Fortress of Falsehood

Truth is rather banal and often ugly too. Falsehood is so charming that it spreads like wildfire through gossips and rumours via social networks as well as so-called national television channels newspapers. Quite many people in India have sold their souls to falsehood, it appears, as the media channels have sold themselves to the government.

When a national leader of the stature of Amit Shah (whether he deserves the position or we deserve him there is a different matter) professes shamelessly that the fate of Karnataka would have been different if the Congress-JD(S) MLAs were not locked up in a resort throws a blinding light on the fortress of falsehood erected by the Kaliyuga Chanakya and his loyal emperor. The claim is not very unlike a burglar’s declaration that your possessions will be his if you leave your door unlocked.

Perhaps too many Indians are indeed leaving their doors unlocked. Not the doors of their houses but the doors of their judgment. That’s why an infinity of falsehood is spreading on the social networks. There are too many hate messages there meant to divide the nation into Hindus versus the rest.

The ruling BJP could not deliver on their promises of development, clean governance, public hygiene, and so on. In order to win the next general elections they need a new battleground to fight on and Hindu Rashtra has been deemed fit. One of the easiest things to do is to stir up religious sentiments of people. After all, what can be more holy and hence more provocative than one’s god(s)?

Hatred is injected into people’s hearts using falsehood. It is done using social networks so that the messages remain anonymous and no one faces legal action. There is a whole IT cell at work, paid for by the ill-gotten money of the Party, spewing venom day in and day out with the intention of dividing the country into two inimical groups. Many of these messages claim that it’s going to be another Kurukshetra War with the Hindus as the Pandavas and the rest as the Kauravas. You can imagine who Krishna and Arjuna are.

“Your duty is to kill, Arjuna,” says Krishna. “In a battle there are no brothers and uncles; there are only enemies. Stretch your bow and shoot your arrow. Do your duty without pondering over the results….”

What is left unsaid is: “Kill and die so that a few of us will live in opulence when the whole show is over.”

Even the original Kurukshetra had its unfair share of falsehood all over right from beginning to the end. Too many fortresses of falsehood. It’s a great legacy indeed.