The paradox is really the pathos of intellectual life and just as only great souls are exposed to passions it is only the great thinker who is exposed to what we call paradoxes.

 In order to fully appreciate the relevance of this statement in the context of contemporary Indian politics one must first be aware of the statement in its entirety.

" Politicians accuse me of always contradicting; but therein they are my masters; for there is one person more who they contradict-namely, themselves.

The paradox is really the pathos of intellectual life, and just as only the great souls are exposed to passions, it is only the great thinkers who are exposed to what I call paradoxes, which are nothing else than grandiose thoughts in embryo" [Reference - Soren Kierkegaard's journal, April 22, 1838]

As such, the Indian political, economical and social scene has been full of paradoxes ever since the inception of our fledgling nation. The attempt to eradicate poverty by making every one poorer (as in embracing the socialist ideals) or the oft quoted expression that India is a rich nation full of poor people all point to the natural talent we have of creating grandiose paradoxes.

Ever since the green revolution hit the country, our grain production figures have been more or less on the rise. Yet, while on one hand the ministry of food and environment shows that its granaries are overflowing, we hear increasing reports of deaths from starvation. Madhya Pradesh is not called the Ethiopia of India for no particular reason. The agricultural lobby from our wheat belt has been a prominent vote bank for the taking for a long time now. Successive governments have been announcing consistently higher minimum support prices (MSP) for wheat and rice. This is a surefire way to appease the lobby and keep the votes coming in. The downside is that due to these abnormally high MSPs, most of the produce ends up with the government which has neither the facilities to store it for future consumption, nor the public distribution network needed to dispose of it before it rots. The result: sky rocketing production figures and rising deaths from starvation.

More recently, as the reputation Indian politics gradually drifts towards its nadir, we have been fortunate enough to witness another paradox in the making: the trend of people on the run from the law becoming law makers. The examples of people like Shibu Soren, Syed Shahbuddin etc who have been facing serious criminal charges running for the posts in the state gorvenment, a body which itself is responsible for  maintaining law and order in the state. Although some might like to classify this phenomena as having overtures of irony, the writer personally would like to think of it as a paradox.

However, Kierkegaard might not find these paradoxes to be akin to those he was thinking of when he made that statement. The closest our political scene comes to meeting his idea of a paradox is the creation of an islamic state by a man who thought of himself as a secular leader.