This question is for the lay people who are apolitical – those who do not speak politics apart from closed family and friend’s circles. People who read newspaper and watch newsroom programs and often struggle to make a connection. People who have enough worries about living their lives and hence cannot go deep into manipulations of media and politicians. Yes, I am talking to people like you and me.
What is the motive of terrorism? Simple – to create fear. In that sense, we all are victims of terrorism. Every other day, we listen to news of bomb explosions, communalism and brutality happening in different parts of the country. For a citizen living in a metro, being vigilante has become part of his/her lifestyle. Security measures are announced in every bazaar, movie halls, metros and malls. Media is not presenting the truth but creating news “according to the market value”.
When mass murders, rapes or army attacks happen in villages and forests and areas under direct control of the President, it does not make it to the headlines but when it comes to cities under the nose of media, or if it involves a celebrity like an underworld Don, politicians or movie stars- it is a Roman holiday for press. The opinions written in a paper would have clear political agendas and it is so subtle that commoners cannot make which is what.
What is the problem behind these issues? Families warn their children to keep a distance from people of other religions, not because they have a political agenda, but because of concern. Every religion has their own forms of religious education these days with a fair share of subjective and twisted religious history taught there, and outside the textbooks they are taught how to be cautious of people belonging to different religious because they might try to convert you.
Majority feels minorities are given too much importance and minorities feel their voice is ignored. Not to mention problems each state has with another. During elections, state parties assure that this time, their state would get prominence and not the neighbouring state. To make us feel superior, many try to make people around us look inferior. This strategy is used most successfully in religious and state politics. Make the opponent look stupid, cheap and unjust, you get votes, no matter what you do. If you say, a foreign country is about to attack you, you would feel like taking up a weapon- like Donald Trump said. You see a person making speeches, conducting rallies, or doing something important on media for a while, the person gets a heroic aura even if he is a nobody. Fear is the currency that rules our generation and when it comes to the next generation, the stakes would be higher.
The young generation who listens to so much of propaganda from elders and media, have this fear implanted in their minds. In case they witness an attack on their religion, state, caste or community, there is a high probability that they might turn into militants. A boy who has no friend from another religion might know nothing personally about the other religion apart from the hate propaganda. He might be a lethal weapon if his kith or kin is affected by other religious communalists. He might not consider that all the followers of that religion are not communalists. Check every communal riot that happened in the history of India. It is because, these commoners like us, got out of control. They lost the sense or brotherhood and using logic when it comes to religious and political propaganda. This ignorance or naivety has claimed too many lives and they have the potential to create more riots.
As I said, I am talking to those common people, who think “hamare sochne aur kehne se kya hoga?” Politicians, propagandists, corporates, media and orchestrators- they are so very few. But we are the majority. If we become their puppets and act without reason or logic, we would become militants and we might kill our dear ones in a fit of rage. We would be the weapon and we would be the ones who loose.
So before you say something- think. Think if it is your idea, or is somebody else talking from inside our head. Has any media, religion, politician or communalist hacked into your brain? Think with a heart and before you make a decision, do consider it from the point of view of the victim of your decision, be it your family or friend. We all are given brains and hearts. And that is yours, nobody has the right to hack it. Nobody will hack it unless you give consent. Do not surrender your views, reason, logic, feelings and integrity for anything or anybody so that we do not turn into terrorists.
This is a clipping from the movie Schindler’s list by Steven Spielberg. A little girl is screaming in rage “good bye Jews”. What would have created so much hatred in the minds of that little child? Is it because some Jew hurt her? Or is it because she is taught to think that Jews are all bad? That is what made Holocaust and any communal or political attack scary, right? How could people suddenly hate, their neighbours, and their friends?
