I am a nationalist. I have always loved, been proud of and believed in the diversity of this nation of mine. I believe that the diversity of this nation is what strengthens it. This nation is as much mine as anyone else’s, regardless of their religion, caste or creed.
The last few weeks have been a rough phase for our country and its citizens. The Dadri incident has shaken this country like never before. If what is being reported by the media is true, it was shameful and utterly disgusting at its best. But I am not going to spend analysing the issue, as it has been discussed and debated heatedly on prime time shows, for quite some time now.
In the past few days, Anupam Kher has raised a couple of very important issues. One of the important points was – how there is a selective outrage in this country by certain sections of media and other groups in this country. I will be analysing this issue, with analogies picked up from both recent past and our rich history.
Since the new government came in to power, the intensity of outrage against every issue has increased. That is a wonderful thing in a democracy. People are more aware and educated. And an educated electorate tends to participate more actively in electing a government and making it more answerable to its people. Having said that, there has also been little or no consistency in this outrage – both by media and the so called ‘left’ or ‘liberals’ of this country. My problem with the so called ‘liberals’ in this country is that they don’t deserve to be called a liberal. Simply because they don’t understand the word liberal, and apply the same ideology that the ‘left’ across different countries do. The ‘left’ or the ‘intellectuals’ are not truly liberal because they lack logic, are heavily prejudiced, attention seekers and hate mongers. Yes, I said it.
You are not liberal just because you say so. Liberals love their nation despite all its flaws, while you – The Indian liberal – don’t waste any opportunity to shame the nation on a world stage. There were unfortunate incidents that happened in the past few months, but does that qualify for you to declare the entire country ‘intolerant’?
Intolerant enough for Pervez Musharraf – A former dictator of a nation where minorities ceased to exist, and who has only recently confessed his role in Pakistan sponsored terrorism – to criticize India and it’s PM. Oh and by the way, two of your liberal class had criticized India in Karachi at the same forum that this dictator was present (http://goo.gl/xZAuTq).
Where was your criticism of these two traitors (Mani Shankar Aiyar and Sudheendra Kulkarni)? The congress, which marched to the Rashtrapati Bhavan in protest against the rising intolerance, surprisingly tolerates their pawn meeting a self-confessed Indian hater. If you truly are the left, you would love your country, and defend it against attacks from people like Musharraf – not join him in his criticism against your own nation.
The left, in any nation, is a very important entity. It should present positive criticism of the conservatives /right and prevent the right from leaning towards the extreme or the radical right. It shouldn’t however, pick and choose who or what to criticize.
The selective outrage and criticism makes them no different from the radical right. Calling an entire nation intolerant due to a couple of incidents now, but conveniently ignoring all the riots and hampering of freedom of speech and expression in several incidents that happened before is absurd. Not saying that you don’t have the right to register a protest, which is a constitutionally guaranteed right. But the timing of your protest seems fishy.
Also, if you truly cared about freedom of expression, you would call out the government, regardless of which party is in power. The examples of your silence when Tasleema Nasreen was attacked in Hyderabad, when Salman Rushdie pulled out of Jaipur Literature Festival and during the Muzaffarnagar riots are some of the many examples that put my case in point. All I am saying is that if you truly stand by the principles such as freedom of speech and expression, you have to be consistent in your criticism. Call a spade a spade.
The liberals and left in India need to analyse how they are shooting themselves in the foot today and the need to stay relevant, or they’ll end up being named as the ‘Left fringe’ in this nation.
Note: Image used in this post is only for representational purpose.
