Wrong, Mr Javadekar

BJP minister Prakash Javadekar thinks that there is no difference between an anarchist and a terrorist. You are patently wrong, Mr Minister, as most your counterparts are these days. Is Prof Noam Chomsky a terrorist? Was Leo Tolstoy a terrorist? Both of them are self-proclaimed anarchists. There are a lot more like them who either declared themselves to be anarchists or are/were anarchists at heart. I am one too, though I belong to the humble sidelines. 

An anarchist is one who upholds individual freedom. Anarchists have a vital role to play when governments become oppressive as is the case in India now. India now has a government whose ministers and prominent leaders keep on shooting their mouths off whenever they see a microphone or camera. They spew venom against certain sections of citizens. Their ulterior motive is to oppress certain communities or groups and render them impotent. Anarchists have the guts to question the oppression and the falsehood that upholds the oppression.

American author Ursula K Le Guin described an anarchist as “one who, choosing, accepts the responsibility of choice.” The anarchist makes a choice, after much thinking and consideration. He chooses not to surrender to lies and intimidation. He chooses personal liberty. He realises, like philosopher Nietzsche, that “Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has, it has stolen.” Hence the anarchist has to say No, a loud one at that, to his government.

The anarchist is the personification of the free spirit. He owes no allegiance to authority, heavenly or earthly, because he knows that the authority has lost its right to exercise the authority. Falsehood cannot sustain any authority for long. The anarchist is on the side of truth. He wants justice. He wants a better world.

Dear Mr Minister,

Anarchists did not

·        carry out the genocide against 6 million Jews in Nazi Germany

·        carry out the genocide against the Armenians in Turkey

·        starve millions of Ukrainians

·        kill or displace thousands of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002

·        attack the World Trade Centre

·        drop the nuclear bombs in Japan

·        massacre millions of Chinese people in the Great Leap Forward

·        utter lies one after another shamelessly hoodwinking millions of people

Well, Mr Minister, you may not know that even Mahatma Gandhi was an anarchist at heart. He was not interested in rules per se. So was Jesus. So was the Buddha. They all placed the human beings above rules and rubrics. They had a heart. Can you place your palm on your chest and say honestly that you have a heart, Mr Minister? Just check, anyway, to see if it has stopped beating.