In the 21st century, We, the people of India, are still playing political games sporting with the same old cards- caste, communal, ideological and we are now “Making India” fitter by flashing a new trump card- lynching. Insidious propaganda, murmurs, rumours, incitement all conflate to brutally kill hapless humans allegedly accusing them of killing cows. Some Dalits were lynched on suspicion of theft. Presently, it has mutated into child lifting. By the time of 2019 elections, it would have morphed into something even more hideous.
Why is this hateful politics gaining ground? For one reason only– there are votes in that. The electorate has not got vikas, promised by every government, irrespective of ideological hue, in the past 70 odd years. We continue to wallow in poverty, backwardness, illiteracy, ill health and unemployment. Basic amenities of life-drinking water, sanitation, housing, continue to be denied to a predominantly large sections of our teeming billions. Farmer suicides have become the norm as have runaway fugitive Crorepatis with their ill-gotten billions. Corruption is endemic at every level of public service. Lakh of crores of rupees are siphoned off from public sector Banks and we continue to await action .
So action there is. Against the suffering unfortunate poor and downtrodden. All the frustration, passion of majoritarianism is ignited, inflamed and channelized into attacking the other. Muscular nationalism is on display. Emboldened exhibition ensues. Mobocracy runs riot. Cow vigilantism is the new mantra given to hound, maim and even kill with impunity, pan India. Suspicion of transporting cows for slaughter, skinning cows, stealing cows, even eating beef, were the sole criterion for lynching helpless Qasim, Ansari,Tahir, Haque, Pehlu Khan, Akhlaq and others, especially Dalits, who became victims of this divisive politics of hate. Ankit, Vaniya and Solankis were murdered cold-bloodedly. Their alleged crimes- ranged from mere suspicion of theft to having the temerity to refuse to clear garbage. Governance was silent on these brazen communal and casteist attacks. The police remained mute spectators. Some cases were even filed against the victim’s families. None were convicted in these gruesome murders .Toxic violence was condoned . Rule of law ceased to exist.
The Supreme Court is addressing the issue. It has recommended that Central and State governments should make laws to prevent lynching. It has asked government to ensure that mobocracy does not prevail in our secular democracy. We also must safeguard our pluralistic heritage and stop being pawns in the hands of our unscrupulous political parties. Their politics is totally devoid of morality. In their unprincipled quest for power, they ruthlessly polarize the electorate masquerading as yogis and maulanas, to harvest votes .The backward, poor populace is taken in by their nefarious masks and begins to play into their hands yet again. It believes that the other is responsible for its dismal state and caste/communal cauldron begins simmering. It boils on the eve of elections.
Let us not be duped by political jingoism. Brecht had articulated, “the worst illiterate is the political illiterate…He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine all depend on political decisions…from his political ignorance is born the prostitute, the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician.” Our politicians have excelled in polarizing and assaulting our syncretism. Divide and Rule continues to define their agenda. We must become politically literate. We must become political vigilantes. Our sacred motherland is in dire need of it. We must elect the leaders we deserve- principled, visionary leaders with courage and with tested ability and competence to deliver much needed governance.
