“Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam Ki Oar” Exhibition in Mumbai: A Farcical and Fraudulent Exercise

 

“Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam Ki Oar” Exhibition in Mumbai: A Farcical and Fraudulent Exercise

Shrikant G. Talageri 

 

August Kranti Maidan, formerly known as Gowalia Tank Maidan, in Grant Road (West) Mumbai, is an iconic historical site where the Congress under Gandhi launched the Quit India Movement on August 8 1942, demanding an end to British rule.

This is also now the site or venue of an exhibition “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam Ki Oar” (yes. spelt o-a-r) organized by the External Affairs Ministry of the government of India on 16-22 January 2026.

Since nearly a month the whole of South Mumbai (at least) has been plastered with posters on every lamp-post advertizing this event. As I always pass this maidan at least once every day on my morning walk, I have been seeing the huge tents put up all over the maidan. But what intrigued me the most were the posters put up on the lamp-posts, one of which (and the most commonly pasted poster), for example, had a picture of Bhagat Singh, and the title in large capital letters: “JALLIANWALA BAGH HAD NO TRIAL”, and an auxiliary subtitle in smaller letters below it: “Why can’t we challenge it till now?”. A second (less visible) poster, with the same subtitle, carries the title: “POOR ARE DYING BECAUSE OF POLLUTION THEY NEVER CAUSED”.

A third (and second most common) poster has the title: “THE NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY IS DISCRIMINATORY”, and asks the question in its subtitle: “Why can’t India challenge it till now?”

These questions raised several other questions in my own mind. Firstly, does this mean that “we” and “India” respectively are “now” in a position to “challenge” these things? Perhaps under the efficient, benign and justice-loving auspices of the BJP government whose External Affairs Ministry organized this exhibition?

But even more important issues than these (but related to them) raised themselves in my mind:

1. “POOR ARE DYING BECAUSE TODAY FOREST ARE BEING DESTROYED ON A WAR FOOTING ALL OVER INDIA AND THE ATMOSPHERE OF URBAN INDIA IS FULL OF DUST AND POLLUTION CAUSED BY THE ENDLESS CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES CONTINUOUSLY GOING ON EVERYWHERE SINCE AT LEAST A DECADE”.

2. “THE OCTOBER 1990 MASSACRE OF KAR-SEWAKS IN AYODHYA HAD NO TRIAL”.

3. “THE ENTIRE LEGAL SYSTEM OF INDIA STARTING WITH ARTICLES 25-30 OF THE CONSTITUTION IS DISCRIMINATORY AGAINST HINDUS AND REDUCES THEM TO EIGHTH-CLASS CITIZENS LIVIUNG UNDER AN ANTI-HINDU APARTHEID LEGAL, POLITICAL AND ADMINISRATIVE SYSTEM”

And the question naturally arose: “Why can’t we challenge it till now?”.

The answer is very clear: we cannot “even now”, and even “especially now”, challenge these things, and will never be able to ever do so at any point of time from now on, because:

1. India is controlled by a ruthlessly mercenary political party which includes within itself, and as its most powerful component, a Builders’ Lobby which beats all other Builders’ Lobbies in the world in degree of greed, power and ruthlessness.

2. India is controlled by a political party which would do simply anything for votes, and which, for the sake of votes from particular castes, has not only never dreamt of challenging the Ayodhya massacres of October 1990, but even rewarded the General Dyer of Ayodhya for his actions (which brought them votes) by giving him a Padma Vibhushan Award.

3. India is controlled by a party which has not only never publicly promised to reverse these anti-Hindu discriminations in order to give Hindus equal rights with non-Hindus, and always privately ridiculed and derided demands for an end to these discriminations, but has actively increased, multiplied and intensified these anti-Hindu discriminations by every means at its disposal. It remembers Hindu issues only at election time, and its supporters outdo “Squealer” of Animal Farm in defending, justifying and glorifying its acts and sins.

Isn’t it the absolute height of fakeness, hypocrisy, criminality, and brazenness to organize such exhibitions and ask such questions?

 

Today is the 21^st of January and the exhibition is on till tomorrow. I did not enter the exhibition, but I read in detail the huge posters outside the venue giving the lists of programs scheduled to take place and of the various stalls with their exhibits. I did not have to go in and nauseate myself by seeing all the criminal hypocrisy closer at hand and in more detail.

But wait: there is one more reason why I did not enter the exhibition. And this brings me to one more (and different) issue which indicates which “oar” we are heading: I did not enter the exhibition because (like the “Indians and dogs not allowed” motto of the British days for their clubs and institutions) there is a new unwritten motto which is increasingly being followed in every sphere of activity in India: “sub-humans not allowed”, the sub-humans in question being “people who do not own and use mobile phones”. Someone who does not have a mobile and is unable to “register” himself via his/her mobile was not allowed in this exhibition.

I can hear some readers giving gasps of horror and disgust: “What! Does this man not have and use a mobile? Then how dare he even think he has a right to enter the exhibition? Which age is he living in?” Somewhat like a British gentleman/lady in British India raising his/her lorgnettes to his/her eyes and exclaiming in unfeigned horror and disgust: “What! Is this man not a white-skinned Britisher or even a European? Then how dare he even think he has a right to enter the club? Which age is he living in?” Yes, I am that low and vile sub-human being who does not himself own a mobile telephone and gives his brother’s mobile number as a reference wherever it is compulsory. So (even if I had wanted to, which I didn’t) I could not enter the exhibition anyway.

This is not a new experience. Formerly (in the bad old days) there were constant exhibitions all over Mumbai which I used to love to visit. Now, to enter most of these exhibitions, even if the entry is free, it is mandatory to use your mobile phone to “register” your entry: after this system started many years ago, I stopped visiting them. The same was the case with an International Film Festival a few years ago, at Radio Bhavan (the Akashwani building at Pedder Road in Mumbai) which I had thought of seeing. In none of these cases is the Adhar Card (touted as the final official all-purpose card at the time of its compulsory introduction) sufficient to gain entry. Likewise, you require your mobile phone to “register” yourself if you want to enter various official institutions.

But the limit was when I wanted to check my blood sugar at three-four different labs in Mumbai a few months ago (since I had reason to doubt that the regular lab where we have been checking since decades was giving grossly incorrect figures. When I went to check my blood sugar at Metropolis Labs Diagnostic Centre opposite to this very August Kranti Maidan, I was told I could not get a test done without first “registering” through my mobile and then giving them the OTP which they would send to that mobile. At this rate, the lab would refuse to treat an accident victim having an accident just outside their lab, if he did not have a mobile phone (even if he had an Adhar Card and the required money to pay for the test)!

Today, if a rishi meditating in the Himalayas stepped into the present-day world of BJP India, and thought he could get along normally without any hassles as in the bad old days, he would be swiftly disillusioned. Today, that day has not yet come, but it will, since we are continuously heading that “oar”, when even to breathe air we will require a mobile phone to get constant OTPs giving us official permission to breathe. China has already reportedly reached close to that stage (so aptly portrayed by George Orwell in his book “Nineteen Eighty-Four”). So will we.

 

And this brings me to another issue: the issue of “development” or “reforms” which take away choices and force things on people whether they like it or not. I had already written an article called “The BJP Gives People Choices” to illustrate the kind of “choices” that the BJP government forces on to people. Here I personally again find myself facing an enforced “choice” to buy and use a mobile (and I don’t care two figs whether or not I have the sympathy of the reader in this matter). Formerly, there were PCOs (Public Call Offices) everywhere with public landline phones where someone who does not have a mobile (or has lost or misplaced his/her mobile, or forgotten to bring it along, or finds that it has conked out, or simply does not want the recipient of the call, for some reason or other, to get his/her number – though in crime stories, such contingencies are only shown arising in the case of people like kidnappers or criminals of some kind, or anonymous callers) to call in the case of emergencies, or urgent or complicated situations.

Now the logic is: “everyone (including beggars) have mobile phones, so what is the need for PCOs?” Tomorrow, a day will come when medical stores are compulsorily closed down on the ground that “anyone can order medicines online and store them (and carry them around with them), so what is the need for medical stores?”

“Progress” and “Development”, and not just “Justice”, “Ki Oar”!