Unequal Freedom

By Gemini AI

“Earlier, when they were in power, they said that Muslims have the first right on the country’s assets. This means who will they collect this wealth and distribute it to? They will distribute it to those who have more children. They will distribute it to infiltrators.”

As India is gearing up to celebrate its 80^th Independence Day, I’m tempted to ask the question what freedom means to Indians today when the country has a Prime Minister who delivers speeches like what’s quoted above. Modi didn’t speak these lines long ago when he was struggling to consolidate his power over the nation. These lines were spoken in April 2024 during an election rally in Rajasthan. No less a persona than the Prime Minister is telling the nation that all the Muslims – 172 million citizens – are infiltrators. What does freedom mean to such a huge section of the country?

Most BJP leaders keep uttering similar views frequently. In fact, what drives the BJP and the entire Sangh Parivar is hatred of non-Hindus. And nothing more. They have no ideals to promote, no principles to guide them, no morality to uphold. Hatred lies at the root of all they do.

What can freedom mean in such a country?

If you’re not a Hindu, and that too one from the upper castes, then you may not be able to rent or buy property in metropolitan India now. If you’re forced to move out to segregate enclaves, driven by safety in numbers of people belonging to your religion or caste, what does freedom mean to you? Institutions and places of worship belonging to non-Hindus are being pulled down every day in the country. What does freedom mean in such a political system?

Forget religion. Look at your freedom to speak, to express your views openly. According to Free Speech Collective, at least 154 journalists were arrested, detained, or interrogated in just ten years (2010-2020) for reporting truths which were not convenient for Modi & Co. The Clooney Foundation for Justice found out that the number is much more, well above 400. If you cannot tell the truth as a journalist or a thinking citizen, what does freedom mean in your country?

Recently, the youngsters rose up in revolt against the central government because of their frustration about lack of opportunities to pursue higher studies. Even this right – right to education and job – is being denied using strategies that are not acceptable in any civilised society: strategies such as leaking entrance exam question papers to certain sections of citizens.

A whole university was ordered to be demolished in Uttar Pradesh recently just because it belonged to Muslims. Sri Mata Vaishnodevi Medical Institute in Kashmir was shut down recently because Muslim students outnumbered Hindu students there.

How many Indians feel safe and secure in the country today? How many can assert that they are able to live with dignity here?

Freedom is not survival of some sort.

Freedom is not a personal property either. Not something I own. Freedom operates as an ecosystem.

When a society permits the erosion of one group’s safety or dignity, it establishes the mechanism to erode anyone else’s freedom. That’s just what India has become now.  

A system built on unequal protection is inherently unstable because it normalises the idea that human rights are negotiable. Human rights have become the prerogatives of a particular community in India now.

No country is genuinely free if freedom is experienced asymmetrically. If liberty depends on who you are, what you look like, or where you were born, it remains an unfished project. Freedom is not something you win on a particular day – like Aug 15, 1947 – and hold forever. Freedom is an active, ongoing commitment to ensuring that the rights promised to all are actually lived by all.

 

PS. This post has been provoked by Blogchatter’s Blog Hop prompt.