Published in oHerald on March 26,2019
The most chilling and bloodiest terrorist attack which took the lives of 40 CRPF personnel dampened the mood of this year’s Valentine Day in our country. This cowardly attack is said to be the worst since insurgency began in Kashmir. But, the only section which feels a ‘josh’ (enthusiasm) after such terror strikes is the hate brigade of fake nationalists.
While this year the lovers and couples were spared the usual annual brunt of attacks from Hindutva extremists on Valentine’s Day, it was the innocent Kashmiri students and traders in various States of the country who became the targets of the hate ‘parivar’ for their sadistic sport. And even more entertaining or nauseating, whichever way one chooses to look at it depending on one’s ideological diet, was the India-Pakistan war that was fought in TV studios.
It is in moments of such national crisis that values of humanity and the overall culture of a society get tested. While any terror strike across the globe tends to bring out the best in citizens’ responses, in India it results in the collapse of all rationality. The manner in which the PM of New Zealand and the citizens have handled the recent terror attacks in mosques have a lot to teach us Indians about what constitutes appropriate behaviour in times of a national crisis.
A society which boasts of a rich heritage and non-violent culture is a contradiction when there exists a section of its people who terribly lack the basic values of love, tolerance and compassion. In other words, they simply love to hate. They probably have never experienced what it is to love, and therefore get restless with the silence of peace times. This emotionally stunted lot sinks into a lunacy at the very sight of Romeo and Juliet expressing their love, or even by fake news. Even the most basic gesture of a hug to express affection triggers a mental allergy in them. Such persons hide their delinquency by decorating themselves in national colours and behind a smoke screen of nationalism. No one else exists and nothing else matters for them other than themselves. They are obsessed with selfies of destroying a perceived enemy.
Such a personality disorder finding its way into political leadership, makes it terribly exhausting for normal citizens who have to cope with the resulting disruptive governance. What becomes even more confusing for citizens is the demand to respect such political leaders in whom emotions of love and respect for others around are almost invisible.
It’s not uncommon nowadays to read comments from fellow Indians in the social media such as, “have never seen such kind of rhetoric, in my whole life! It is appalling!” Worse still is the fact that in this 21st Century there exists an educated class of citizens crying out for war with a neighbouring country. If the shakahari (vegetarian) mentality attributes violence to those adopting a ‘mansahari’ (non-vegetarian) diet, then how is one to explain the shuddh (pure) shakahari appetite for terrorising minorities, Kashmiris and Dalits? If a meat eating diet is attributed as the cause of violence by non-vegetarians, then how come in a vegetarian culture there is acceptability and respectability for war, lynching, custodial and encounter killings and oppression?
India is a nation of spirituality which gave to the world the Apostle of non-violence in Mahatma Gandhi. There is a strong belief that persecuting the innocent, defenseless and poor person attracts a negative karma. It applies not only for the individual committing the crime, but also for the community which aids and abets such crimes even by remaining silent. Then how does a young India which supports campaigns like “Save the planet” and “Ethical Treatment of Animals” also advocate for war which is destructive?
Attributing the viral and trending ‘Love for Hate’ prevailing in the country merely to the fall out of Hindutva’s fascist ideology is perhaps too simplistic a diagnosis. This over exaggeration of cultural superiority, fascination with militarism and violent suppression of dissenting political opinions is symptomatic of a more dangerous behavioural pathology classified as ‘Collective Narcissism’ which appears similar to nationalism. Such collective narcissism gets ideally summed up in political psychology with Hitler’s quote which reads, “My group is better and more important than others, but still is not worthy of me.” When fringe groups known to have ideological links with the political party in government beat up Kashmiri youth and traders in retaliation for a terrorist attack in Kashmir, it is definitely not reflective of a normal and civilised society.
In a climate of hyper-nationalism and populism in our country, there is a grave danger that characteristics of a collective narcissist syndrome reflected in political governance, such as narcissist personality disorders (NPD), antisocial features, paranoid traits and egosyntonic aggression, may mistakenly be assumed by citizens to be signs of good, strong and decisive politics. It is easy to get swept into irrational thinking amidst an environment of muscle flexing, fake news, aggressive marketing, capture of media, falsified data. This dysfunctionality has percolated into democratic institutions to such an extent, that even the media, which should have been analysing for its viewers the positives and negatives in governance over the last five years, has been distracting the nation.
(The author is a Social Activist, a Panchayat member and has worked in creating awareness on the issue of local self-governance.)
https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/Opinions/A-nonvegetarian-mindset-of-a-vegetarian-political-diet/144296.html
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