Struggle between democracy and fascism in India

By Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal. Dated: 7/22/2018 12:08:12 AM

The act of attacking, thrashing and man-handling Swami Agnivesh, a well-known 80-year old monk and a peace activist, in Jharkhand does not only signify the new low in the socio-political discourse that is pushing the country to deeper levels of intolerance and culture of lynch mobs. It reflects the struggle between rationality and irrationality, between civility and barbarity and between democracy and fascism.
The episode is shocking for many reasons. In a country where lynch mobs and the ease with which goons can maul humans and where such hooliganism has become the norm, Swami Agnivesh's man-handling, though not as brutal in scale, is symbolic of a deeper rot. The incident is apiece with the lynching culture that is becoming the norm that has encouraged people to act as a collective to settle their own scores with someone or teach someone they do not agree with a lesson. What makes the incident shocking is that while previous incidents have targeted individuals mostly from minority community or random unknown people killed over rumours of child lifters. Agnivesh's stature reveals the appalling nature of this trend where anybody can be a target. If he can be attacked, it puts a question mark on the safety and security of everybody.
Secondly, BJP's reaction to the episode enhances its shock value. While Swami Agnivesh has accused the youth wing of the BJP for the attack, the BJP has distanced itself from the mob that manhandled him and yet justified the incident. The condemnation, which should have come from the party ruling both the Centre and the state where the incident took place is non-existent. One Jharkhand minister from BJP called him a 'fraud and foreigner'. Many others have been circulating a video of Agnivesh's speech which they deem as offensive. The presumption that someone's words are a legitimate basis of attacking and thrashing someone shows scant respect for democratic norms and the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression.
The speech being picked up to justify the attack is a challenge to the irrational discourse propped up by the BJP leaders including the prime minister. It questions the unscientific temperament, myths and superstitions propagated by them. Agnivesh sharply critiques Modi's contention that Hindu deity Ganesha underwent plastic surgery and his head was replaced with that of an elephant's as well as of Kauravas multiplying themselves through stem cell methods. While challenging such fallacious assumptions, the saffron clad seer warns that such superstitions would push the country into a deeper abyss. The video also shows him questioning the prime minister visiting temples during his official visit, which he averred did not re-affirm the secular character of the country and also sought to rationalize the formation of the ice-lingum at Amarnath cave in Kashmir, stating that this was a natural phenomenon and not a divine one as the ice formations are a work of the stalactite and stalagmite deposits. Swami Agnivesh is a propounder of the Arya Samaj school of thought within Hinduism which is opposed to idol worship. He was thus putting on pedestal both his religious views and his scientific rationality while questioning the irrational discourse being perpetuated by some in the highest echelons of power. Neither do his words amount to any kind of an anti-national act, nor do they result in hurting any religious sentiments as is being advocated by the BJP. Even if they do, there are laws and a legal justice system that can be employed against the religious leader not use muscle power of mobs to brow-beat him and send across an intimidating message to the rest: fall in line or this is what will happen to us.
The violence perpetuated on Swami Agnivesh is not an isolated incident. It is part of an existing pattern of intolerance to minority choices and dissenters, even their very existence resulting in an increasing number of killings, lynchings, intimidations, hooliganism and manhandling of individuals by mobs, who are encouraged by the designed silence of the government. These incidents symbolise brutality, intolerance and a pernicious ideology of forcefully imposing a majoritarian culture in a country of much diversity. They reveal that ideologues of hate-soaked Hindutva philosophy of converting India into a Hindu country and pushing all other minorities and those who do not agree with such a view of India to the margins or easing them out can use their brute power while the government conveniently looks the other way instead of taking stringent action against the culprits and setting the much needed example. Far from this action, the endorsement of these crimes by those at the helm of affairs manifests amply which way India is going.
The government and the leaders of the ruling party either choose to maintain cryptic silence or peddle lies in defence of these incidents - calling them aberrations or well deserved, using paradigm of "anti-nationalism" as a convenient shield. What lies beneath these abject lies is the sinister design of a systematic agenda to give legitimacy to brutal acts of violence and to the culture of intolerance. That government is party to this agenda makes things even worse with disastrous ramifications for the country's secular fabric and its democracy. The country has a constitution that mandates the government to ensure rule of law. This is not only bypassed every time the government goes into a shell of silence when street theatre of violence is used to settle scores with some individuals. It is also denigrated. Encouraging hooliganism by mobs is not only shocking. The phenomenon has unimaginable consequences. The mobs cannot be tamed and controlled beyond a point and it wouldn't take too long before these very monsters begin to haunt and torment their creators. The situation is grim and bleak unless the collective conscience of the Indian masses is shaken and the vast majority of secular population decides to come out of its shell and break the silence.

 

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