The swami's curse

Indian politics
印度政治

The swami's curse
大师之呐喊

A populist yogi ties the government up in knots
一位高人气瑜伽师让印度政府头疼不已

Jun 9th 2011 | DELHI | from the print edition

BUSHY-BEARDED swamis in women's clothing. Gurus on hunger strike. Anti-corruption sit-ins. You might have thought the Indian government would know how to deal with these, thanks to long practice. Yet this week its bungling of a public protest turned a loony yogi who peddles quack cures for AIDS, cancer and corruption into a rallying figure for an angry public and opposition. The muttering about changing leaders is growing.
满脸胡子的大师穿着女人的衣服。古鲁[1]们在进行绝食抗议。以静坐的方式在表达对腐败的不满。按照以往的惯例，你或许会认为印度政府知道怎么处理这样的事件。然而，本周该国糟糕的公众抗议却将一名疯狂的瑜珈大师变成了一个代表愤怒公众和反对派的政治形象，该人一直向人们传授防治艾滋病，癌症和腐败的方法。民众之中对变化的领导人的抱怨也在一直在增加。

This week's farce involved the saffron-clad Baba Ramdev, whose wealth, popularity on television and delusions of political grandeur led him to call a fast to the death in Delhi at the weekend. His chosen cause is the repatriation of billions of dollars supposedly stashed abroad by the rich and crooked. He says such cash would pay to wipe hunger from the land. Given public anger over food and fuel inflation, such a claim, however bogus, goes down well.
本周的闹剧是与一个叫巴巴•拉姆德夫（Baba Ramdev）的人有关，他穿着橘红色外衣，该人的财富，电视人气和其宏伟的政治狂想让其在本周末没差点儿在新德里饿死。他所选择的事业是将那些由富人隐藏在海外的通过不正当手段获得的数十亿美元带到印度国内。他说，这些现金可以用来消除这块土地上的饥饿。鉴于公众对于食物和燃料通货膨胀的愤怒，拉姆德夫这样的宣言虽然有点假，但也还有市场。

In more confident times Congress's long-serving leaders would surely have brushed him aside. Pranab Mukherjee, the canny finance minister, has been atop politics for long enough to remember how a much more powerful guru, the "flying swami", Indira Gandhi's yoga teacher, adviser and rumoured lover, was swept into obscurity amid scandals over a personal arms factory and crooked aircraft deals.
国大党中那些长期掌权的领导人们则几次都自信地表示，将不会考虑拉姆德夫的要求。精明的财政部长普拉纳博穆克吉(Pranab Mukherjee)作为已经进入政治高层的人，他还记得一个曾经强有力的瑜伽大师，也就是被人称作是"飞翔的导师"――他曾经作为英迪拉•甘地的瑜伽老师，兼顾问，也是其传闻中的情人，该瑜伽导师在私人武器工厂和不规范的飞机交易丑闻中而身败名裂。

Today, the government seems to have lost its touch. Beset by accusations of graft, it may soon have to eject a dodgy-looking coalition ally, a Tamil party thumped in a state election in May. Despite softer economic growth and falling investment, India's rulers have dared launch no reforms or pass any laws of note this year.
现在印度政府似乎失去了知觉。一个泰米尔政党在五月份赢得了某个州的选举，再加上受到贪污指控的困扰，政府或许不得不放弃一个看不可靠的盟友。虽然印度的经济疲软，投资下降，不过印度的决策者们还敢在今年不进行任何改革，或者通过任何法律。

Nor has it known how to tackle problems as they flare up. Instead of preventing the guru's protest, or letting it take its course, the government tried to control it. First, ministers got the guru to give an empty promise that his gathering would be called off. Then, when he breezily broke that, as tens of thousands of supporters converged, they panicked and sent in stick-wielding police, who lobbed tear gas and attacked the sleeping camp on June 4th.
随着民怨的爆发，政府对此事的束手无策。印度政府并不镇压古鲁们的抗议，也不阻止其自然发展，取而代之的是尽力控制它。首先，部长们让古鲁给出一个空头承诺，即他们的集结将取消。然而，随着数万名支持者汇集起来后，这个许诺就会被轻易地打破，政府由感到恐慌，就派出了挥舞着警棍的警察，在6月4日天投掷催泪，袭击示威者的营地。

Beating sleeping anti-corruption protesters while television cameras roll is not the most sensible public-relations policy. Many demonstrators are in hospital and one has been paralysed. Nor does it say much for India's democratic process, since Mr Ramdev had permission to stage an event (though not, the authorities say, for a mass protest). The saving grace was that the hairy-armed guru was arrested―and photographed―trying to escape while dressed in female attire. Unabashed, he said he would raise a force of 11,000 "so that next time we do not lose any battle".
当对正在睡觉的反腐败示威者进行袭击时，然而电视和摄像机的镜头却对有关公共的政策却极不关注。许多游行示威者都进入了医院，并且还有其中一个人已经瘫痪了。由于拉姆德夫此前就游行已经得到允许，因此这起事件也并不能过多地体现出印度的民主进程（虽然官方说这样一个大规模的抗议并没有得到批准）。其中的可取之处就是那些携带武器的古鲁得到了逮捕――还有拍照的――他们穿着女性的衣服试图逃跑。拉姆德夫还大言不惭地说，他将会召集一个拥有11000人的队伍，"以便于下次我们不输掉任何战斗"。

The gleeful opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party, says the Congress party is showing all the leadership qualities of a "headless chicken". That insult may be routine, but even senior Congress insiders privately voice dismay.
面对印度乐此不疲的反对活动，印度人民党说国大党显出了所有"无头苍蝇"领导素质的基本特征。这样的讽刺或许很正常，不过即便是国大党的资深内部人士也私下里表现出对该党的不满。

In April Manmohan Singh's government caved in to another hunger-striker, Anna Hazare, who extracted a big concession, winning for his supporters a right to co-draft an anti-corruption bill. That annoyed parliamentarians and others who say elected politicians, not activists, should write laws. On June 8th Mr Hazare launched another protest in Delhi, while his supporters paraded with posters showing the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, as an incarnation of Ravana, a ten-headed demon of Hindu mythology, shouting "these devils are eating the country".
四月的时候，辛格政府向另一绝食的示威者安纳•哈扎尔(Anna Hazare)妥协了，后者赢得了巨大的让步，获得了为他的支持者赢得了一项共同起草反腐败法案权力。此举激怒了国会议员，一些人声称只能是经过选举的政治家才能起草法律，而不是活动家。6月8日，哈扎尔在新德里又发动了另一游行，同时他的支持者高举着总理辛格的海报，作为是罗波那（Ravana）[2]的化身――这是印度教神话中的一个十头怪兽，游行者喊着"这些恶魔正在蚕食着国家"。

Perhaps the summer heat is to blame. Perhaps tempers will ease when the monsoon reaches Delhi next month. Yet the bungling shows that Congress's back-room managers face a long-term problem: finding able, youthful leaders they can promote. Mr Singh was dutifully wheeled out to defend the attack on Mr Ramdev's camp, but few believe that he takes day-to-day political decisions. He is 78, and is a technocrat with little appetite for political scrapping. He relies on Mr Mukherjee, only slightly more sprightly at 75. Power is yet further divided, since Sonia Gandhi, Congress's boss, influences political strategy behind the scenes.
这或许也与火热的夏季也有关吧。或许当季风在下个月到达新德里时，这样的氛围会有所缓解。不过这些荒唐的闹剧显示了国大党幕后的掌控者面临着一个长期的问题：寻找他们可以提拔的年轻有为的领导者。辛格在袭击中保护了拉姆德夫的营地，这一点儿人们都毫无疑问，不过却很少有人相信他能够掌控好每天的政治决策。辛格已经78了，作为一名技术官僚，他对于政治斗争没有太大兴趣。他依靠穆克吉（Mukherjee），而后者仅以75岁的高龄比辛格略显年轻。自国大党的领袖索尼亚•甘地(Sonia Gandhi)以来，权力就需要进一步划分，而这却影响着幕后的政治策略。

For several years, the youthful leader-in-waiting, who was supposed to inject new blood into the tired party, has been Sonia's son, the 41-year-old Rahul. Yet Mr Gandhi, who was arrested (and released) in May while trying to speak up for farmers who had had their land stolen, failed to make much of an impression in recent local elections and is facing the most sustained criticism of his brief career. Until Congress can provide better leadership, expect the opposition, social activists and nutty gurus to take advantage.
这几年来，年轻的后继领导者41岁的胡尔•甘地（Rahul），也就是索尼亚•甘地的儿子，被视作是注入这个虚弱的政党的体内的新鲜血液。然而在五月份，胡尔在试图向农民宣讲那些谁偷地他们土地时，他被捕了（后被释放），在最近的地方选举中甘地也表现一般，另外他还面临着他短暂职业生涯中最为持久的批评。在国大党为他提供一个更好的领导岗位之前，除了反对派，他也就只能利用那些社会活动家和疯狂的古鲁了。
注：

[1]Gurus:古鲁，指印度教等宗教的宗师或领袖。

[2]罗波那:印度史诗罗摩衍那中登场的反派，名字带有「以暴力让人痛泣」的含意，他是僧侣Vishrava和达伊提耶公主Kaikesi  十首魔王所生的其中一个孩子。罗波那因为好女色而拐走悉多。悉多的丈夫罗摩因此前往楞伽岛（今斯里兰卡）将罗波那杀死并救回妻子。
尽管如此，对罗波那的描写并非单纯为一个魔王，他是有能的统治者、湿婆的忠心追随者，经父亲指导下熟读经书吠陀和奥义书及通窍军事，又能弹奏维纳琴。罗波那对梵天进行过历时数年的激烈苦行，过程中因为愤怒於梵天的无视而将自己的头切下来，但每次刚切下时都会从中生出新的头出来，如此重覆10次後梵天终於显灵，在他的肚脐注入不死甘露并赐予他不受凡人以外的神魔所伤的祝福，顺手将全部被切下的头都接驳回他的颈上。获得神力的罗波那带著外祖父的军队到楞伽岛，威胁同父异母的兄长俱吠罗要以武力夺取其政权，俱吠罗在父亲的建议下选择放弃而离开。但楞伽岛在罗波那的统治下富裕无比，百姓不知饥饿为何物。