I am a proud Leftist when it comes to social and cultural values of this country. I am not neutral and nor can I afford to be, in light of the events that have been occurring for the past few months. The shift that we are witnessing today is a very dangerous one, and rather visible. The change I am talking about is the shift of the political discourse towards the Right. When we were younger, we used to hear about Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ji, his prolific oratory, and the great poet that he was. But what did we know about Advani Ji? We knew him as a man who led the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, is a staunch hardliner, and suddenly, one visit to Pakistan in 2005, one speech is all it took for us to see him as moderate.
Then comes along Narendra Modi Ji, painted with many allegations, none of which can be proven of course, but nonetheless, with an image of a hardliner. Guess who is next in the line of the chronological order? The man who explained chronology to the country himself, our Home Minister Amit Shah Ji. Haven’t we seen a lot less attacks on the PM now, as compared to the HM ?
This is it, this is exactly what we should be worried about. About the normalisation of hate speeches, about the normalisation of lynchings, about the normalisation of bigotry. Around 20 people have been killed, while several slapped with confiscating notices in U.P. I certainly second that there is no scope for violence in any protest, and the guilty must be charged. But one question pops up in my mind; what about the rioters of the Bulandshahar violence? How much property was confiscated? How many rioters were brought to justice?
An S.H.O was shot at point-blank range in these riots, and those accused in the case were welcomed with chants of ‘Vande Mataram‘ and ‘Jai Shree Ram’ upon getting bail. Even the police force became so spineless that they were unable to get justice for one of their own. If we do not reject this politics of hate now, those days are not far off when Yogi Adityanath will also be considered a moderate and the baton of hardliner would be passed on to someone else. I have strong faith in the secular ethos and social fabric of our country, and I believe that ultimately, hate will lose. But the greater question here is, how long is it going to take? Featured image provided by the author.