http://www.heraldgoa.in/Review/Voice-Of-Opinion/The-destructive-parivar/95210.html
The attack on people’s freedom in this country seems no more limited to opinion and against the type of food people choose to consume in Bharat. It appears as if even what citizens in the country will condemn, how and when it is to be done is to be decided by the BJP and the fanatic parivar. These fanatic transgressions are increasing with every passing day probably emboldened by the Government’s propaganda machinery which plays down heinous crimes committed in the name of Gods. This is exactly what has happened ever since the cold-blooded murder of Mohammed Akhlaq in Dadri by Hindutva fanatics who falsely accused the family of killing a calf and consuming beef. It took around two weeks for the Prime Minister to respond on this incident and as expected his response was evasive and lacked the firm moral conviction. Ministers in the BJP government and its extended Parivar have attempted to sanitise these hate crimes by claiming them to be an ‘accident’, a ‘stray incident’, ‘small episode’ and ‘unfortunate happenings’ which have been mischievously hyped by the media to defame the government. Is such reasoning of accusing the media unconsciously coming from a similar experience of media management which was used to hype the accidental and stray incidents of corruption in the UPA government to such proportions as to create an environment of disgust in the country to market ‘Acche Din’?
As the pressure kept building with writers and thinkers surrendering their State Awards in protest against the rising culture of intolerance, the fanatic fringe and the government seem to have cooked up a counter strategy of questioning the timing and motives behind such protests. This has been followed with arousing feelings of a Hindu persecution by liberals and exploiting the murder of Bjarang Dal activist Prashant Poojary and a Mumbai cop who are alleged to be victims of violence by the beef lobby. The distant past is being dug up to justify the violence in the present. The use of ‘shaming’ and ‘abusing’ employed by the parivar to sell their deceptive arguments is very much evident. Even 68 years after independence, the minorities are still being questioned for their loyalty to the nation and rebuked for their culture. Such a situation of barbarism and despair gives one the impression that the country is being mentally driven back to the pre-partition era.
Even though the end results in all these incidents of intolerance have been ghastly murders which are unacceptable, is it fair for parallels to be drawn between these to justify and sympathize with the operations of the hate parivar in this country? Because, neither Akhlaq nor the truck driver Zahid Ahmed Bhat from Anantnag in J&K, or for that matter even the innocent Dalit children burnt alive in Haryana, have been known to antagonize anyone by the propagation of their views or provocative actions unlike the hatred against Pansare, Kalburgi and Poojary who questioned the social systems. The former incidents were about carefully planned conspiracies to arouse mob fury and target members of a particular community while the latter have been more about retaliation against differing views or vigilantism. This is the distinction which we thinking citizens need to draw to prevent the hate parivar from walking through our minds with their dirty feet.
While political analysts may spin stories about a fanatic fringe attempting to embarrass Modi, it would be foolish for the country to be carried away with such deceptive thinking. What seldom finds mention is that the violence unleashed under the pretext of religious provocation is aimed at sanitizing electoral constituencies from certain communities and taking control of the local economy. The beef issue seems less about religious sentiment and more about harming the livelihood of the minorities. We need to remember that the fanatic parivar is about forked tongues, double speak and deception. All that is happening is as designed and not spontaneous as claimed. When convenient the Modi government wastes no time in taking credit for achievements or condemning law and order problems in non-BJP ruled States. But no sooner it comes to tackling religious fanaticism, the Modi government refuses to take responsibility claiming it is a State problem. This hide and seek, passing offensive remarks, drawing analogies with pups and dogs and then retracting, apologizing or claiming to be misquoted reveals the fanatical mindset within the government.
In such trying times, it would be apt to recall the advice given by Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of our nation, wherein he says: “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it… always.”
Soter D’Souza is a writer and activist
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