No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

No good deed goes unpunished

No good deed goes unpunished- it’s a strange and mysterious thing to say, and coming, as it does, from a Protestant priest, one William Sloan Coffin, sometime Chaplain at Yale University and the presiding minister at Riverside Church in New York City; it is doubly intriguing and enigmatic.

I came across it again, this phrase, glibly tossed off by the Irish film star Pierce Brosnan, delivering a line in the film version of The Tailor of Panama based on a book by John Le Carre. It’s a spy story, but it is also a squirmy tussle between moral turpitude and redemption, subtle and masterfully evocative, fuelled by guilt and underscored by a hard-defended integrity. You might call it all so much classic grist to the mill for the inevitable suffering induced by do-goodism of the kind Mr. Coffin had in mind. No wonder then, that Brosnan used Coffin’s fine line in the film. It was, as they say, a damn good fit.

But even in isolation, the phrase intrigues- you can’t readily decide whether it’s just unwarranted cynicism, or quite true; specially, if you think about it a bit. And when you do so, you feel a cold and heartless finger prodding you in the ribs bringing you just a touch of despair. You have to ask yourself - isn’t the well-lived life about performing good deeds? Whatever am I meant to make of the boy scout ethic now?

But immediately after this rather destabilising thought, another one, even worse than the first, quickly follows. It’s a dark notion, this one, but it brings relief, as apparent solutions to puzzles often do, even if the accompanying logic seems a tad woolly. It is simply this-good deeds somehow provoke the environment and invite retaliation.

This is because doing good is rarely selfless. If it were, it probably wouldn’t concern itself with outcomes and certainly wouldn’t care two hoots about credit. But truth be told, do-goodism, more often than not, is shot through with lesser or greater measures of ambition, self-aggrandising ambition to be precise. So, this proverb-like statement of Mr. Coffin’s, refers to just desserts for hubris; for sneakily seeking recompense for your immortal soul; for playing at mahatma as if the business of developing a great soul was some kind of plug-and-play device.

But what has this priestly philosophy got to do with Narendra Modi’s impending re-election in Gujarat? Apart from the Party with the lotus symbol projecting him as The Saviour you mean? Well, in the alleys and the gullies they are saying that if he wins, it is a sure fire beacon of hope for the Hindutva fuelled Right and all its Modi-mask wearing acolytes. Some others are saying that like Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh, the home state of Gujarat and the gaddi at Gandhinagar may not be able to contain Mr. Modi’s ambition for very much longer. And that he will shortly be vying for the prime ministership, maybe as early as 2008 or 2009 along with Behenji from Lucknow.

Interesting possibility certainly. Consider that both are as yet state politicians, but politicians of daring and rare conviction, not ashamed to push and promote the cult of their own personalities; and newly arrived at their eminence as possible contenders for national power.

Consider also that they have both demonstrated spectacular dynamism and vision. In Modi’s case, the achievements are economic and in terms of social upliftment, even as his failure to take all people, particularly the minority community along for the ride, is the biggest black mark against him. And in Mayawati’s case, it is the spectacular forging together of a rainbow coalition encompassing disparate castes and creeds that happens to be her crowning glory. For both contenders, it is likely, that the road ahead is going to be even more spectacular than the distance already travelled.

And who knows, they might make for natural allies in future. They both have the requisite audacity and intelligence certainly.

But all this street talk is worrisome, even alarming, to all those other do-gooders who run some risk of becoming redundant as the situation evolves along these lines. What will become of the stars of the present firmament at the centre, communists and anti-communalists like Messrs. Yechury and Karat of the frequent threats for example? And what of old war-horse LK Advani and tyagi Sonia Gandhi and the great dimpled white hope of the future generations who populates only teasers and trailers as yet? What fate will befall his Blackberry flaunting brat pack? And what about all those hoary old loyalists heavy with experience and know-how? And what of those dark glass clad regional satraps in their capes and cowls, their jaunty moustaches and gigantic tilaks? These too, after all, are all considerable do-gooders in their own right.

Apparently, the days of outright wins at the centre are over. But that’s what everyone said about Uttar Pradesh till Mayawati showed them how it’s done. And they say Modi is too dictatorial to form a coalition at the centre if he needs too. But that’s exactly what they used to say about the Defender of the Dalits too till she started defending Brahmins and Muslims and the in-between castes as well. Circumstances change and the real Modi without the mask is likely to change right alongside. I remember Narendra Modi well from his days as a BJP spokesperson making reasonable comments on all the news channel talk shows. And now the same man is a demagogue with a 56” chest. Tomorrow, if it is statesman time, Narendrabhai, like Soniabehn, will not be found wanting.

But what if Modi loses. What will it mean? Will it imply that he’s been too good for his own good? Will all the collective good he has done so far, so thoroughly outweigh the good done by his adversaries, that he is fated to be punished as per Coffin’s aphorism?

Happily for Modi, the converse might well turn out to be true.He might survive because it is revealed that he really hasn’t done as much good as he thinks!

Whatever the electoral outcome, if Coffin’s right, do-gooding is a hazardous business better left to the Opposition.

(1,042 words)

By Gautam Mukherjee
Monday 10th December 2007

Also published on the EDIT PAGE of The Pioneer on Friday 21st December, 2007