“EK HATH SE TALI NAHIN BAJATI” A HYPOCRITE’S BEST PROVERB

There is a saying in India “ek hath se Tali Nahin bajati". Translated in English it goes something like this" clapping cannot happen with one hand".   It is very similar to the proverb used in UK “it takes two to tango”.    All over the world this proverb is used in some form or other.

 For any given altercation between two individuals or groups, this saying tries to impart responsibility on both of them. It seems quite innocuous and impartial saying but in reality it is a huge Pandora’s box overflowing with innuendos and insinuations.  

For an example, a man returning home from the office gets stabbed on the street and is critically injured. When given this news, some people will use this saying " ek hath se Tali Nahin bajati", thus assigning some blame on the victim.

Most benignly this is used by lazy people who do not wish to work their brains to think rationally or think at all.  They just want to say something sounding cleaver.

 Then there are Humpty-Dumptys who always sit on the fence. Never take a decision for the fear of offending one or the other party. They are cleaver but pusillanimous.

Some dislike the person stabbed will use this  saying much  less benevolently and say it with some emphasis on the words  “one hand”  apportioning  quite a bit of  blame on this poor victim  though still sounding neutral. This is the beginning of the slippery slope of hypocrisy.

On the other hand  if the person you are talking to is a great supporter of the mugger then he/she would repeatedly and loudly say this proverb trying to convince you and whoever is prepared to listen that the victim was if not solely, equally responsible for his misfortune. These people hypocritically project themselves as righteous, knowledgeable and unprejudiced commentators.

Recently President Trump used this while commenting on the shameful and blatantly racist supremacist atrocities in Charlottesville, USA. He denounced the violence and mayhem quite rightly but in the same breath implied that the peaceful antiracist demonstrators were equally to be blamed. What? The woman killed by the car driven in reverse by this thug has contributed to her injuries by being on this road? Lots of people all over the world, many from his own party saw through this conceit. They were very indignant and justly denounced him.

Many a times a lot of unscrupulous leaders get away with it. When the opposite party does something wrong they are blamed wholly and solely but when it is clear as a daylight that their own party or personnel are responsible then they very cunningly invoke this saying that clapping cannot take place....  This is repeated by their followers so often that it becomes an reason to exonerate the culprit.

Some times it is true that both the parties are responsible and the commentator is right but he should have real facts to back up his statement. Using this saying as if it is a universal truth is never justified, at best it is a smokescreen for intellectual laziness, at worst a disgusting hypocrisy.