Hate Politics

Illustration by Copilot

Hatred is what dominates the social media in India. It has been going on for many years now. A lot of violence is perpetrated by the ruling party’s own men. One of the most recent instances of venom spewed out by none other than Mithun Chakraborty would shake any sensible person. But the right wing of India is celebrating it. Seventy-four-year-old Chakraborty threatened to chop the people of a particular minority community into pieces. The Home Minister Amit Shah was sitting on the stage with a smile when the threat was issued openly.

A few days back, a video clip showing a right-winger denying food to a Muslim woman because she refused to chant ‘Jai Sri Ram’ dominated the social media. What kind of charity is it that is founded on hatred?

If you go through the social media for a while, you will be astounded by the surfeit of hatred there. Why do a people who form the vast majority of a country hate a small minority so much? Hatred usually comes from some form of insecurity. Why would 80% of the population feel threatened by the other 20%? That too, when the entire political power, government organisations and agencies, judiciary, education system… all are in the majority community’s control! Most perplexingly, why would a government itself support violence against a particular community?

There are a lot of images on the social media now which show similarities between Modi and Hitler. The implied connection is that like Hitler Modi is driven by hatred of a particular religious community. There are ample utterances made by Modi in the past to justify that implication. But the question still remains: why such hatred, especially since Modi and his party are driven by religion primarily?

What use is any religion if it engenders so much hatred and violence? Isn’t religion supposed to make us gentle, kind, humane? At least basically ethical?

I have been observing a lot of right-wing people in India in the past few years. Some of these people call themselves Yogis, Godmen, Gurus, and so on. But their actions [Karma] are far more venal than those of some hardcore criminals. Their hearts are devilishly wicked. Why has it come to this? This is what I am trying to understand. Why are villains being glorified and angels being vilified?

By ‘angels’ I mean certain good people who died or are dying in custody – like Prof G N Saibaba and Fr Stan Swamy.

I have no answers to that question and will be obliged to anyone who can help me with answers. Why does a whole nation support a bunch of villainous people who pretend to be saintly heroes? In the meanwhile, as I wait for answers, I shall be reading Saibaba’s poems: Why Do You Fear My Way So Much? Poems and Letters from Prison.