Question

Politics is about power and its legitimacy. It is not about the extremely regressive and reactionary idea of civil society that unthinking commentators seem to be offering, day in and day out. Constant harping on civil society leads to sentimentality, nostalgia and illiberalism of the worst kind, along with malignant notions of nationalism and communitarianism.___________________

• A. Take for instance the Savarkar issue. It came to the forefront at the time of the Maharashtra Assembly elections. There were those who argued that Savarkar was a freedom fighter and must be honoured as one. Another set of people spoke about his alleged role in the Gandhi assassination, which was countered by those who claimed that Savarkar had been acquitted by the trial court and subsequent inquiry commissions for lack of direct evidence implicating him in the Mahatma's murder.
• B. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were the pioneers of this idea, and George W. Bush won his second term riding on the back of such an idea of a self-contained, morally superior and self-sustaining neo-conservatism.
• C. In India, this manifests in the form of a sentiment where it is assumed that holding hands, singing songs, holding candle light vigils, and ensuring civic amenities will actually ensure our fundamental freedom and individual choices
• D. Is this state of affairs due to our inability to confront larger political issues or is it because discussing these will implicate all of us in ways we hardly suspect?

Answer 1

The correct option is B Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were the pioneers of this idea, and George W. Bush won his second term riding on the back of such an idea of a self-contained, morally superior and self-sustaining neo-conservatism.

The paragraph starts with an ideology of what Politics is actually and what it is made to be. The concluding sentence, will thus, talk about who has pioneered this ideology.

Option (b) is the best option.