The emperor walks naked, the pied piper blows the flute, yet the blind men of the nation bow down in front of king, calling him the greatest ever one- eyed man.
That’s how the story of India goes, nurtured by the false notion that, your ignorance is as good as my knowledge.
2014- It was a year of dilemma. A dilemma of false narratives and progress, sugar-coated by deadly nationalism and a sense of superiority. Religious nationalism and the hope of revival from a supposedly dreaded past, was as wide as a sea. People jumped into the sea of overwhelming religious extremism and supported the political absolutism. Little did they realize, that they never knew how to swim.
The honeymoon period was soon over, witnessed by farmer suicides, intolerance, media’s auction and demonitisation, the great disaster. Intellectuals were treated like untouchables back then. Nobody listened. Nobody, wanted to listen. Deaths were witnessed, capitalism was seen rising, the sheeps had a slight bit of realization. In silence, India lost 2% of its GDP within weeks.
2017- GST came in. Businesses collapsed, economy shattered, institutions paralyzed, and democracy was just a fancy word. People who were financially effected, realized that they were betrayed, they were exploited. However, it was too late.
Asifa rape case became a mirror to the blind and dumb nation, yet the politicians tried their level best to make rape immortal and a women was treated only like a mere pair of breast and vagina.
With Yogi Adityanath then winning Uttar Pradesh, India became a communal paradise.
Deemed as threat to the very existence of the nation and the community, minority community is currently the target of the majoritarian desire to inflict pain to avent their projected grief. Secularism became a topic of debate, every issue that concerned the state was communalised. Mob lynching was the new normal.
India in its lifetime has witnessed riots, demolition of temples and a lot more, but never did it expect to witness, such a great disdain to intellect and human rights.
Knowledge became a privilege by 2018, where intellectuals were praised not for there knowledge but courage to express it. With bravery becoming a rare gem, India’s intolerance was opposed repeatedly. But, all were labelled as anti India elements and colored with political radicalism. Authoritarian and insecure by nature, the fascist running the country, responded to democratic dissent by paranoia.
The otherwise indifferent man was re-elected, as the country was engaged in finding the best out of the worst. If not him, then who? As if, a rapist priest in a temple is pure, because he is not menstruating at least unlike a women. Only if, the government was taken more seriously than a web series or such a code of perfection was created for the king.
As the time passed, raw power became the only currency valid. India was gifted the decision of revoking article 370, which it only could imagine. Kashmir then became a warzone. There is no such thing as civilized warfare; all warfare is inhuman,
Yet this is war: war for which all the religious jingoes are howling, war to which all the hopes of the world are being sacrificed, for absolutism to rise.
More and more atrocities in the name of religion, and national interest were executed. Humans became political animals. Dalits and Muslims became aliens. Patriotism seemed to to became the sole property of Hindus only. Even the courts didn’t think twice, before asking the state to construct a temple in a secular state.
Buying of mla’s, horse trading, and breaking up of a democratically elected government was considered as chanakya neeti by the hyperbole media, to whom the quality of being shrewd and the ability to dictate others without being questioned was the highest virtue of polity.
Actually, Indians are doomed, between the relationship of legality, righteousness and what we were actually doing. Laws in India basically serve as deterrents to hide the incompetence of a dysfunctional society. The effulgence of the judiciary became a hidden utopia.
The coming of CAA and NRC, was all that India awaited. India this refused to surrender itself to the fascist. Protests that were revolutionary, were not only done to mark its anger against the government’s citizenship law but also against the religious politics executed in the last 6 years and continues to be in an era of economic recession.
The delhi elections came midway, however, the anarchist, responded to an election defeat by a state sponsored pogrom.
(visit this blog of mine, if you still don’t believe it was a pogrom and not a riot– https://radhikabarman.home.blog/2020/03/05/hatred-rage-and-blood-delhi-riots-2020/ )
It proved the frustration of the a government when, it doesn’t gets what it wants.
India then faced the coronavirus epidemic , where being a realist became being delusional and a criminal activity to be so. No one expected it to be communalised, however, it was very much communalised.
The otherwise ignorant dictator, then declared a lockdown which was also an official death warrant to the labourers and wage earners. Instead, of doing more testing it encouraged the idea of social distancing, which also re-established the idea of untouchability and treating Muslims and other Chinese people as suspected offenders.
Nevertheless, the megalomania of the dictator didn’t end, he took repeated popularity tests to see whether his cult still exists or not be it by banging plates or lighting a candle, it was well accepted by the society in the name of supposed unity and need of showing it to others. Unity that was temporary, and needed to be performed than executed by default. One must have wondered, what more was left for a morally corrupt nation to show and why did this need develop at first place.
Hence, it became yet again proved that we were a nation of educated illiterates and we didn’t require any virus. Prejudice and stupidity had already poisoned us, and were sufficient to kill us.
India’s story doesn’t ends here, but I end this article here as this is still a teaser and the main picture is awaiting to be executed.
With a leader like modi at the helm of Indian democracy, my last words belong to BR Ambedkar, speaking at the concluding session of the constituent assembly on November 24th, 1949, the dalit lawmaker invoked John Stuart mill to warn the citizens against placing their liberties at the feet of a great leader. Indians, he said, were particularly susceptible to bhakti or devotion. This was fine in religion but in politics it is a sure road to degradation and eventual dictatorship.
Radhika Barman 