One of my pastimes is to observe the changing ‘vocabulary’ of our times and their context. The word ‘contagion’ caught my fancy these days. Actually it’s difficult to ignore this word as it’s in the news in one way or the other - either in its traditional context like a bird-flu or H1N1 virus or in its new context of a financial contagion and sovereign-debt contagion. We had an Indian context of honour killings contagion also. And now there’s a 'revolution contagion'.
This contagion is spreading like a wild fire in the Middle-East and Arab world and its victims - the ruthless dictators are increasing. Some of the victims were quarantined and some others immunity system (tacit US support) is slowly wearing down. Everyone wants a sniff of ‘Jasmine’ revolution.
India is not in danger of catching this revolutionary contagion yet, but there is already an indigenously developed 'virus' spreading its tentacles. I am not referring to New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1 that enraged many Indians. NDM-1 is a bacteria and i am talking about a virus. The reason why NDM-1 enraged our Government, Media and middle-class could be one of the causes of the virus I am referring. NDM-1 affects health tourism and thus our GDP and foreign exchange reserves. Glossing over GDP and ignoring many of the poor health indicators churned by different organizations is one of the causes for a virus called Naxalism. Another difficult thing to ignore is the bullying power of Indian Media in support of renaming the NDM-1 virus. One more instance of a ‘misplaced priority’.
Indigenisation and Innovation are other words that caught my fancy recently. Indigenisation is what we strive for eternally and no matter what President Obama thinks we all knew about our Innovation. Coming back to the gravest internal security threat and the 'virus' i referred, Ms. Arundathi Roy and others have a point when they complain of vocabulary like infested, combing operations and COBRA forces. Talking about contagion and terror reminds me that terror is indeed colour-blind. No wonder then ‘colour revolution’ term is coined for peaceful revolution. The Arab diagnosis reveals that providing and defending ‘right to dissent’ is a reasonably good vaccine to start with in this fight against revolution contagion. This is one area where India needs to watch out against misuse of section IPC 124 (A) called Sedition. Sections 124(A), 304, 304A and 377 of IPC are also catching my attention these days.
Just like words and numbers, I observe acronyms also. Recently US announced its support for India's membership to some of the multilateral bodies that control exports like NSG, AG, WG and MTCR. Is NATO a logical conclusion so that we also can start exporting democracy? It’s quite a paradox that US exports only democracy and military arms. And US want's India to join in this club so that they can outsource some work to India. US's dislike towards the word outsourcing is case-specific. It has no qualms about outsourcing wars to drug lords and mercenaries.
In all these contagions, the words coherent, synchronized and coordinated are often used. The genesis of Tunisian revolution is food crisis and unemployment. Two areas which need coordinated efforts by all countries. The word ‘contagion’ highlights the interdependence of the day and implores for a coordinated action plan by all countries. Hope the wise minds are listening and are not interested in taking over the fight to ‘Kepler’ – the newly discovered solar system.
