How Honorable

A few days ago I shared on a Whatsapp group a viral picture of actor Salman Khan posing with the Chief Minister of Odisha with a funny caption. A person did not like it, responding - "Please don't make fun of our Honorable Chief Minister".

The term "Honorable" is probably the most overrated word in India, probably after "Sir". It is most commonly used by Government employess in India who address even mundane MPs and MLAs as Honorable So and So. It makes sense when "Honorable" is reserved for the deserved and reserved few, e.g., the President, Prime Minister and the Justices who are addressed as "Your Honor". 

But to address everyone as Honorable a la a Dumb addresses the Dumber as "Sir" where the honorable one is not even present simply reeks of British era sycophancy (it's another matter, an overwhelming majority of them are anything but honorable but often despicable). It is also our eager obsequiousness and hero worship of those who we elect to serve us, not rule us prevents us from making caricature of our leaders. Poking fun at the folks at helm of affairs is perfectly healthy, unless you live in Kim's North Korean Hermit kingdom or in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. If this tendency is not curbed, at this rate satirists and cartoonists will be soon out of business.

So, why is this tendency to put our leaders on an untouchable pedestal and treating them as demi Gods who are above criticism and sarcasm ? It can be traced back to our long occupation and slavery outsiders - from Afghans, Turks, Mughals to British who ruled us over centuries. There used to be a hiatus between the rulers and the ruled. As the rulers did not have an understanding of the local language and culture, they succinctly cultivated a class of DALAALs (middlemen-cum-touts) who they needed as "go betweens" to communicate the message from the Ruler to the Ruled and vice versa.  

Nothing much has changed over the years, even years after independence in the age of Smartphones and Social media. From the Badal dynasty of Punjab in North to Karunanidhi dynasty in South, from the Biju Dynasty in East, to Siv Sena Dynasty in West - Kingship in form of Kinship goes in guise of democracy. The ever omnipresent middlemen have jumped in to fill in the void left after the outsiders left. They succinctly act as the conduit, yet reinforcing the age old adage, "History repeats itself, those who forget history are condemned to repeat".

The stigma of the thousand plus years of foreign rule won't go so easily only after 70 years of independence.  It will take some more years of independence to taste its flavor and get over the hangover of the "Superior ruler must rule over the inferior subjects". This then...