Learning to sing the praises of Bharat Mata: A start-up opportunity there?

Despite Dr Johnson’s caveat that patriotism is the last resort of a scoundrel, nationalist chest-thumping has become the order of the day in the political arena. The politics of competitive patriotism has taken a new twist in the current tug-of-war between Congress and BJP over Vande Mataram. The paean of praise to Bharat Mata was in 1937 adopted as the country’s ‘National Song’ by the then-Congress Working Committee in British India. Now, however, the newly installed state government in Madhya Pradesh has discontinued the practice, initiated by the previous BJP regime, of the monthly recital of the nationalist song. One party’s patriotism can be another party’s jingoistic propaganda.

While BJP president Amit Shah has called the embargo ‘treason’, senior leaders of his party were left red-faced and literally tongue-tied in Bhopal where they had gathered to protest and it was discovered that few, if any of them, actually knew the words of Vande Mataram. The episode could prove to be a learning experience for any who would wear their patriotic hearts on their sleeves without having done their homework.

Startup entrepreneurs might see this as a lucrative opportunity to set up coaching centres for those who need to learn how to read the fine print of nationalist aspirations while singing in the reign of uber-patriotism.