Amit Shah analogy: What George Orwell’s Animal Farm has in common with Indian politics

BJP President Amit Shah | Facebook

Shah would have us believe that opposition leaders are snakes, mongooses, cats and dogs, who are coming together to survive the Modi deluge.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been dismissive of the opposition wins in recent Lok Sabha bypolls. But BJP president Amit Shah has been downright derisive towards his political adversaries. Call it hubris or sheer confidence borne out of consistent electoral successes, top BJP leaders can barely couch their feelings about opposition leaders in allegories.

Shah would have us believe that opposition leaders are snakes, mongooses, cats and dogs, who are coming together to survive the Modi deluge.

The BJP president is a science graduate but a political genius that he is, you can count on him to surprise you with political fables of India and the world. By his allegorical description of political opponents as animals, he might have unwittingly transposed English writer George Orwell’s Animal Farm on the Indian political landscape.

In the 1945 novel, a group of animals free themselves from the excesses of humans by chasing them (farmer Mr Jones and his men) away from the barn, and themselves start running it with a new set of laws — seven commandments. But they have to grapple with the fact that the old tyrannical order returns under new rulers — the pigs. There is no longer any difference between them and humans.

The novel is a satire on pre-revolution Russia and the subsequent oppressive regime, with Czar Niclolas II portrayed as Jones, the farmer, and pigs as Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin.

While the characters in Animal Farm may not have any resemblance with any politician in India today, Shah’s description of opposition leaders makes it tempting to take a closer look at some of the seven commandments in Animal Farm, which might have contemporary relevance in India.

“Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy”: To opposition leaders in India, the two-legged enemy is the BJP and the Sangh Parivar combo. This is one commandment that has served as a war cry for opposition parties of all ideological hues — the Congress, the Left, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), the Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Aam Aadmi Party , et al. This has been the central theme at the flurry of meetings in the past month: Congress president Rahul Gandhi with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Sonia Gandhi with representatives of 17 parties, Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao with Mamata Banerjee, Pawar with Banerjee, and the list goes on. Though late on the scene due to his pre-occupation with apologies in defamation cases, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has also sought to join the bandwagon, calling on his Andhra counterpart, N. Chandrababu Naidu, in Delhi recently.

“Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend”: It may be a ticklish issue for the opposition parties. Does the TDP, an NDA constituent till recently, walk on two legs or four legs? Is the Shiv Sena, an NDA constituent that has damaged the ruling coalition more than any opposition party, an ally or an enemy? There are many such questions that are likely to crop up as the move to stitch up an alliance gathers momentum. “It’s still a year to go. What you are witnessing (political meetings over snacks and dinners) is just a preamble. We haven’t come to substantial discussions yet,” says a Congress strategist.

“No animal shall kill any other animal”: Prospective constituents of the so-called federal front or a grand alliance may find it difficult to comply with this commandment. The bua-bhatija duo of Lucknow — Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav — may have buried the hatchet to launch a SPV (or special purpose vehicle) to defeat their common enemy, the BJP, but its durability is anybody’s guess. West Bengal Congress is already baying for party leader and eminent lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s blood for defending the Trinamool Congress government in the Supreme Court that was hearing the petition filed by the BJP for deployment of central forces in panchayat polls early next month. The Congress has filed a similar petition in Calcutta High Court.

“All animals are equal” : This could be the most contentious commandment in the Indian political barnyard. KCR and Mamata Banerjee are already pitching for a non-BJP, non-Congress front and many other parties whose basic ideology has been rooted in anti-Congressism are likely to join the chorus in coming weeks and months. They would like a repeat of 1996 when the United Front was supported by the Congress. “But that was why the 1996 arrangement didn’t work. We have seen how 2004 model (when the Congress led the coalition) really worked. Besides, everyone can see how Rahulji is leading the attack on the NDA from the front,” says senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily. NCP’s Sharad Pawar, who is likely to be the principal interlocutor in the formation of this anti-BJP front, is also learnt to be convinced of the ineluctability of a Congress-led alliance. In case of a 1996-type arrangement, there could be many prime ministerial aspirants — to name a few, Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati, Naveen Patnaik, and even Nitish Kumar who already seems to be re-calibrating his options for 2019.

Like in Animal Farm, it’s possible that these commandments are conveniently changed later.

In the novel, the last one becomes: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”

There is, however, a big difference between the novel’s plot and what’s happening in Indian politics today. In the novel, the pigs adopt — and later tamper with the Seven Commandments of Animalism after they chase away the humans from the barn. Allegorically, it’s the other way around in India today.

There are already disputes about the seven commandments, presumably the guiding philosophy of the anti-BJP front in the making, even though Modi — or Jones, the farmer — is still in control of the barn.

But the believers in Animal Farm are sure to carry on with plans for revolution. As in the novel, every time someone develops apprehensions, there will always be Squealor, a pig in the novel, reminding them: “Surely, Comrades, you don’t want Jones back?”