Staying ahead of the competition

Being on the sports field involves competition, and nothing seemed tougher to me than the field events that involved throwing. Events like the shot put, discus, hammer, and javelin involve a lot of skill and stamina in being able to throw these dangerous-looking implements as far ahead of you as possible. The distance would then be measured by the field judges to let one know whether one could qualify to enter the next round and then the finals. I don’t know if anyone else has had the experience, but the fear of handling those risky and weapon-like things often had me throwing them backwards too, but unfortunately, there is no category for that in sports.

But in New India, one is certainly allowed to look back and dig as much dirt as possible on the Mughal dynasty as much as one is allowed to glorify all the Hindu ones. Even Indian Consulates across the world are now involved in celebrating these occasions, and one was made aware of one such event held to honour Chhatrapati Shivaji at the Consulate General of India, Durban, in June of this year. Needless to say, the honouring of one Hindu king goes hand in hand with the demonising of a Muslim one. Since it all happened so long ago, a little playing around with the facts is par for the course.

This retelling of history in a post-truth India has resulted in the use of a sports terminology used in Hindi for field events, fekna, and since we Indians, oops Bharatis, are so good at adapting between languages, this act of throwing fake news has led to a Hinglish word called feku, particularly popular in the social media circuit.

A lot of politicians belonging to the Union Government and also its state representatives may or may not have excelled in field events, but they certainly do not want to be found wanting in this new political game called Fekna.

Earlier, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the BJP chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, was known for moderation in his words and actions, but now, with others fekoing further and with more barbs, he has turned to more ferocious language, for fear that he may be found wanting and deprived of another turn in the CM’s seat if the party were to return to power later this year.

In our own state, Karnataka, one is witness to the meteoric rise of Nalin Kumar Kateel, who continues to hold a post despite the electorate of the state showing his party the door, with a signal that communalising may not work here. Even ex-CM Bommai, from a socialist background, continues to make the most outrageous of statements, lest he be forgotten.

An award for fekoing went to Anurag Thakur, who
was elevated from Minister of State to Union Minister in July 2021. Pulled up by the Election Commission for incendiary statements during the
Delhi elections, this minister ensures his relevancy by continually engaging and fekoing to the opposition.

With the competition getting tougher, one BJP MP, Ramesh Bidhuri, decided to make his presence felt and inaugurate the new Parliament House by using supposedly Islamophobic slurs against a Muslim colleague, Danish Ali of the Bahujan Samaj Party. This is a new development in the fine art of fekoing—moving from a community at large to picking on a colleague from an opposition party.

What transpired while he spoke is no less puzzling in that two members of Parliament, Dr Harshavardhan and Ravi Shankar Prasad, were seen smiling at his words. Perhaps they knew that the cameras were on them and that they could ingratiate themselves by hasoing.

But how could all this happen in the New Parliament in the presence of the awe-inspiring Sengol, which has been duly sanctified by being prostrated before and paid obeisance to? But perhaps listeners got it all wrong, and what Bidhuri actually did was speak about Bhaichara (brotherliness), the need for Danish Ali to have a haircut, and maybe consult his religious head on what kind it should be. If that indeed is the case, one cannot understand why the whole conversation was expunged from the day’s proceedings. Staying ahead of the competition is a tough proposition as much in politics as in sports.

(The author is an independent writer)