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| Siren [Image from Ancient History] |
Criminals rule
India while intellectuals are consigned to the prison.
The
Association for Democratic Reforms says
that “there is an increase of 109% in the number of MPs with declared serious
criminal cases since 2009” in India. 116 MPs of the ruling BJP are criminals
and they will be legislating the future of the country. Many of them are not
just the usual kind of assaulters, thugs, rapists or murderers; they are people
driven by hatred for a particular community in the country. This makes the
scenario more precarious than the usual criminals who used to enter politics
earlier.
Many of the
present MPs who have been given ministerial berths are people who openly professed
their hatred for whole sections of Indian population. No less a personage than
the present Home Minister of the country is a man who has vowed to “purge” the
country of all “infiltrators except Buddha (sic), Hindus and Sikhs”. His term
for certain Muslims in the country is “termites”. He has also faced many
criminal charges for murder, extortion and kidnapping though he has been astute
enough to keep his boat above all rising waters. Above all, he is a master of
the vanishing act: his perceived enemies just vanish from public. How many
Indians will vanish in the coming months is something we need to wait and
watch.
There are plenty
more such criminals in the current ministry and the parliament. There are terrorists
too though they have been exonerated by the current wave of nationalism.
On the other
hand, intellectuals and sane people who question the crimes and atrocities
perpetrated against certain sections of people are arrested and sent to jail.
They just vanish. Eminent writers like Hiren Gohain get charged with sedition.
Scholars like Anil Teltumbde get labelled as “urban Maoist”. Sanjiv Bhatt IPS
just vanished one day. Thinkers and intellectuals are being silenced by various
measures taken by those in power at the Centre.
The worst is
that the majority of people in the country seem to think that this is all right
and this is how it should be. The country has a “strong” leader, according to
them. They just can’t understand that strength doesn’t mean brutal power in a
civilised world. This emphasis on brutal power which seeks to eliminate entire
populations from the country reminds one of the Nazi Germany.
The symptoms
indicate that India is on a backward journey, a journey towards a past that is
being glorified as a civilisation without a parallel. Unless more and more
people begin to realise that it is a journey through the dark labyrinths of a resurrected
past, India’s future will be bleaker than ever. A glorified past is deadlier
than the song of the Sirens.
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