Of vows made in storms

Acting out of frustration won’t bode well for Mr Last Hope

The plan goes thus; IK and Co along with their tigers and tigresses will lock Islamabad down on 2 November. He’ll be supported by loudmouthed phantom of Lal Haveli i.e. Sheikh Rashid, the hords of learned TuQ and sundry other organisations to topple House of Sharif

IK is at it again. And this time he plans to besiege Islamabad. For the PTI supremo the days of holding protests, filing petitions, conducting marches, delivering fiery speeches and staging dharnas are over. Now he wants something novel, something bigger and something more telegenic than his previous shenanigans.

The plan goes thus; IK and Co along with their tigers and tigresses will lock Islamabad down on 2 November. He’ll be supported by loudmouthed phantom of Lal Haveli i.e. Sheikh Rashid, the hords of learned TuQ and sundry other organisations to topple House of Sharif. Our Mr Last Hope plans to do, once again, what he does best and what many believe has, so far, been the only arrow in his quiver i.e. mass agitation against those who possess what Mr Khan is desperate for and that, dearest sirs and ma’ams is, a throne and a crown.

At the time of filing this column on Friday afternoon, PTI was trying to stage pre-lockdown nationwide protests against baton charging and manhandling of its workers in Islamabad on Thursday. Rawalpindi is partially locked down. Lal Haveli wore a deserted look with police and media personnel sitting idly and waiting quietly for Sheikh sahab to come. It seems that luck is, beyond doubt, on the side of IK and Co as they just had another godsend. The question now is: Will success fall in PTI’s lap or once again the agitation will peter out after creating few ripples.

So, the ‘power-that-wants-to-be’ is giving mass movement another try and cashing on in an opportune moment provided by providence. The success eluded them last time when much-mentioned, much-beseeched umpire had his fingers crossed and didn’t budge an inch. The umpire feared that if he raised his hand, things would go haywire. The electoral rigging thing didn’t pan out as planned when Supreme Court ruled that rigging wasn’t done on institutional scale, the dharna of 2014 met its demise with 144 other innocent ones and PTI still wander around for its Eureka. And now Section 144 is in play to counter all dissent.

Every lad or lass with a knack for history knows for a fact that politicos, since the dawn of civilisation, use two words to enchant their followers: change and hope. IK is doing nothing new and cannot be blamed for it. He wants to rule and the lot he wants to reign over has all the signature flaws and faults of ordinary, eternal Homosapiens. They hail from easily bored species that craves and yearns for steady doses of spectacle. Many of them hook themselves to the one who promises ‘things which are not’. They just want, by hook or crook, to enliven their routine-dictated existences. What else could instill more meaning and zest in their lives than a good old dose of hope that highlights the enemy and promises to lead them towards all things good and grand waiting just around the corner? Plus, it is not the first time they are mistaking another bellwether for long-awaited and promised deliverer. We have had them before, we have them now and won’t run short of them in future.

Every lad or lass with a knack for history knows for a fact that politicos, since the dawn of civilisation, use two words to enchant their followers: change and hope. IK is doing nothing new and cannot be blamed for it

It would be wishful to expect that masses will opt to make sense of the happenings around through contemplation, study and critical insight. In this day and age where most of us seek help from a search engine to sort out our personal, professional and spiritual dilemmas, where we type in (or speak out) our predicaments in Siri or Google search and voila an endless list of remedies appears out of the blue, it would be delusional to expect triumph of better sense. Many amongst us parrot what we hear, skim through or came across in our newsfeed, few bother to exchange their shoes with adversary and take a stroll around.

‘When in opposition, be a socialist,’ is how a state minister currently spearheading a very vital portfolio, summed up his younger brother (and his Party’s mindset) who is a very vocal, very loyal, very learned, very eloquent and a very towering MNA of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf.

I wish I had a fraction of crispness and clarity of expression that the seer of our times Eric Hoffer had, writing back in 1951 he summed up all that ails our marching rebels today. I quote an excerpt from his magnum opus, ‘The True Believer’: “What surprises one, when listening to the frustrated as they decry the present and all its works, is the enormous joy they derive from doing so. Such delight cannot come from the mere venting of a grievance. There must be something more — and there is. By expatiating upon the incurable baseness and vileness of the times, the frustrated soften their feeling of failure and isolation. It is as if they said: ‘Not only our blemished selves, but the lives of all our contemporaries, even the most happy and successful, are worthless and wasted.’”

About time, that we all admit silently and repeat this in our head at least once a day: not my circus, not my monkey, all I am interested in is the show, so rage on and amuse me.