Roberto Giori, the owner of the Lausanne-based company De La Rue Giori, which controlled 90% of the world’s currency-printing business, was on the hijacked Indian Airlines flight 814.

He and the other 185 passengers were kept on the hijacked plane for 7 days in the Taliban-held Kandhar in 1999. The billionaire businessman said the ordeal changed him forever.

I don’t know what it is: Hinduism, or the so-called fatalism of Indians. But the way the passengers stayed so calm throughout, even the children, was exemplary. I told myself, if the plane had been full of Italians or French, it would have been very different.

Fatalism is one of the defining characteristics of Indians — letting things be as they are. There is an underlying faith in providence that things change for the better on their own.

In economic parlance, it is termed the “Hindu rate of growth.”

The economic reforms in the last 3 decades have changed a lot of things, but 2/3 of our population still lives below $2 a day. The impressive economic growth is benefiting only a small segment of the population.

Fatalism and schadenfreude

Schadenfreude is a fascinating word. It is derived from the German nouns Schaden, meaning “harm,” and Freude, meaning “joy.” It means joy over the misfortune of others.

Schadenfreude, more than anything else, justified the success of demonetization. Our government illegalized the higher denomination currency notes in 2016, which accounted for 88% of the total money in circulation.

The reasoning was to uproot corruption, draw parity between the rich and the poor, eradicate black money from the system, wash off counterfeit currency from the system, and break the backbone of terror funding.

The arrangement for citizens was to replace the old currency notes within a stipulated timeframe from the banks.

As per the government’s initial estimates, 30% of the total money in circulation was not supposed to come back into the banking system. This unaccounted money, drawn from the poor by the rich, was slated to expose the ugly side of riches.

So went the state propaganda. The unreturned money was to become a windfall gain for the treasury and a great help for the poor.

The whole of India was in the queue at banks to exchange money. It caused monumental suffering for all.

We endured it because of the greater harm it would cause to the privileged few. We endured it in the hope that the rich would be brought to book. So they are always available to be sold for grand falsities.

99.7% of the currency notes were exchanged. The government grossly underestimated people’s ability for devising ingenious ways for returning foul money to the banking system and be good at books. But that’s a story for some other time.

After a brief hiatus, the counterfeit currency started showing up, and parity between the rich and poor continues to be a pipedream.

The 500 and 1000 rupee currency bills were outlawed on the premise that bigger bills make corruption easier. With this reasoning in the background, they introduced the 2000 RS bills!

The public hailed this as a bold move and a noble vision of the government. The best part is that no one in the media asked this question in any forum: how will replacing a 1000 Rupee bill with a 2000 Rupee bill aid in the fight against corruption?

The media is a piece of state machinery to fool citizens. The message “The rich have been shown the earth” sparked pent-up envy, and “This is your contribution to nation building” sparked patriotism. They frequently likened our hardships to those of the soldiers fighting at the country’s border.

When our deep-rooted emotions are triggered, objectivity is the first thing that goes out of the window. With our minds shut, we can endure anything.

The humility of the leader is the most potent weapon

Getting emboldened by winning elections after elections, the ruling party set out to dominate institutional independence. The citadel of the impartiality of courts is the last one to fall, barring the supreme court of India.

Take the case of the activist Teesta Setalvad, who has been championing the cause of the victims of the Godhara riots. For the unversed, the violent Hindu-Muslim clash happened in 2002 during the tenure of the incumbent prime minister, Narendra Modi, when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

The Supreme Court of India gave him a clean chit for his involvement in riots. But a lone vigilante NGO is working on the victim’s side. The entire government’s machinery put its might into implicating one lady.

Even the high court of Gujarat denied her bail. It took a supreme court hearing and a prompt rebuke of the high court.

People believe that their beloved Prime Minister can do nothing wrong. Because he is a self-made man, doesn’t have a family, and left his wife at a very young age to serve the nation. He’s a Hindu icon, an impressive communicator, and a firebrand orator. His entire demeanour is full of humility, and he always talks of nation-building. He works 18 hours a day and never takes leave. We want to be inspired by such a larger-than-life persona.

The charisma of one man vindicates all other ills.

Corruption has a new shade

We understand corruption as truckloads of money stashed in individual Swiss accounts or swanky-looking, English-speaking folks who send their kids to the west for education or those whose children inherit their father’s political legacy.

It’s just a manifestation of our envy — how can a person who asks for votes from us be better off than us? Perceived arrogance of the ruling elite is the single biggest factor that causes anti-incumbency.

We don’t see corruption in toppling elected governments. We overlook the corruption angle in the legalisation of electoral bonds, which allows non-transparent donations to political parties. We are fine with the ruling party’s having a swanky, 100-million-dollar headquarters.

We’re also fine with one businessman considered close to our PM increasing his wealth 20 times in 8 years, from $7 billion in 2014 to $140 billion now. Gautam Adani is now the world’s third richest individual.

We understand the crudest form of corruption. Crony capitalism is an unidentifiable form of corruption.

The ruling party gets 75% of all political donations. We don’t ask questions about such a lopsided equation.

The autonomy of institutions like the election commissions, the media, or the judiciary is largely compromised. We also don’t see corruption in rewriting school textbooks to suit the nationalistic and religious agenda of the state.

We are always available for gullibility. We are overeager to leave behind our objective minds in pursuit of basal satisfaction. The first thing at fault is our mental stasis.