BABAS,BUREAUCRACY,CORPORATE CAPITALISM , 

MERCANTILE MEDIA & INSENSITIVE LEADERSHIP

Here speaks.........................................saroj kumar samal

For more than one month,the government of Odisha has launched the programme of HUNTING THE BABAS(the self-styled God-men)The corporate media houses are transmitting high-voltage breaking news programmes with catchy captions and spicy analysis related to the criminal,immoral and irreligious activities of the so called god-men.The state administration has taken steps to contain the discontentment among the public which is a praise-worthy step to some extents.Everybody feel amazed after noticing the nefarious activities the babas were engaged with.

Here arises the moot question ,how did the so-called God-men without any godly features (even not having human being's features) become so popular and attract large number of followers ?Today in the era of corporate capitalism and globalized economy,we are living in a mass-society,where the corporate media is playing a very substantial and significant role to make or mar the public opinion.Some fake saints are running business in the name of religion with the clandestine motive of getting immense dividend instantly.They are the so-called God-men,who are really having strong entrepreneurial flavor in matter of religion.Here I don't deny the fact that there are also some good saints in our society.

The strategy and game-plan of politics is experiencing tremendous internal metamorphosis in 21s tcentury Odisha..Poverty,illeteracy,malnourishment,marginalization,deprivation and intensified insecurity is persisting in the state inspite of Government's policy of Inclisive growth.Some unscropulous and unconscitious politicans feel and think that it is not possible to bring large number of followers to their side through political mobilization.They are banking upon upon these intrepreneurial babas for furthering their political intrest.They are providing all sorts immoral and unethical supports to these vendors of commercial spiritualism.While these politicians are in government,they often grossly abuse and misuse the governmental mechinery to make these babas more popular.Some corporate media houses,at first,transmit the PRAVACHAN PROGRAMME(Religious discourse) of the self-styled god-men to generate huge amount of capital because of the manifest contract made between corporate media and corporate religion that a common man is not able to comprehend.Some politicans,either in government or in opposition,make a public demontrration of their arrival and appearance in Baba's place (Ashrama) just to induce a feeling among the insecured people that the so-called god-man is having miraculous power to discard the insecurity and solve the problems of un-educated,half-educated and even highly educated people having moral dialectic and ethical dualism related to God-incarnate.Here i don't deny the fact that there are also some good politicians and leaders among us.

When a minister is moving to Baba's place.it gives a moral boosting to the bureaucrats of the department to follow the suit,because of the hangover of colonial legacy with respect to the connectivity between the political executive and permanent executive of the state.In this mutually win-win situation,is engendered for politician to create vote-banks and Baba to generate capital,mercantile media to get sponsored programme and bureaucrats to win the good-will and confidence of of the minister.

At the end of the day ,when the Baba is caught being engaged in criminal activities,the politicians change their view on Baba and pretend to be the victims of their innocence.And mercantile media transmits breaking news with sensitive and spicy analysis to further it's economic intrest and enhance it's TRP(Television Rating Points).Sometimes, intellegentsia criticizes the common man for their sky-rocketing aspiration of becoming rich over night by praying and worshiping the self-styled God-men.And political parties engage in blame-game.

Here I take a point of difference.I intent to say that during the time of insecurity and crises in life,a theist gets more inclined towards God or so-called God-man.As long as social insecurity and economic marginalization is persisting among a sizable population of the state,we can't blame those people going to god-men with a belief of of over-coming their problems.At this backdrop,I would like to say that the media,the political executive and the permanent executive as well as the political parties have to play a PRO-ACTIVE role(not reactive role) to stop the mushrooming of professional Babas and to transform the society, so that the common man would not become the victim of the vendors of commercial spiritualism...................................................
SAROJ SAMAL posted from Hyderabad