Are we doomed to be at the
receiving end of diabolic games our politicians play? Will India ever live up
to the promises and assurances held out in our constitution and become a mature
democracy? We, the people of India that is Bharat, have been stupid enough to
not hold the politicians accountable for their actions. They are elected public
servants for god’s sakes, not our overlords. How dare they get away with
massacres time and again?
How could the national
capital afford a systemic paralysis in the runup to Delhi’s latest carnage? Whoever
was behind the Shahin Bagh protests did no service to the country or the Muslim
community. And some of the anti CAA slogans were definitely provocative. But should have been used as justification
for hate speeches by Yogi Adityanath, Anurag Thakur and other BJP politicians which
violated the law of the land, struck hard at the cultural underpinnings of
Indian Civilisation and tore political morality to smithereens. There was
enough evidence to file FIRs under sections 153 (a) of Cr Penal Code against
the BJP ministers but nobody dared or cared to book them.
A new dimension was added
to the sectarian violence in Delhi. Educational institutions were targeted, school
buildings and furniture were systematically destroyed. This sheer stupidity was
matched by the stunning lack of urgency among our law enforcing agencies. They
woke up long after the damage was done. There were reports of police officers
not responding to SOS calls and actually joining the goons in targeting Muslim
citizens. Since President Donald Trump was in town, one expected fool-proof
security system in operation to prevent untoward incidents. Instead, violence
was allowed to happen and actually facilitated even as the US President was
attending a banquet.
One telling evidence of the
ruling party’s casual approach to the bloodbath was in the person of Amit Shah.
The country’s Home Minister chose to fly to Kolkata for addressing the BJP’s party
workers even as fires were raging in Delhi. Many among these workers were
chanting the Goli Maro slogan! All pretence to fair governance was dropped and the
power of Hindutva supremacists was on display at its ugliest worst. PM Narendra
Modi’s Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishvas assurance was reduced to just
another hollow jumla by his colleagues. While BJP netas openly spewed venom
against Muslims, politicians from other parties were nowhere on the scene when
riots broke out. These so-called people’s representatives didn’t care to be
with the defenceless people who were being ruthlessly battered by bloodthirsty
mobs. Every party has its youth and student wing. Why were they not deployed to
prevent the violence from spreading? What’s the use of asking for the Home
Minister’s resignation from the parliament’s safe confines or indulging in
tokenism like waving placards or tying black bands around their mouths in front
of Gandhiji’s statue? As for our PM, he takes his own time to make ineffectual
statements.
Our bureaucracy has
certainly not covered itself with glory. Nobody among the top brass cared to
initiate preventive action despite consistent media coverage of the violence.
Bureaucrats are supposed to be the main instrument of governance. Yet, their
non-action was stunning. In the aftermath of violence, individual citizens, the
civil society and Sikh organisations took up the rescue and rehabilitation
initiative, while agencies of governance dawdled.
Those who are quick to
single out BJP should recall how Indira Gandhi used polarising tactics in
Punjab. Sectarian fires were lit for solidifying vote banks, Congress netas
thought they could keep these fires under control for promoting their partisan
ends. But these fires turned into fearsome conflagration for which the nation
is still paying a heavy price in terms of alienation of one of the most vibrant
and progressive states of the country.
The heartrending images of
this carnage too will fade away from our collective memory, leaving the
affected people alone with their sorrows. News media will move on to the next
TRP generating story. Studio warriors will find other battles to fight from
their cosy niches. But we cannot afford to ignore this latest writing in human
blood on Delhi’s walls or disregard the lessons from history and keep repeating
horrible follies. The Nellie massacre of 1983 when 1600 Muslims were killed
within 6 hours during the Assam elections. Or the Hashimpura murders by the
CRPF in 1987. Or the killings of innocent Hindus and Sikhs in Punjab when
Bhindranwale’s Khalistani hordes were on the rampage.
Other bloodbaths have been
haunting the nation for a long time. The 1984 slaughter as a result of Sikh
guards killing Indira Gandhi; the post-Babri bloodbath in Mumbai and the 2002
pogrom in Gujarat. Apart from blood-spattered bodies, destroyed properties and
weeping humanity there are other salient features which these chilling episodes
share. Diabolic political manipulations, police complicity and free rein to
goondas.
BJP’s agenda is fraught
with great perils to which the nation must wake up before history decides to
teach us the lesson we are refusing to learn. Instead of belittling the legacy
of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru we must unite to take India back to the
path of our tryst with destiny. The Gandhian way and Nehruvian vision are the
surest guarantees for building a united, strong and progressive India. We can
become a world power without having to resort to Hitlerian ideology.
More than a billion dreams and aspirations are
at stake.
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