Look it up first

Left is right, right is left. Outside in, inside out. Words, it appears, don’t mean anything. If a term has a nice ring to it, use it. Use it with reckless abandon. After all, the simpletons on the other side of the podium, the other side of the airwaves, don’t want ideology, they want something catchy to dance to. No one listens to the lyrics, right?

Just this week alone has seen a plethora of misplaced symbolism that could fill a textbook on the subject. Consider Shahbaz Sharif’s wanting to lay the foundation stone of “Tahrir Square” at the venue of his rally. So what if the contents of the Punjab chief minister’s speech are against everything that the one-time occupants of the Cairo landmark stood for? They wanted representative government, something which we do have at the moment. One might have issues with the way they are running the country but the assumption is that this disaffection can be channeled against any unpopular government in the next elections. Tahrir Square of Arab Spring fame has a nice here-and-now feel to it so why not use it?

Now consider the liberal use of the poet Habib Jalib, which has finally riled the late poet’s widow. Adopt his hermit-like lifestyle first and then recite his work. Not a fair comparison, one hears? Apples and oranges? How can politicians compare with the postmodern art form that was Jalib? He was his art and all that? Ok, but comparisons of ideology are certainly not out of line. Jalib wanted an end to economic inequality and deprivation. A stark contrast from the party of the bazaar that the League is. He stood up against martial law, burying the hatchet with erstwhile foe ZAB – who actually sent him to the gulag along with other NAP leaders – and writing poems for his daughter when she was up against Zia-ul-Haq. Shahbaz Sharif’s call for lynching a sitting elected president is anything but Jalib.

Moving on to media darling Imran Khan and his call for “Civil Disobedience.” When MK Gandhi started his Thoreau-inspired movement, one that was to inspire restless hearts the world over, there was an imperial power governing India. We have, at the risk of being repetitive, a democratically elected government. Rally against it, yes. But if you refuse to pay your taxes – as the Mahatma did with his Salt Marches – be ready to be put in the slammer the way tax thieves should be.

Last but not the least is the unkindest cut of all: the use of leftist iconography and sloganeering by the student wings of the religious parties. Because there’s nothing quite as cool as those. You know you have hit rock bottom when the zealots greet their “revolutionary” followers at their rallies with a surkh salaam.