assert their supremacy. This monopoly over rituals was converted into a profession and into a commercial activity. It was such business that Christ had fought against at the cost of his life; it was these rituals that Buddha and Nanak rebelled against.

Prayer, worship, and chanting of mantras are for communion with God so as to imbibe His ideal attributes. Although we have meditation and yoga that serve as alternative ways, having become ritualistic, we adopt the easy way by outsourcing the priests and promoting their business. Our reverence to the man of religion is still so much that we continue to bow and touch his feet. Dr Raman Singh, as CM of Chattisgarh, touching the feet of Yogi Adityanath on a public platform is a classic example, although Yogi is just another CM; a man who gets people killed in false encounters, and is a man whose followers kill humans in the name of cow-vigilantism with his blessings. It is all because of their self-acquired exalted status.

Thus, the nuisance of the pandas and pundits fleecing people, only speak about the degeneration of the intended sanctity of the rituals. Often, there are also instances of swindling temples' wealth. Yet, we have made them indispensable middlemen.

In fact, for every activity we have thriving middlemen, touts, commission agents, etc., often using unethical means in collusion with corrupt officials and leaders in the government. There are touts in transport, passport departments, police, education, hospitals, et al, and for that matter, in every government department, who help the officials in amassing wealth. They are there even in courts. The situation is graver in matters relating to contracts, purchases, and major works. NHAI engineer caught taking a bribe of over Rs 20 lakhs from a contractor, recently, is only a symptom of the murk that has set in. It is humanly not possible to count the instances.

Modern-looking Rajiv Gandhi had blessed the middleman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the Rs 64 crore Bofors deal. It is with the blessings of the learned-brahmin PM, PV Narasimha Rao, that his son along with the middlemen colluded with the fly-by operator to swindle Rs 133 crores in the Urea Scam. Lalu Yadav, a man who started his life from a watchman's garage to become the champion of the backward castes, and the CM of Bihar for years, and amassed wealth for generations, patronised middlemen in the Rs 945 crore Animal Husbandry Scam; and deprived the poor creatures of their fodder. CBI cases against Mulayam Singh Yadav, another champion of backward castes, for his illegal wealth are well known. Mayawati, the undisputed leader of Dalits and PM-aspirant and glamorous Jayalalithaa abused their authority to promote middlemen for having great lifestyles, richer than those of the richest. Augusta Helicopter deal and National Herald case also speak of the role of the middlemen in corrupt deals. So is the Aircel-Maxis case involving Rs 3500 crores. And, now we have the Rafale deal of Rs 35000 crores, snowballing into a big scam, that involves Anil Ambani and his middlemen along with those in PMO. The country is also aware of the Rs 50000 crore fraud of Mukesh Ambani in the Krishna-Godavari gas basin. We also have brokers like Harshad Mehta of stocks scam, middlemen of Radia Tapes of corporate corruption as standing examples of the obnoxious role of the breed of intermediaries. The list is too long and too scary. Now, these 'fixers' are all out to sabotage the independence of a pro-active Supreme Court also.

Although the actions of some of the middlemen are obnoxious and a nuisance, they are innocuous and there is some service from them. Active endowments departments and appropriate regulatory mechanisms need to curb the negative aspects. However, danger looms large because of collusive corruption, which is anti-development and is thus anti-national. It is indeed internal aggression for the country. What can be done?

The present machinery dealing with them being grossly inadequate, apart from the Lokpal and Lokayuktas already in place, it is imperative that new ministries are created at the Centre and States, exclusively to deal with matters of anti-corruption, vigilance and public grievances. It is also necessary to gauge their performance through a public perception index; and not by the usual statistics.

(Dr. N Dilip Kumar is a retired IPS officer and a former member of Public Grievances Commission, Delhi. The views expressed are strictly personal)