Mobiles Can Only Connect

(Published in Banking Services Chronicle February 2003)

By the time you read this piece, there will be more than a crore mobile phones in our country. Almost every hundredth person has become networked. SMS and MMS now make email look dated. The metros have become deluged with cellphone beeps. Instant connectivity is the buzzword.

What can one infer from the above scenario? That EM Forster’s ideal of “Only connect” now rings true. That connections have weaved a benign web of harmony. That the beeps have made the world musical.

Unfortunately, Forster’s ideal still remains in the realm of idea. If connectivity is increasing, so is insecurity. Loneliness seems to have a vice-like grip at all levels. One individual does not trust another. One society is scared of another. One community suspects another. One nation cannot bank on another.

Look at what has happened in Gujarat. If the BJP government were to be judged on the criterion of its performance, it would have been voted out of power. Instead, it was voted back with a record number of seats and a staggering voteshare. Narendra Modi succeeded in convincing the electorate of its insecurity if it did not stick together and rally behind its saviour.

But let us not blame Modi alone for overhauling the parameters on which to vote. The insecurity of the intellectuals has equally been responsible for the rise of Hindu fundamentalism. In their zeal to be portrayed as liberal, they often ignored the appeasement of the minorities. Any attempt to revive the country’s glorious past made them insecure. They smelt Hitler in everything Hindu. Look at the result. The pendulum has swung to the other extreme and made heroes out of ordinary Modis.

It is high time, however, we stopped this blame game and put things into perspective. The infighting between the Hindus and the Muslims needs to be brought to an end immediately. We are insecure, no doubt. But let us look at the real causes of insecurity.

There is threat from outside. Terrorists from across the border do not miss any oportunity to weaken the country. Pakistan has been infamous for its India-baiting. But there are now reports that Bangladesh, which was thought to be rather docile, is also turning into a menace for India. We need to be diplomatically strong.
But there is also threat from inside. The terror of Naxalism is slowly spreading its poison into the veins of the country. The Naxalites have time and again given vent to their dissatisfaction with the State in no incertain terms.

Have things gone beyond redemption? Perhaps not. The only thing is we have to learn to make compromises. We have to learn how not to miss the wood for the trees. If a compromise is possible in Sri Lanka, why not in India? If a militant organisation like the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) can be brought to the talking table, why can our alienated sections not be won over?

For any of the measures, however, we need to be strong. Which we are not. Writes a reader in a letter to the Outlook editor: “We dream of becoming a permanent member of the Security Council when we can’t even punish a small state like the UAE for its intransigence in releasing Anees Ibrahim.” He may sound wrong if taken too literally. But the spirit of what he writes cannot be questioned.

All of us would like our country to be as strong as the US. Only, we shirk from the centuries of hard work the Americans have put in before being recognised as a global superpower. Security is something that has to be earned. We shouldn’t expect its subsidised version.

Mobiles only have the power to connect. But they can’t change the connecting points. If the points are secure, they can transmit security. If the points are insecure, they can transmit only insecurity.