Histrionics in public life is increasingly becoming the norm. From Rahul Gandhi surprising the Prime Minister, and the media, with an orchestrated hug in Parliament after a fiery speech, to TRAI chief RS Sharma’s backfired ‘Aadhaar dare’ where he revealed his UID number and challenged Aadhaar adversaries to harm his privacy, it seems India’s politicians and even bureaucrats are taking to theatrics. The Prime Minister's performative skills have made him the party's star campaigner. Lalu Prasad’s skills in this department are just as readily acknowledged. But the point of concern is whether frivolity is edging out debate on substantive issues.

Take, for instance, the rampaging floods in north India, hunger deaths in Delhi, and nearly 20,000 children dying in Maharashtra over the last year. Yet, there is a cacaphony of irrelevance, sheer fake news and theatrics that drowns out everything. The theory of evolution is challenged by home-spun Creationists, ministers are trolled on the silliest pretexts. In this season of intemperance, representatives of the business community make regressive comments and try to divide people along class and communal lines. Something is very wrong with both the tenor and content of public discourse.

Political researchers cite a disturbing decline over the years in the number of quality debates in Parliament. The likes of a Feroz Gandhi, AK Gopalan, Ram Manohar Lohia, Piloo Modi or even an Atal Bihari Vajpayee are sorely missed today. Amitav Ghosh referred to the quality of Parliamentary debate on nuclear policy in his slim book, Countdown. That was in the 1990s. Since then, there has been a profound de-intellectualisation of public debate. The rabble enjoys more legitimacy than ever. This is no way to go, if India has superpower ambitions. As Plato said, there shall be no end to the troubles of states “till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.”

Jinoy Jose P Deputy Editor