Column | Window Seat 5.4.2020

Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 5.7.2020

 

Zohnerism

According to the Urban Dictionary Zohnerism means the use of scientific fact for an unrelated false conclusion. 

Here is how the word emerged: In 1997, 14 year old Nathan Zohner of Eagle Rock Junior High School in Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA presented his science fair project to his classmates, seeking to ban a highly toxic chemical from it’s everyday use. The chemical in question was Dihydrogen Monoxide. 

Throughout his presentation, Zohner provided his audience scientifically correct evidence as to why this chemical should be banned. He explained that dihydrogen monoxide causes severe burns in while it’s in gas form, corrodes and rusts metal, is commonly found in tumors, acid rain etc., causes excessive urination and bloating if consumed in large quantity and kills countless people annually. Zohner also noted that the chemical is able to kill you if you depend on it and then experience an extended withdrawal. 

He then asked his classmates if they actually wanted to ban dihydrogen monoxide. And 43 out of the 50 children present voted to ban this clearly toxic chemical. 

However…this chemical isn’t typically considered toxic at all. In fact, Dihydrogen Monoxide is simply an unconventional name for water. 

Nathan Zohner’s experiment wasn’t a legitimate attempt to ban water. It was an experiment to show how gullible people can really be. All the points that Zohner used to drive home his point were factually correct; he just skewed all of the information in his favour by omitting certain facts. 

One journalist eventually dubbed this event as ‘Zohnerism’, where true facts are misled towards false conclusions. Zohnerism, thus meant twisting of simple facts to confuse people.  

And this occurs a lot more often than you think, especially when politicians, conspiracy theorists, spin doctors and charlatans use proven facts to persuade people into believing false claims. 

The fact that people can be misled so easily is highly unsettling.

PV Narasimha Rao: The man who changed the face of India

PV (Pamulaparthi Venkata) Narasimha Rao (June 28, 1921-December 23, 2004) changed the image of India from a slow-moving nation who prefers to remain within a self-imposed cocoon to a bold new progressive one- boldly embracing the world.

Caricature by Mrityunjay

With his able Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh he authored the most radical shift in India’s economic policy since Jawaharlal Nehru’s famous Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956. Nehru’s resolution had declared that India would strive to establish a “socialistic pattern of society”. In 1991 PV moved away from that pattern to unleash private enterprise.

There was no denying the fact that before 1991, the Indian economy was considered to be a ‘closed’ one and its planning programmes and licence raj was forced to collapse gradually since the mid-1980s. It is emphasised by some economic historians that the regimentation Indian economy witnessed post-independence till the 1990s was a fallout of an understanding among powerful rural interests, Indian capitalists with protectionist attitude and the bureaucracy with a vested interest led by the government at the centre.

By 1991, India still had a fixed exchange rate system, where the rupee was pegged to the value of a basket of currencies of major trading partners. India started having balance of payments problems since 1985, and by the end of 1990, India was in a serious financial crisis. The government was close to default. A Balance of Payments crisis in 1991 pushed the country to near bankruptcy. In return for an IMF bailout, gold was transferred to London as collateral, the rupee devalued and economic reforms were forced upon India. That low point was the catalyst required to transform the economy through badly needed reforms to unshackle the economy.

In the International front, the 1990s saw the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the strong influence of American hegemony world over at the end of the Cold War.

It was at this critical juncture that Rao took the radical decision to open up the economy and embrace globalisation.  Thus India’s path of neo-liberalisation was opened up by the minority government. It arrived in India like a big bang with the budget presentation of the government which opened the economy, dismantled the import controls, minimized custom duties, devalued the currency, almost abolished licence controls on private investment in the majority of sectors, lowered the tax rates, and diluted the monopoly of the public sectors. The reforms — heralded with the future prime minister, Manmohan Singh as Rao's finance minister were sweeping with far reaching ramifications.

PV Narasimha Rao was born on June 28, 1921, near Karimnagar, in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. Rao went to Pune's Fergusson College. He then attended the Universities of Bombay and Nagpur, from where he received a degree in law. He is also known as a distinguished scholar who was fluent in many languages.

His foray into politics began when he joined the Congress Party as an activist to fight for independence from Britain. He was also a member of the Andhra Pradesh state legislative assembly. Before becoming India's prime minister, Rao represented Andhra Pradesh in the Lok Sabha. He was also the foreign minister.

After Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991, the Congress (I) Party picked Rao as its chief and he then assumed charge as India’s twelfth prime minister. As Sanjay Baru writes, “He not only ruled a full term but his policies ushered in a new era and gave a new direction to national politics. He was an unlikely prime minister but a seminal one.”

But as a leader he failed to carry the masses and his party with him. In the 1996 general elections Congress Party under his leadership was badly defeated and he had to step down as Prime Minister. He retained the leadership of the Congress party until late 1996 after which he was replaced by Sitaram Kesri. His party almost disowned him. He faded from active politics. After his retirement from national politics Rao published a novel titled The Insider. The story line of the novel follows a man’s rise through the ranks of Indian politics, resembled events from Rao’s own life. Rao, however denied any connection.

Rao suffered a heart attack on 9 December 2004, and died 14 days later at the age of 83.

It is true that PV Narasimha Rao has not been given due recognition for what he has done for the country. He is the only departed prime minister to be denied a separate memorial in Delhi. Even his party did not pay him due respect. After his death, his body was refused entry into the AICC headquarters.

Many accuse him for the Babri Masjid demolition, which many others including Vinay Sitapati, who wrote 'Half Lion: How PV Narasimha Rao Transformed India’ (2016) deny.

On his birth centenary year, it seems there has been a general renewal of interest in what Narasimha Rao did at a critical time. As a Times of India editorial dated 30.6.2020 hints- probably there is a realization that India has squandered its promise of prosperity brought about by the 1991 reforms.

Will the political parties take inspiration from his legacy and move on with bold reforms that could enable India to overcome current problems of poverty and joblessness? Only time can tell.

Tailpiece: If a Woman…

If a woman listens to you for 5 minutes, she’s your daughter 

If a woman listens to you for 15 minutes, she’s your sister 

If a woman listens to you for 30 minutes she’s your mother 

If a woman never listens to you, she is deaf.  

Why unnecessarily bring wife into every joke 

Ban on Tiktok

After the ban on tiktok video app, half the beauty queens in social media have just disappeared.

(Courtesy: Social Media)

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Journalist turned media academician Mrinal Chatterjee lives in Dhenkanal, Odisha. He also writes fiction and translates poetry. An anthology of his translated poems has just been published.