Hope is a silver lining on the horizon. It promises something new. It opens a future. In an atmosphere of uncertainty and darkness , we humans long for light, self-belief, and energy of hope. In these conditions of unfreedom, underserved and unmerited suffering, hope becomes therapy. Hope is political. All politics is a politics of hope. Hence, hope is not innocent. It can ignite new energy that has the power to infuse vison of the future that can draw us to give our life to make it a reality. Hope, thus, takes us forward. Hope opens new possibilities.
Because all politics is a politics of hope, we have to be critical about the promise of hope offered by different ideologies. Often, a lost future can trigger hope to the point that it becomes a hauntology. A lost past and closed future can in fact lead us to work to give future to a lost past. Hindutva in India is one such attempt to give a future to a lost past. This is why Salvoj Zizek challenges us to give up hope and embrace the courage of hopelessness. He says often when we find ourselves in a dark tunnel we see a light at the end of the tunnel. We then immediately jump with blind enthusiasm that we are seeing a better future. It awakens our hope and we blissfully long to the see the coming of the dawn of the light at the end of the tunnel. Zizek cautions us that the light at the end of the tunnel is perhaps the light of an engine that is coming to crush us. This is why Zizek challenges us to abandon hope and embrace the courage of hopelessness.
Perhaps, we in 2014 saw the light at the end of tunnel in the person and leadership of Narendra Modi. Now that we experienced the ten years rule of the BJP, we have painfully come to understand that our hope was misplaced. This is why we seem to have resigned to accept the courage of hopelessness. We might see this in the slogan ‘ Daro mat and Daroho mat’ of Rahul Gandhi. In fact , the politics of fear and hate employed by PM Modi and the BJP has come to haunt BJP. With the numbers being not fully on the ruling side, it seems that the Government is surviving of the oxygen of its alliance partners. The leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi himself demonstrates the power of the courage of hopelessness.
Even after the BJP was cut to size during the last election nothing seems to have changed. BJP has not learned its lessons. The Government appears to be still on to its old tricks. The recent union budget also had nothing to choose for a large chuck of our people. It is once again tilting towards the Big Business which has been aptly described as hum do or hamare do by Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders in the past. Although no significant change can be identified in the conduct of the ruling benches , it appears that the people of India have abandoned their hope in the PM Modi. Modi ki guarantee had failed to attract votes and now have won the distrust of our people. Hence, what we seem to find that the people have embraced the courage of hopelessness.
In fact, it was the people of India who desperately fought against all odds in the last election. It was the people of India who fought against the ruling BJP. Despite nothing has significantly changed, it is the people who have changed. This change has come from the depths of the courage of hopelessness. This courage of hope does not have an apocalyptic vision of a dream future. It simply deals with courage in the living present and leaves the future to take care of itself. The courage of hopelessness is not passive surrender. It is a courageous active response. This is why the politics of fear has changed position. It is the ruling benches that seem to be working under the weight of fear. The power of courage of hopelessness is visible in the way PM Modi is lamenting about being not allowed to speak in the parliament. People of India abandoned what may be viewed as a privatization their hope. They have no hope in PM Modi. PM Modi can no longer ignite hope.
BJP that had privatized the hope of the people and monopolized it to mobilize it for notes and votes . Today it can no longer do the same. People now own their hope. They have learned to take their destiny in their hands. Hence, what we are seeing is truly a courage of hopelessness. There is hope in the courage of hopelessness. But this hope is not privatized and handed over to some leader and his/her party. It is owned by the people. The people are positive and have seen the power that they have and therefore, embraced a new hope. They hope in themselves . This appears to be the change that we are seeing. Our people have become the change that they want to see.
